why judgment?

"View from the Cross," James Tissot 1836 – 1902

The Word for today:
Jeremiah 17:19 - 18:23

mark this: Jeremiah 18:7-8 --
If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.

The judgment of God is always forward-looking.  God does not judge just to judge. His judgment looks forward to salvation.

If this concept is not held in mind, then some things we read in the Bible can be downright inexplicable, even unthinkable.

In fact, until I understood this concept, I thought that one of the most twisted things I ever read is this line from Isaiah:
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. (1)

The principle that punishment looks forward to salvation is seen in our passage today, where we read that if the people were to repent, then God would call off the punishment he'd planned:
If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. (2)

If God sees the outcome that punishment attempts to achieve--repentance leading to salvation--then there is no longer the need to deploy punishment. So he doesn't.

If God could get us to turn his way by strewing candy canes along our paths, he would. But if we won't react to raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, then God will attempt to turn us towards salvation by other means.

***

God is unwilling that any should perish (3), so he sent Jonah to Nineveh with a one-sentence sermon:
"Forty days from now, Nineveh will be destroyed!" (4)

Jonah's short sermon worked! The city of Nineveh--every single person--turned to God.

So what did God do? He called off the judgment that was about to overtake them:
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. (5)

God didn't change; he always wants to save. Nineveh changed--and it made all the difference.

***

At the cross, Father and Son were looking forward.  It pleased the LORD to bruise Him only because God knew that the travail of his soul would bring Jesus joy:
When he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand; he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous.  (6)

Jesus was looking forward, past judgment to salvation:
For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (7)

It made him happy to know that he would set many prisoners free.  And that, then, he could go home.

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(1) Isaiah 53:10; (2) Jeremiah 18:7-8; (3) 2 Peter 3:9; (4) Jonah 3:4; (5) Jonah 3:10; (6) Isaiah 53:10-11; (7) Hebrews 12:2