Grace in Judgement

Intro

Going on leave

In Kuwait waiting

Met a young man from our infantry unit

Excited to go home. Rough deployment

When I got back into Kuwait found him.

He was very depressed troubled

Said he almost didn’t come back

He was tired and afraid and wanted to be done. Wanted to finish and get out.

We talked for a while hung out the whole time together.

Flew back to our base FOB Ramrod

Saw him a couple of times once we got back but didn’t spend a lot of time together.

Week or so later I came back in from something route clearance or something.

Came on base and was told we were in a comms blackout. No phones. No internet. No comms with outside world.

Only do that for one reason. Someone died.

Don’t want families somehow finding out before they can make the official notification.

The infantry unit had been patrolling some village and were ambushed or something

Got into a skirmish never really heard what exactly happened, but the young man I met

the man who wanted nothing more than to go home...........was killed.

I was devastated.

I honestly didn’t know this man very well at all but I just remembered his face and his voice when he said he just wanted to go home.

There were so many other people God could’ve taken. He could’ve taken me. Why him?

All I saw was God’s judgement.

But there’s one detail I left out

When I was in Kuwait with him and we were waiting on our plane back into Afghanistan that young man asked me to do one thing......

He said will you pray with me?

I wasn’t a Christian, but I was a believer.

I remember so vividly he started praying and he thanked God for protecting him up to then, he thanked Jesus for saving him, he thanked God for finding a friend who believes like him in a place like this.

When he finished I remember saying a similar prayer and off we went.

And so I remember going to his rifle boots and helmet ceremony mad at God for taking him.

It wasn’t until later that I realized God’s grace.

That young man went back into that country with a covering.

With the covering of the blood of our Savior.

I look back and what I saw as judgement and unfairness I now know was God’s ultimate grace.

That young man may have found death on this earth just as we all are going to, but I believe within my heart of hearts that he met his creator that day and heard the words

Well done thou good and faithful servant. You’ve been faithful over a few things, I’ll make you ruler over many.

I didn’t realize it then, but that would teach me that if I ever want to see God’s grace, look at His judgement.

Noah

Funny Holy Spirit just gave me this message after we were talking last night about Noah.

Many times it is stated that the Old Testament is Law

New Testament is Grace

Talked about how we see grace throughout the entire Bible

You may ask where do I see grace?

Look for judgement.

Genesis 6:14 “So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.”

Pitch- Literally is typically a petroleum based product or can even come from trees i.e. pine pitch.

Sticky water resistant or waterproof substance used to seal something.

In wooden ships it is used to seal any and all cracks between the wood planks. It keeps the water from the outside coming inside which in turn makes the ship float.

Now let’s look at that word in Hebrew. It is bakkoper which is a variation of the word kopher.

Kopher means a covering or atonement.

Now if we look at atonement it is a reparation for a wrong.

Before Jesus, animal sacrifice was used for atonement. It is what kept us from God’s judgement.

When Jesus died for us, His sacrifice became the ultimate and eternal atonement for our sins.

So in the ark the pitch or kopher that Noah put in the cracks literally protected them from God’s judgement.

The flood that destroyed the earth and all life was kept out of the ark by that pitch allowing life on the inside.

Just as Jesus’ atonement allows us to walk in His grace separate from God’s ultimate judgement over our sins.

Exodus

That is far from the only example we see of God’s grace in judgement.

Exodus 12:1–7 “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.”

Exodus 12:12–13 ““On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.”

Here we see the same thing.

God’s judgement comes down onto all of the land. But for those who have a covering He will passover.

Those who had the covering of blood on their homes found God’s grace inside of their homes.

Grace Through Judgement

This world will be judged for its wickedness. Just as God did in Noah’s day so to will it be here.

God promised He would not destroy the earth by flood, but He never promised He wouldn’t destroy it again.

But even on an individual level we will all face judgement.

Hebrews 9:27 “Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,”

But for those who have the blood of The Lamb over the doorpost of their hearts, for those who have pithed their ship with the atonement of Christ, the judgement and wrath of God shall passover you!

Grace Doesn’t Mean Easy

Make no mistake living in God’s grace does not mean it will be easy.

The Israelites still had to endure some of the plagues.

Noah still had to endure the flood.

But through it all they lived in the protection of God’s grace.

And sometimes just as it was to me with my friend, it is hard to see God’s grace in those hard times. Those times of judgement.

The Shift

Maybe you’re going through something right now and all you see all you feel is God’s judgement on your life.

But I tell you now in those times of hardship. In the struggle, in the despair, if you choose to look, if you choose to seek, you will find the grace of a God who truly loves you.

Hebrews 13:5 “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

God keeps those who are His.