"Does God Execute Judgment?"

Judgment Deferred

Speaking to the issue of deferred judgment Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem entitled:         “Retribution”

                                Though the mills of God grind slowly;

                                Yet they grind exceeding small;

                                Though with patience he stands waiting,

                                With exactness grinds he all.          –Taken from “Wikipedia”

Futility of Man’s Rebellion Against God

“Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing?  The Kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed (“Messiah”), saying, ‘Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.’  He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the lord shall hold them in derision.  Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure:  ‘Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion’” (Psalm 2:1-6).

This is one of the most fearsome passages in the Bible as it speaks of the futility of man’s attempt to cast off all restraint as touching the laws of God.  That fearsomeness is bound up in the fact God shall laugh, the laughter of scorn and His contemptuous derision of such which have as their goal the overturn of Jesus’ throne, already an accomplished fact in the annals of heaven.

When Shall God’s Judgments be Seen?

Here we speak of judgments all can see and about which there can be no question.  There is one standard for nations, another for individuals.  For nations, as God revealed the future of his descendants to Abram [later Abraham], there is such a thing as the [cup] of iniquity not being full (Genesis 15:16).  So the Children of Israel would return to execute judgment on the Amorites after four generations passes.  Yes, judgment would and did fall, but God gave the Amorites four generations in which to repent. 

For individuals, as with nations, God is merciful, but, “He, that being often reproved [corrected] hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy” (Proverbs 29:1).

Scoffers Take Advantage of God’s Mercy

“. . .scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming?  For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation’” (2 Peter 3:3,4).  Peter continues on to say such persons willfully forget that the order of things was changed by the great flood.  He then added, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9)

The Purpose of God’s Judgments

To draw wayward individuals and nations to Himself—because He is a loving God.