Thursday, December 15, 2011
Isaiah 11:3-5 His delight is in the fear of the Lord, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears; But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, And faithfulness the belt of His waist.
THE MESSIAH'S KINGDOM OF PEACE (4)
THE KING JUDGES IN RIGHTEOUSNESS
Jesus will never be fooled by appearances, because He doesn't judge by what He sees or by hearsay. He will judge with righteousness. There are two comforting truths in that statement. First of all, we can be sure Jesus will never make a mistake. He always know what the real truth is. No one will get away with anything, and no one will be unjustly judged. That is because He knows what is in a person's mind and heart. This is not only talking about the final judgment. His decisions and plans for everyone in His kingdom will always be in righteousness and He will carry out His plans with faithfulness. So we can truly live in peace knowing that the righteous King is ruling our lives. Everything He does for us is good and right.
When God says, "With righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth," God is describing an even greater source of peace. The "poor" and the "meek of the earth" are terms used of believers. Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ... Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:3, 5).
When Jesus judges the poor and the meek with righteousness, He does that by giving them His own righteousness. That is our greatest source of peace. It is peace with God. The long battle against God that began when Adam and Eve first fell into sin is ended. We no longer have to fear God and try to hide from Him the way Adam and Eve did. We can look to him as our loving Father who forgives us and now cares for us in everything. When we have peace with God, we truly have peace in our lives. We don't need to fear anything, for "If God is for us who can be against us" (Romans 8:31). As Jesus promises, "My Father is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand" (John 10:29).
It is difficult to enjoy peace when the wicked of the world make life difficult. Jesus also takes care of that for us. The rod of His mouth and the breath of His lips refer to the word that proceeds from his mouth. With that word He strikes the earth and slays the wicked. We don't have to worry, fear or fret about the evil of this world. His word convicts the unrighteous and often He brings those very people to faith -- to join us in His kingdom of peace. Where His word is met with stubborn resistance, His word will slay the wicked, that is, they will be judged by His word on the last day and banished to eternal damnation. We who hear and believe His word have peace from all enemies and have eternal life with Him.
