Thursday, December 12, 2013
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 KING JUDGES IN RIGHTEOUSNESS
Our King is our judge and that is a good thing. 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. The true enemies of the cross will not get away with anything, and His true children will never be unjustly judged. We can be sure Jesus will never make a mistake. He always knows what the real truth is. That is because He sees and knows what is in a person's mind and heart.
Isaiah foresees both sides of Messiah's judgment. "With righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth." 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 perfect righteousness. That is our 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.
In His righteousness He cannot condemn those who repent of their sins and trust in Him, for they are declared holy and righteous in Christ.
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 10:2).
Yet it can be tough to enjoy peace when the unbelievers of the world make life difficult. Jesus also takes care of that for us in His righteous judgment. 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, just let God take care of it. He will convict some of the unrighteous with His word and turn those enemies into brothers and sisters through faith as Christ takes up His rule in their heart also. Where His word is met with stubborn resistance, His word will slay the wicked. They will be judged by His word on the last day and banished to eternal damnation. We who hear and believe His word will have peace from all enemies and have eternal life with Him.
