The woman is trembling before the judge as she rises for her verdict. He is sitting, robed in his long black garments, his eyes taking her in as she stands vulnerable before him. All he has is the evidence against her. He has legal precedence to which he can refer. But he was not there when she committed her crime. He did not see her do it. And she has not confessed - told all to the court. She must abide by the sentence the judge hands down regardless of why she thinks she does not deserve so harsh a judgment.
One day we will all stand up and face the Judge. Only this Judge was there at every turn of our lives and He not only saw our actions, He saw our hearts. This Judge knows our minds - what we were thinking when we did what we did. It is our heart this Judge has been interested in all along. He knows it better than we do.
It is to Him that David appeals in Psalm 7. In verse 6, David pleads with God to "Get up! Stand up from Your throne and declare a righteous judgment!" Get up and demand fairness. Gather the nations around You and rule them from above....God, You Who do what is right. You know our minds and hearts. Stop those wicked actions done by wicked people, and help those who do what is right.
There are those who think God's place as judge is heavy-handed and overbearing. Yet these same people cry for justice when they see the oppressed. There is evil in this world. Look now at Somalia and Darfur. Look back at Hitler. Horrible things have even been done in the name of Christ, but not with His approval. We all have an idea of what justice looks like. God is Justice. We only understand it because of Him. But the most impressive thing about God's justice is that He prefers mercy. So much so that He came as sacrifice for all of our wrongs so that He could judge us right. Heavy-handed? Cruel? Let that argument die here. He died for us while we were still sinning.
In the Psalms, judging is most often used to cry out to God for salvation for those oppressed by the wicked who are defined as those who have willfully turned away from God. It is wanting God to put things right again. When the wicked rule, things go terribly out of kilter. Only God can judge them rightly and destroy their works. And He should, says David, because they kill the innocent.
Here is what the Lord says about this from the book of Jeremiah:
A curse is placed on those who trust other people, who depend on humans for strength, who have stopped trusting the Lord. They are like a bush in a desert that grows in a land where no one lives, a hot and dry land with bad soil. They don't know the good things God can give. But the person who trusts the Lord will be blessed. The Lord will show them that He can be trusted. He will be strong like a tree planted near water that sends its roots by a stream. It is not afraid when the days are hot; its leaves are always green.....More than anything else, a person's mind is evil and cannot be healed. No one truly understands it. BUT, I, the Lord, look into a person's heart and test the mind. So I decide what each one deserves. I can give each one the right payment for what he does.
The Judge does not curse the person who walks away from Him. Her life is cursed because she has cut herself off from her Source. She stopped wanting to live by the stream. Therefore, she lives in a desert of her own making and she is left alone in a barren place. God wants to show that He can be trusted to look at our hearts and judge them fairly because He knows them. It is our hearts He wants now and has wanted always. Remember when Samuel was looking at all the sons of Jesse trying to discover which one would be the next king? He looked at the handsome Eliab and was wowed by his kingly appearance. But God said no. "Man looks on the outward appearance. I look on the heart." It was a teenaged shepherd boy that God had his eye on. A kid with a heart after God's. That is all this judge wants. A heart that yearns to know Him. Your life will not be perfect. But Your God is. Let Him show you that He can be trusted to make you like a tree planted in a lush forest near a stream of living water.
One day we will all stand up and face the Judge. Only this Judge was there at every turn of our lives and He not only saw our actions, He saw our hearts. This Judge knows our minds - what we were thinking when we did what we did. It is our heart this Judge has been interested in all along. He knows it better than we do.
It is to Him that David appeals in Psalm 7. In verse 6, David pleads with God to "Get up! Stand up from Your throne and declare a righteous judgment!" Get up and demand fairness. Gather the nations around You and rule them from above....God, You Who do what is right. You know our minds and hearts. Stop those wicked actions done by wicked people, and help those who do what is right.
There are those who think God's place as judge is heavy-handed and overbearing. Yet these same people cry for justice when they see the oppressed. There is evil in this world. Look now at Somalia and Darfur. Look back at Hitler. Horrible things have even been done in the name of Christ, but not with His approval. We all have an idea of what justice looks like. God is Justice. We only understand it because of Him. But the most impressive thing about God's justice is that He prefers mercy. So much so that He came as sacrifice for all of our wrongs so that He could judge us right. Heavy-handed? Cruel? Let that argument die here. He died for us while we were still sinning.
In the Psalms, judging is most often used to cry out to God for salvation for those oppressed by the wicked who are defined as those who have willfully turned away from God. It is wanting God to put things right again. When the wicked rule, things go terribly out of kilter. Only God can judge them rightly and destroy their works. And He should, says David, because they kill the innocent.
Here is what the Lord says about this from the book of Jeremiah:
A curse is placed on those who trust other people, who depend on humans for strength, who have stopped trusting the Lord. They are like a bush in a desert that grows in a land where no one lives, a hot and dry land with bad soil. They don't know the good things God can give. But the person who trusts the Lord will be blessed. The Lord will show them that He can be trusted. He will be strong like a tree planted near water that sends its roots by a stream. It is not afraid when the days are hot; its leaves are always green.....More than anything else, a person's mind is evil and cannot be healed. No one truly understands it. BUT, I, the Lord, look into a person's heart and test the mind. So I decide what each one deserves. I can give each one the right payment for what he does.
The Judge does not curse the person who walks away from Him. Her life is cursed because she has cut herself off from her Source. She stopped wanting to live by the stream. Therefore, she lives in a desert of her own making and she is left alone in a barren place. God wants to show that He can be trusted to look at our hearts and judge them fairly because He knows them. It is our hearts He wants now and has wanted always. Remember when Samuel was looking at all the sons of Jesse trying to discover which one would be the next king? He looked at the handsome Eliab and was wowed by his kingly appearance. But God said no. "Man looks on the outward appearance. I look on the heart." It was a teenaged shepherd boy that God had his eye on. A kid with a heart after God's. That is all this judge wants. A heart that yearns to know Him. Your life will not be perfect. But Your God is. Let Him show you that He can be trusted to make you like a tree planted in a lush forest near a stream of living water.
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