He is the Judge

By Yolandie Mostert (May 2023)

 

His eyes … washed with milk, and fitly set. (Songs 5:12a) 

 

We are still busy on verse 12 with the description of the Bridegroom’s eyes. In the previous part I shared about the fire of His zeal that burnt in His eyes with passion and devotion – eyes that was focused on the Father while He dwelt on earth. The fire in His eyes are the seven Spirits that burn before the throne of the Father.

 

Honey and milk & Judging

Today we will be looking at another facet of His eyes. The reference to: ‘washed in milk’ is pointing us in the right direction. We find a very interesting verse in Isaiah 7. The prophet Isaiah is speaking of the birth of the Messiah that would be called Immanuel.

Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. (Isa 7:15)

This verse shows a direct connotation between the judging of good and evil and honey and milk curds. This brings us to the facet of Jesus Christ as the Judge that judges righteously between good and evil and between the righteous and the wicked.

 

Yâshab

The next part of the verse in Song of Songs is ‘fitly sit’. This description paints a picture of a jeweler placing His eyes carefully on the right place with a precision tool. It is precise, neat and perfectly placed on a permanent place to stay. The Hebrew word yâshab gives the idea of someone moving into a house to make it a permanent dwelling place or someone sitting down to stay at that place. There is a sense of security in the meaning of the word.

 

Let’s now bring it together. Jesus Christ is a righteous judge and He judges with His Father’s judgement.

I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. (Joh 5:30) 

His judgements are just and He is unprejudiced. He doesn’t use different scales for different people. We read in Proverbs 11:1 that the Lord hates false scales.

Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, But a just weight is His delight. (Prov 16:11) 

 

Judgement within the church

While I was typing the message about the facet of Jesus being the Judge, the Holy Spirit brought a vision to my attention that a certain person had back in 2004. I’m always astonished and thankful for His perfect timing of bringing certain messages, scriptures and words at just the right time to the front. The message of the vision was impending judgement on the wickedness inside the church. While Jesus is judging righteously with the judgement of the Father, He is also the One interceding on our behalf. Both of these facets were prominent in the vision this person had. Due to time, I’m not going to share the whole message. Here is just a very short extract:

“He said, “One of the greatest stumbling blocks within the Church is the complete lack of fear of God and the teaching of a cheap grace. Few there are who have any fear of the loss of their salvation through continued willful sin. They believe they can continuously live in pre­ meditated sin and still be forgiven and go to heaven. They have no fear of God’s chastisement on their lives. Indeed, when trouble comes into their life, not once do they ever think about the fact that it may be the result of their own actions.”

This passage in Scripture summarises the rest of the message:

For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now “if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?”  (1 Pet 4:17-18) 

 

I really hope that this series on who He is, means as much to you as to me. The more I’m allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal the Bridegroom to me, the more my authority in Him grows. And also my worship in wonder for who He is.

 

Mankind learns righteousness through God’s judgements

His facet of Judge should fill us with a Godly fear, but also with security in Him being just. When we love righteousness and live our life accordingly, we can be glad about His judgements. We find a beautiful verse in Isaiah 26.

With my soul I have desired You in the night, yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early; for when Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.  (Isa 26:9)

Through God’s judgements, man learns what righteousness is. People are slow learners. It’s almost as if mankind first wants to see if there will really follow consequences before they will repent. We are praying earnestly for our family and friends to find the Lord, but the moment when the Lord uses His judgements to expose their sins and iniquity, then we beg for mercy so that they must just not experience any inconvenience. I’m not saying we should wish hardship for anyone. Not at all, please don’t misunderstand me. What I’m saying is that we need to learn to discern when it’s God’s righteous judgements.

For the LORD is our Judge, The LORD is our Ruler, The LORD is our King; He will save us. (Isa 33:22 AMP) 

 

There are so many people professing that God doesn’t judge anymore. It is simply untrue. Abraham described God as the Judge in Genesis 18 and we read in Revelation 19 that Jesus judges in righteousness. We cannot simply ignore this facet because it makes us feel uncomfortable.

 

As we learn to love every single facet of who He is, we will also be able to agree with Isaiah that we are waiting for His judgements. He are not only seaking for His blessings, love and peace. We are also joyfully expecting His judgements. Not because se are delighting in the consequences that other people or even ourselves will experience. No, because we know that people learn righteousness through the judgements of God.

Indeed, in the path of Your judgments, O LORD, We have waited expectantly for You; Your name, even Your memory, is the desire and deep longing of our souls. (Isa 26:8) 

 

The heart of the Judge

There are quite a lot of Scriptures that deal with God as the Judge. One of them is a parable that Jesus told about an unrighteous judge. Just listen to the heart of our righteous judge. He will treat those that are His, His elect, mercyfully and with fairness.

Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”  (Luk 18:6-8)

 

The next Scripture I want to share comes from the book of Revelation.

And I heard the angel of the waters saying: “You are righteous, O Lord, The One who is and who was and who is to be, Because You have judged these things. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, And You have given them blood to drink. For it is their just due.” And I heard another from the altar saying, “Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.”  (Open 16:5-7) 

In this passage He promises that He will defend us and avenge us. The vengeance doesn’t belong to us. We need to remain within His peace while we guard our hearts against any form of bitterness and unforgiveness. We might experience unjust treatment for His Name sake to a certain extend. All through centuries, even still now, people are martyred for their faith. This verse speaks of a day when the spilled blood of the prophets and saints will be judged. God judging wickedness in this way might not agree with our image of who He is and how He is supposed to act. But Scripture tells us that this judgement with be fair.

 

Godly fear

This facet of our God’s character should fill us with a holy and Godly fear. The majority of God’s own people are lacking Godly fear. We don’t have to scared to approach Him, but the fullness of who He is should fill us with awe and reference. We need to understand that actions have consequences. The righteous Judge of the universe is always fair with everyone. He will not take our side when we are in the wrong. The deeper our walk with Him, the narrower the road. Because of His holiness He will test our hearts and reveal the darkness that is still in us in order for us to repent and have an even closer relationship with Him. Of course this process will never stop as the testing and exposing of our hearts becomes deeper.

O LORD of hosts, who judges righteously, Who tests the feelings and the heart (mind) (Jer 11:20) 

 

Mercy that truimphs over judgement

People love to quote the next verse, of rather only a portion of the verse: ‘His mercy truimphs over His judgements’. Let’s read the whole verse.

For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.  (Jam 2:13) 

Once again we can see the heart of the Judge of the whole earth in this verse. He is looking for mercy in our lives. When we have to mercy on other people, He will judge us fairly and we will receive the full extend of what we deserve. But when we are full of mercy in heart and deeds towards others, our mercy will mitigate God’s judgement on us. We are quick to forget that the Sword of the Spirit is a double edged sword – it cuts both ways. We can’t expect to receive mercy, but are always ready with critisism, finding fault and little to no mercy for other people.

By the way, in the context of this verse we can see that the mercy that truimphs over judgement is actually a law applicable to all of mankind. It gets quoted incorrectly as something that only applies to God or even as a verse that proves that God’s judgements are no longer applicable.

 

We find another passage in the letter of James that highlights the same principle. I’m quoting from the Amplified translation.

Do not complain against one another, believers, so that you will not be judged [for it]. Look! The Judge is standing right at the door. As an example, brothers and sisters, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord [as His messengers and representatives]. (Jas 5:9-10) 

Here James doesn’t talk to unbelievers. He talks to those that are in Christ – brothers and sisters. I have to admit, this verse really spoke to my heart today. We can be so impatient with each other and complain about everything the next person is doing wrong. We are warned to be careful because the Judge is standing at the door, in other words, judgement can happen at any moment. Then James reminds us about the hardship of God’s prophets because of His Name. We have to remember them as an example when we want to complain and gossip about each other with each other.

 

Honey and milk under the tongue of the bride

Before I close, I want to mention the honey and milk that are under the tongue of the bride of Jesus. You can read the verse in Song of Songs 4:11. The more we are being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, our Bridegroom, the more righteous we will view people and circumstances. There are so much infighting about whether we may or may not judge and Bible verses are quote to defend both sides. Before we continue to reason about it, let’s make sure that we are full of mercy and that our eyes are also washed in milk. May the Holy Spirit gives you further revelation in what I have just said.

 

The crown of righteousness

May each one of us wait expectantly on the crown of righteousness. The righteous Judge is the One that will place that crown on our heads when we have completed the race with endurance.

In the future there is reserved for me the [victor’s] crown of righteousness [for being right with God and doing right], which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that [great] day–and not to me only, but also to all those who have loved and longed for and welcomed His appearing. (2 Tim 4:8) 

My prayer is that we will passionately wait and long for His appearance with love. Not only for when He returns, but even now. It is possible to already experience the sweetness and beauty of His appearance in our daily walk with Him.

 

Links

To listen to the introduction, as well as the Word I’ve received by the Holy Spirit concerning this series, please click here.

The audio version of this message is availalbe on our telegram channel: https://t.me/+1hYU7h46Jj1hZDc8

Part 1 – Who is the Bridegroom (background)

Part 2 – Who is your beloved?

Part 3 – He is my beloved

Part 4 – Hy is Light

Part 5 – Hy is Holy

Part 6 – Hy is the Warrior and Avenger

Part 7 – He is the Conqueror

Part 8 – He is the Head

Part 9 – The Set-Apart One

Part 10 – He is Unchanging

Part 11 – He is the Zealous One