Judgment and Wrath
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Judging Others
Judging Others
At Faithlife we recently completed our “annual review process”. This is a fun time of year where you get to judge all your peers and they all get to judge you.
Sure, there is “constructive feedback” where you encourage them in all the ways they are great.
But then there are questions like “what’s something this person should stop doing?”
And you spend some time thinking. Well, nothing comes to mind… but I’m sure if I think about it for awhile I can think of something they do that annoys me. Let me watch for that over the next couple days… Let me start a list!
The joy of judging people.
I can, of course, see their problems and shortcomings quite clearly. It’s easy, because they affect me. I see when they mess up, when they respond incorrectly or inappropriately… and it’s easy to remember those because they bothered me, or made my job harder.
Judging others comes completely naturally. It is the default operating mode of the human. From the moment we got “knowledge of good and evil” we saw “they did it.” “Eve did it.” “Snake did it.” They are wrong.
The other part of the 360 review is getting all that feedback. And the good stuff feels good, it’s encouraging. But every now and then someone touches on a nerve. Not generic feedback like “Oh, you, stop being so awesome :D”
…but something that touches on a real struggle. Maybe it’s phrased nicely, but someone picks on something you know you’re great at and they’re wrong you are actually really good at that and how dare they not see that!
Or it’s something you worked so hard at, and you thought you were growing in that area, but I guess not, if “Todd” says “you talk too much in meetings” and “forget you, Todd!”
Judging others? Fun. Being judged? Not fun.
Amos
Amos
The prophet Amos writes maybe 100 years after Elijah and Elishah, 8th century BC. He is possibly the first of the written prophets. He isn’t a “professional” prophet, not part of one of the schools, didn’t go to seminary… he is a shepherd. Maybe a sheep breeder.
Amos writes in a period of relative peace and prosperity. Jeroboam II was not a good king in the list of kings, not righteous, chased after idols, one of the worst in that way… but he was a very successful king politically and militarily.
Unlike most of Elijah and Elisha’s ministries, Amos isn’t interacting directly with the King, but apparently speaking to the peoples, to Israel the nation as a whole. This book is a collection, one big Sermon, a collection of Poems or “words” and a collection of visions.
The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
And he said: “The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers.”
God looks and doesn’t like what he sees. Zion - where God delivered the law. Jerusalem - where the temple sites. The top of Carmel where Elijah did the cool thing with the fire from the sky. From the “holy sites” God sees and judges.
Judgment is the comparing of your present behavior to the expected standard.
God has a standard, let’s see how the nations are doing.
Judgment
Judgment
Damascus
Damascus
Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron.
.. and then SMOTE!
Get ‘em!!!
How? I’ll read this one:
So I will send a fire upon the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.
I will break the gate-bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven, and him who holds the scepter from Beth-eden; and the people of Syria shall go into exile to Kir,” says the Lord.
Gaza
Gaza
Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they carried into exile a whole people to deliver them up to Edom.
Get ‘em!!!
Tyre
Tyre
Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they delivered up a whole people to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood.
Get ‘em!!!
Edom
Edom
Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because he pursued his brother with the sword and cast off all pity, and his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his wrath forever.
Get ‘em!!!
Moab
Moab
Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because he burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom.
Get ‘em!!!
And even our brothers to the South...
Judah
Judah
Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have rejected the law of the Lord, and have not kept his statutes, but their lies have led them astray, those after which their fathers walked.
At this point the Israelites are all on board. They’re like “Yeah, get those other nations!”
It’s a Trap
It’s a Trap
We see this again and again in Scripture. Get everyone on board with how awful the “they” are.. then the old Uno Reverse Card.
Romans 1 is like this. Cataloguing the horrible sins of others and then
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
Now, this isn’t false, it isn’t fiction, these nations really are sinners! And God really is going to judge them. So this is true prophecy. Just like Romans 1 is a real list of sins of the nations, of all humanity, all have fallen...
And Amos accurately describes what lies in the future of all these nations. Assyria is coming and it will “kill all Moab’s princes” and “devour the strongholds of Jerusalem”. Those things are going to happen, the instrument of God’s judgment and justice.
But this isn’t really the focus of Amos’ ministry. It’s his opening, get the crowd riled up and listening to something they LOVE to here.
Judging all the neighbors… on every side, everyone but MEEEEeeeee.
and then Amos really gets going.
What’s his real subject?
Judgment on Israel
Judgment on Israel
The crimes:
Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals—
those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted; a man and his father go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned;
they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge, and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined.
“Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars and who was as strong as the oaks; I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath.
Also it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.
And I raised up some of your sons for prophets, and some of your young men for Nazirites. Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel?” declares the Lord.
“But you made the Nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets, saying, ‘You shall not prophesy.’
In summary:
Abusing the poor
Weird father-son sex stuff
"Garments taken in pledge” - likely like a creditor repossessing the literal clothes off their back. More abuse of the poor.
Stealing from worshippers (and drinking the offering instead). Likely more abuse of the poor or powerless.
Corrupting Nazirites and prophets
The punishment:
“Behold, I will press you down in your place, as a cart full of sheaves presses down.
Flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not retain his strength, nor shall the mighty save his life;
he who handles the bow shall not stand, and he who is swift of foot shall not save himself, nor shall he who rides the horse save his life;
and he who is stout of heart among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day,” declares the Lord.
You’r fast? No, you can’t run. You’re strong? Not strong enough!
Translation:
I know where you live and I’ve seen where you sleep. I swear by all that’s holy, Your mothers will cry when they see what I’ve done to you!
What should Israel be doing?
Not worrying about the other nations. We can safely assume God has that in hand. Judgment is the Lord’s. In Jonah we see a prophet sent out to the wicked nation to proclaim their judgment. For every “Jonah” whose story is preserved, there could be a 1000 Jonah’s heading out to speak truth to the nations. Repent!
Which means this: you don’t have to worry about them, Israel. You’ve got your own soul searching to do. You’ve got your own repentance to worry about!
Judgment and Wrath. That’s what we all came to church to hear about today, right?
We are going to dive into the substance of their judgment next week… but for starters, are we willing to hear the judgment of God on us?
It is easy, sometimes even fun, to see the fault in others. In the “nations” or people around us.
There is an “appearance of wisdom” in it. If you can point out the faults of others, you must be smarter, wiser, maybe even holier than they are.
The Spec Judge
The Spec Judge
This is not written to the repentant sinner. This is written to the hypocritical self-righteous “religious.” This is written to those of us (or that part of you) that see so clearly the faults of others while excusing the “little mistakes” in us.
Other people have excuses, you have reasons.
Attributive thinking - other people get angry because they are angry people.
vs situation thinking - I got angry because I’d had a hard day and they touched my last nerve.
Jesus said it this way:
“Judge not, that you be not judged.
For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?
You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
Jesus’ instructions with regard to judging others is very simply put; He says, “Don’t.”
I am they hypocritical judge when...
I find myself judging when...
I see mistakes and errors of my wife and can’t find fault or failure in my own.
I try to “fix” the action and attitudes of others
The Accuser vs. the Judge
The Accuser vs. the Judge
There is another kind of reaction to this sort of criticism, or judgment, or even accusation.
It can confirm all our own worst fears about ourselves, and we agree we are terrible and horrible and AWFUL!
The accuser’s aim is to destroy. Guilt and shame are the goal.
It is sometimes hard to hear God’s heart in the prophets… the prophet has to shout the judgment of God SO LOUD because the people refuse to hear it.
Why does God speak judgment on the people of Israel?
Why does God speak judgment on us?
Amos says it, the gentle voice didn’t work, neither adversity nor providence got their attention.
“I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.
“I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither;
so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.
“I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.
“I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.
“I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.
What’s his goal? That they return to Him!
At the very end we see the goal line. The restoration to plenty, the “Day of the Lord,” forever with God.
Return to God
Return to God
Here’s an easy way to discern between the voice of God - the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the accusation of the enemy.
If the voice brings you kneeling before the feet of Jesus, before the cross of Jesus, to hear “you are forgiven, go and sin no more” that is the judgment of God. Full of Truth, Full of Grace, longing for you to Return to Him.
If the voice is a litany of your sins… or usually just one sin blown up all out of proportion to say that not only have you done bad, but you are bad, you are irredeemably broken and lost… that is never the voice of God. That is the voice of Satan, the accusers, and your answer is Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. You are covered by the blood of Jesus, dressed in His robes of righteousness, forever free from guilt and shame.
And it isn’t about what any one else is doing. It isn’t about how they are sinning.
99/100 it isn’t your place to judge them.
99/100 you have more than enough to worry about in your own eye, in your heart, in your own life…
Israel failed at this again and again and again. They papered over their sin. They didn’t count their sin. After all, they were at church, they were worshipping, they were cleaned up, they were prosperous. And the Word of God spoke through Amos… they didn’t hear it for the most part.
And that the greatest tragedy. Left far from God because we closed our ears to His call… because we didn’t want to hear it.
I want to hear it.
I want to hear God’s Word, even when it means I don’t have everything right. I’ve gotten things wrong, I get things wrong.
Give me ears, Lord, to hear your Word as it pierces my heart! Sharper than any sword, divide my soul and spirit, joints and marrow.
As we grow in the Lord, as our hearts reflect His heart, we will long more and more for Justice and Righteousness... and absolute freedom from the sin is us that distorts and holds us back. What is that? It is the judgment of God on us. Never to condemn, but that we may draw near to Him, to Life and to Love. Send us the Word that we may see ourselves clearly. Speak Living Word, knowing our inmost beings.
Search me, Know me, Lord.