Judgment Chronicles
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17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
Last week I talked about Covenants:
Adam
Noah
Abraham
Moses
David
New Covenant
This morning I want to talk about Judgment… or more specifically, New Creation after Judgment
This morning I want to talk about Judgment… or more specifically, New Creation after Judgment
As the Lord establishes these covenants with these key leaders, the Lord is making the covenants with Israel.
As the Lord establishes these covenants with these key leaders, the Lord is making the covenants with Israel.
Through the covenants we see two things over and over again:
Through the covenants we see two things over and over again:
Israel and Israel’s leaders are people of God’s great promises.
1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
2. Israel and Israel’s leaders are also a part of the world’s massive problem.
Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden
Noah — drunkenness and immodesty
Abraham — interacting with his wife as his sister
The sibling rivalry all through Genesis
Moses — a murder
David — a murder and adulter
All of the the recipients of great covenants with and promises from God on behalf of Israel… and all of them deeply flawed and a part of the problem at hand.
All of the the recipients of great covenants with and promises from God on behalf of Israel… and all of them deeply flawed and a part of the problem at hand.
In the divine economy or structure of the Bible, when God’s commands are not obeyed — either by direct knowledge of a command or by ignorance of God’s commands — justice is required.
In the divine economy or structure of the Bible, when God’s commands are not obeyed — either by direct knowledge of a command or by ignorance of God’s commands — justice is required.
Fairness and Justice
New Living Translation Chapter 11
22 Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off.
As you read the Bible — if you read the Bible — you will have the opportunity to read some judgments from God that are confusing, troubling, harsh, extreme… the judgments of the Lord are just. Fair? Often, no. But just? Yes.
As you read the Bible — if you read the Bible — you will have the opportunity to read some judgments from God that are confusing, troubling, harsh, extreme… the judgments of the Lord are just. Fair? Often, no. But just? Yes.
30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.
As for the Israelites, the Judgements of the Lord should not have caught them by surprise. Judgement is usually surprising, even with warnings. And warnings were items God granted then and grants now.
As for the Israelites, the Judgements of the Lord should not have caught them by surprise. Judgement is usually surprising, even with warnings. And warnings were items God granted then and grants now.
14 “ ‘But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, 15 and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you: I will bring on you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and sap your strength. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. 17 I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.
18 “ ‘If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over. 19 I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze. 20 Your strength will be spent in vain, because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of your land yield their fruit.
21 “ ‘If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve. 22 I will send wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few in number that your roads will be deserted.
23 “ ‘If in spite of these things you do not accept my correction but continue to be hostile toward me, 24 I myself will be hostile toward you and will afflict you for your sins seven times over. 25 And I will bring the sword on you to avenge the breaking of the covenant. When you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be given into enemy hands. 26 When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will be able to bake your bread in one oven, and they will dole out the bread by weight. You will eat, but you will not be satisfied.
Here is another warning:
Here is another warning:
19 When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing on themselves, thinking, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,” they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. 20 The Lord will never be willing to forgive them; his wrath and zeal will burn against them. All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and the Lord will blot out their names from under heaven. 21 The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.
22 Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it. 23 The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur—nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger. 24 All the nations will ask: “Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?”
25 And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. 26 They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. 27 Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book. 28 In furious anger and in great wrath the Lord uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”
29 The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
Deut 29:19-
Here we find Moses prophesying in Deuteronomy the coming of the Exile centuries later.
Here we find Moses prophesying in Deuteronomy the coming of the Exile centuries later.
Do you know how the Exile was even a possibility for the Babylonians? The answer to this question is actually as extraordinary of a demonstration of God’s justice and judgment as anything we find in the Old Testament.
Do you know how the Exile was even a possibility for the Babylonians? The answer to this question is actually as extraordinary of a demonstration of God’s justice and judgment as anything we find in the Old Testament.
1 I looked, and I saw the likeness of a throne of lapis lazuli above the vault that was over the heads of the cherubim. 2 The Lord said to the man clothed in linen, “Go in among the wheels beneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with burning coals from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city.” And as I watched, he went in.
3 Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the temple when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court. 4 Then the glory of the Lord rose from above the cherubim and moved to the threshold of the temple. The cloud filled the temple, and the court was full of the radiance of the glory of the Lord. 5 The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as far away as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.
ezek 10.
18 Then the glory of the Lord departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. 19 While I watched, the cherubim spread their wings and rose from the ground, and as they went, the wheels went with them. They stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.
20 These were the living creatures I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the Kebar River, and I realized that they were cherubim. 21 Each had four faces and four wings, and under their wings was what looked like human hands.
How was it possible for the Babylonians to overthrow Jerusalem and destroy the Temple?
Because the Lord left the Temple and left town.
The Lord said to his people who were bent on idolatry, “If it is idols you want, then idols you shall have.”
And Jerusalem and the Temple were raised to the ground. And the people were put into exile.
Judgment.
But this act of judgement on God’s people thru the exile was not the greatest step of judgment we find in the Scriptures. Neither is the flood. Nor anything in Judges nor either of the Kings. All of the judgments and acts of justice on God’s part in the Old Testament were only shadow for God’s greatest, most costly, most scandalous, and most glorious act of judgment in all of history.
But this act of judgement on God’s people thru the exile was not the greatest step of judgment we find in the Scriptures. Neither is the flood. Nor anything in Judges nor either of the Kings. All of the judgments and acts of justice on God’s part in the Old Testament were only shadow for God’s greatest, most costly, most scandalous, and most glorious act of judgment in all of history.
Recap Jesus leading to his passion.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
God’s greatest act of judgment was poured out on his son — crushed, bruised, judged for the sin of the world for all time, past present and future. Exiled on the Cross for the sins of all time.
God’s greatest act of judgment was poured out on his son — crushed, bruised, judged for the sin of the world for all time, past present and future. Exiled on the Cross for the sins of all time.
It is God’s judgement poured out on God’s only begotten son that gives clarity to all other judgments from God — that God is kind and severe… loving and just...
Of course, God’s judgments that lead to exile are always in the Bible the door to salvation.
Of course, God’s judgments that lead to exile are always in the Bible the door to salvation.
By , the dry bones have been raised to life and the Israelites are called to an exodus home… and a second Temple is built… and in Ezekiel, the glory of the Lord returns to the Temple...
And the very last verse of tells us that as God re-establishes God’s presence in the Temple in Jerusalem and calls God’s people home, the Lord offers this name for God’s-self: The Lord is there.
Jesus is God with us… judged for our sin and now offers a way for us to make peace with God.