The Judge of all the earth.
The older Scriptures constantly set God forth as the actual, living Judge, concerned now in his Divine magistracy, deciding causes, vindicating the oppressed, punishing the wrong doer. The idea of some one single judgment day, in the far future, when all earth complications are to be put straight, and all earth evils are to be rectified, does not appear to have been in the minds of Old Testament saints. It may be that the New Testament figure of the "judgment seat of Christ" has unduly limited the Christian idea of the present and ever-continuous judging of God. It may be that this present judging needs to be set more clearly before the Christian mind. Our notion of the Judge is of one who, at a fixed time, holds a grand assize; and this notion helps to shape our figure of a single final judgment. But the Israelite thought of judging, magistracy, as the most important continuous function of his king, which every faithful king would exercise daily, sitting in the gate to hear and decide all causes that might be presented, and so coming into constant judicial relation to the life of the people. Shifting God's judgment on to a future great assize should not be allowed to loosen our Christian sense of God's present rule as involving a present magistracy, and present punishments and rewards. Read life aright, and the signs of a present Divine magistracy will abundantly appear.
I. GOD THE JUDGE IS DISTINGUISHING IN DIFFICULT CASES. Illustrate from the nisi prius courts. Constantly in life we find ourselves bewildered. We do not know what to think, or what to do, or where to go. We are in danger of being carried away by the merely attractive. If we will but wait, God will surely decide for us, and make the right for us quite unquestionable.
II. GOD THE JUDGE IS RECOGNIZING AND REWARDING THE RIGHTEOUS. We never have any doubt of this until we become impatient, and want the recognition at once. Because the Judge is also the Sanctifier, he may delay the reward which he decides to be due. But he is keen to notice everything that is good.
III. GOD THE JUDGE IS THE PUNISHER OF ALL THE WICKED. We need never be deceived by the apparent prosperity of the unjust. It is part of their judgment. It is making them top-heavy in preparation for some irremediable fall.—R.T.