Originally posted July 7, 2007
There are principles that God uses in determining how judgment is rendered. By understanding these principles. We can understand what God is doing in the nations.
The following list of criteria is not intended to be exhaustive, nor could it be. God’s was are above our ways and that means that His actions cannot always be predicted. However God does reveal enough to give us a glimpse of what He is doing.
Outline
- God rewards nations according to their works.
- He measures back to the nations their deeds.
- He executes justice, particularly on bloodguilt.
- He waits until the cup of iniquity is full before He judges a nation.
- He uses other nations to execute judgment.
God rewards nations according to their works.
While Christ redeemed from all nations individuals through the blood of Jesus He did not redeem the entities of states. God judges states according to their works. Nations do not have eternal souls as individuals do. Because nations do not have hearts in the same sense as people do they can only be judged by their deeds
Jeremiah 25:14 KJV For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands.
Hosea 12:2 KJV The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.
Romans 2:1-11 KJV Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. (2) But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. (3) And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? (4) Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? (5) But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; (6) Who will render to every man according to his deeds: (7) To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: (8) But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, (9) Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; (10) But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: (11) For there is no respect of persons with God.
Psalms 62:8-12 KJV Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah. (9) Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. (10) Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them. (11) God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God. (12) Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work.
He measures back to the nations their deeds.
When God judges nation according to their works. This includes the idea of returning upon that nation it’s sins. A nation which commits mass murder may suffer massacre as a result of an invading nation as a judgment of God. A nation that has enslaved itself to sexual immorality may find itself sexually enslaved in another way-b means of forced marriage, forced prostitution or sexual slavery at the hands of rapists that accompany an invasion.Nations that plunder will be plundered. Nations that enslave will be enslaved. Revelation tells us that this is the faith and patience of the saints. The standard by which individuals and nations judge-the standard upon which they base their actions-is measured back to them.
The consolation that is given to nations that suffer atrocities at he hands of other nation as a judgment on their injustices is that the new perpetrators of atrocities will later come under the same judgment. For example God punished Israel for her acts of rape, plunder and murder by allowing Babylon to rape, plunder and murder the sinful people of Israel through invasion. The Babylonian invaders were 70 years later raped, plundered and murdered by the Medes and Persians.
Matthew 7:1-5 KJV Judge not, that ye be not judged. (2) For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. (3) And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? (4) Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? (5) Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
Revelation 13:10 KJV He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
Jeremiah 50:28-31 KJV The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple. (29) Call together the archers against Babylon: all ye that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her: for she hath been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel. (30) Therefore shall her young men fall in the streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD. (31) Behold, I am against thee, O thou most proud, saith the Lord GOD of hosts: for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee.
Ezekiel 7:1-4 KJV Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, (2) Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD unto the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land. (3) Now is the end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine abominations. (4) And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 KJV Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; (7) And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, (8) In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: (9) Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; (10) When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
He executes justice, particularly on bloodguilt.
Bloodguilt is the primary issue of justice that God uses to determine when to execute justice. In fact God created nations for the purpose of avenging murder.We have here a requirement God’s covenant with Noah made with him and his descendants. (That would include us) God here gave authorization for civil government to exist for the purpose of avenging murder
Genesis 9:4-10 KJV But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. (5) And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. (6) Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. (7) And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein. (8) And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, (9) And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; (10) And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.
The shedding of blood pollutes the land.That means that murder affects the relationship of that society with the land in which they live. The blood of those murdered cries out from the land to the Lord for vengeance. God is now hearing billions of people crying out for vengeance from the lands that are on the earth.
Furthermore, the only way to cleanse land is to to execute justice upon the murderers. There are two was to do this. One is for nations to repent of their murderous ways and to begin to do justice once more. The other way is for those nation to be tried as murderers. This usually involves other nations attacking them and inflicting great slaughter, great plunder and or occupation of the territories of those nations being judged.
Numbers 35:31-34 KJV Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death. (32) And ye shall take no satisfaction for him that is fled to the city of his refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest. (33) So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. (34) Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I the LORD dwell among the children of Israel.
He waits until the cup of iniquity is full before He judges a nation.
He does not immediately judge nation when there is injustice. He waits until that injustice reaches a critical level. When that happens God will raise up another nation as an enemy.
Genesis 15:13-18 KJV And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; (14) And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. (15) And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. (16) But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. (17) And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. (18) In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
Even though God promised the land to Abraham He did not deliver that land immediately because the Amorites who then possessed the land had not yet crossed the line in their sins. Because God is merciful He gives nations and people space to repent. God is merciful and just- Even where His promised land for Israel is concerned He does not arbitrarily speed up the process because it would be convenient.
The passages below confirm that God waits until the land is full of sin or full of blood.
Ezekiel 9:1-5,9-11 KJV He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand. (2) And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar. (3) And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer’s inkhorn by his side; (4) And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. (5) And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:..
…(9) Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not. (10) And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head. (11) And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me.
Revelation 18:1-6 KJV And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. (2) And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. (3) For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. (4) And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. (5) For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. (6) Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
He uses other nations to execute judgment.
Throughout the Bible God uses other nations to judge wicked nations. There is a pattern to this. There are two nations that have existed that are templates for all of the other nations. Babylon and Israel. Every world power that has ever existed is a form of Babylon or Israel.The many forms of Babylon are documented here. There are various forms of Israel as well. The history of the world is a history of God using nations that were manifestation of Israel or Babylon. As we shall soon see. The Final battle will be literal Israel versus literal Babylon. Only this time Israel will win, led by her Messiah Jesus Christ who will return as the King of Kings.