It seems strange to consider that the word " love" could be used alongside the word "judgement". After all, judgement is kind of a scary word. It conjures up pictures in the theater of one’s imagination of violence, destruction and anguish. Is it even possible for something as terrible as judgement to bring about an even remotely positive result? And how can a God who is supposed to be loving, be the same God who would pour out His judgement?
The word judgement has some interesting roots. One synonym for it in Hebrew is
krisis – comparable to our English word crisis. A crisis could be described as a turning point – for better or for worse. And in the Greek (the New Testament was originally written in Greek), dichotomia, is comparable to our English word dichotomy - a division, or the process of splitting into two parts. I found this next one really interesting. The Hebrew word krima, is comparable to our English word crime. Most of our laws today are rooted in the 10 commandments. For example, if someone is caught stealing, they have committed a crime. This is also true of killing. Lying (bearing false witness) under oath in a courtroom is also a crime and a sin. Have you ever noticed that you don’t have to teach a child how to lie? And we parents get very upset when our children lie to us. So we punish
them – yet we say we love them.
God Bears a Burden for Us
Most of us have probably noticed the dangerous crossroads, or perhaps dichotomy, at which our nation stands. In many ways, it reminds me of what the Old Testament prophet Amos saw in his day. The name Amos means "Burden-Bearer". Symbolic, no doubt, of the burden that God bears in His heart for us and every nation. A deep love that may very well find itself wrestling with His righteous nature on a regular basis. Ironically, the people to whom Amos was speaking were basically a people of plenty at the time. Plenty of food, plenty of water, plenty of clothes, plenty of housing, plenty of jobs, and plenty of immorality. God blessed them and not only did they take it for granted, but they saw their prosperity and political power as God’s endorsement of their life-style.
The heart of God was broken over how His blessings were being abused and used for things like destruction (Amos 1:3), oppression (Amos 1:6,9), murder (Amos 1:13), despising and not keeping God’s commandments (Amos 2:4), twisting the law to persecute and enslave the righteous and poor, (Amos 2:6), taking advantage of the poor, perverting the legal system, sexual sins, excessive interest on loans, and idolatry (Amos 2:7-8). Sounds a lot like today’s headlines.
God Corrects His Beloved
The Lord allowed some pretty intense extremes to get Israel’s attention in the midst of her sin. Everything from a series of natural disasters to war to some losing their transportation and / or homes, and that’s only part of the list in Amos 4:6-12. Because of God’s great love and mercy, He will often speak to us through His Word and cause us to see how and where it applies to us and / or our nation. This gives us an opportunity to ask for forgiveness and intercede so that things might change. Prayer can definitely change the destiny of an entire nation (Amos 7:2-6). God will give warning after warning in anticipation of the cry of a repentant heart – or nation. He warned Israel through Amos that if they would not heed His Word and apply it to their lives, that He would take His Word away from them and let them starve spiritually (Amos 8:11-12).
What if God allowed the lawmakers in our land to take our Bibles from us and shut down our churches and shut down our Christian television stations, radio stations, publications, and take from us all forms of Christian media? What if it were against the law to pray in the name of Jesus and testify? This would be a terrible famine, wouldn’t it? And we shouldn’t be fooled into thinking that it can’t happen here. Most countries in Europe used to be Christian. Now they are post-modern at best. It’s like there is another civil war happening in America – only this one is over whether we really want to invite the One True God to be the One and Only Lord of America.
God Restores Those Who Honor Him
God promised that there would be a remnant in Israel whom He would not destroy (Amos 9:8). After all, if He totally wiped out Israel, then He couldn’t make good on His promise to send them their deliverer, the Christ. And there was a remnant who truly did want Him to be their God. They were the ones who realized that they were really going to need God on a very personal level if He actually did abandon their sinful nation and turn it over to their ruthless enemies in judgement. And God would honor them by eventually restoring His blessings to them (Amos 9:11-15). He’ll preserve a country that repents. He’ll protect a remnant who honors Him. And the ultimate piece of proof that God wants to restore those who repent and honor Him is illustrated by Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. If it wasn’t for that, none of us could be restored.
Without the judgement of God, we’d continue to drift down a destructive road that would end in our demise. We often refer to God as our Father. What parent wants to witness the self-destruction of their children? If we imperfect parents will exercise the tough-love of disciplining our children so that they will one day have peace, hope and a future, then how much more will our perfect Heavenly Father do the same for us with the love behind His judgement?
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