How Can God Judge?
“For the day of the Lord is near against all nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you;
your deeds will return upon your own head.”
Obadiah 1:15
This verse from Obadiah makes for sobering reading first thing in the morning!
We have stumbled into an oracle of judgement upon Edom (Esau’s descendants). Edom was charged with violence towards his ‘brother’ Israel (Jacob’s descendants). God was calling time on the damage done and declaring Edom would be shamed and humiliated. In the verse above, we learn that God’s destruction of Edom will be as widespread and merciless as the damage and violence the Edomites have wrought on Israel.
The judgment language of the Bible can be a difficult pill to swallow. It is not something we find easy. (And if we do like it, it is possibly for the wrong reason.) How can God bring about such destruction? Let me offer a way to reframe the issue. God’s judgement is not opposed to His love. It is a result of it. Because of God’s love, He opposes evil. He resists those who use violence and hatred as a weapon against others, because of His love for the oppressed. He will not tolerate or permit evil to continue forever. He is worthy of our trust. He will overcome those whose strength seems insurmountable and who act hatefully and perpetuate misery. Perhaps a better question to ask would be: how a loving and powerful God cannot intervene in the face of unbridled wickedness?
And divine judgement offers us an opportunity to listen. The gift that we are given in prophetic words is an opportunity to hear the truth about God’s heart and, by contrast, our own human sinfulness. Throughout Scripture, there are those who repent in the face of judgement—and then God shows them His mercy. The prostitute Rahab did so when the Israelites arrived in the Promised Land (see Joshua 2 and 6). Likewise, the whole city of Nineveh repented on hearing of their sin, much to Jonah’s chagrin!
As we come to see ourselves as deserving of that self-same judgement for our violence and harm, we have good news. We may feel guilt, shame or fear, but we do not have to be shamed or found guilty. Jesus has taken it for us—and we can leave our burdens at the Cross. We can know the mercy of God that atones for our guilt, humbles our hearts and reshapes our lives.
“If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples;
and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
John 8:31-32
