WHEN JUDGMENT BECOMES A DEFENSE

(A series in the book of Isaiah: Chapter 3)

Have you ever thought that when you have sinned God will never be on your side anymore. God will never ever have a time for you anymore. You are sinning and you are in a path that God never wants you go. You know it is bad but you can't just help but be there and you then feel that God will never ever mind you. God will never mind you because you disappointed Him. In chapter 3 of Isaiah we see a deeper picture that God never will ever abandon His children because they are too evil already. From chapter 1 in the middle of their wickedness we God's ceaseless call. In chapter 2, we see that the call became even more desperate. Here in chapter 3 we see that God does not just call but rather does something for his children. What is it? Let's read down below...

Chapter 3 in the New International Version is placed with a title "Judgment on Jerusalem and Judah." Do you know that all these events described here happened a hundred years later? The prophecy spoken by Prophet Isaiah in this chapter happened after a century later. What are the prophecies that this chapter detail?

The prophecies in this chapter are the prophecy of the siege that will happen to God’s chosen nation under Babylon. We see here the dreadful condition of decay in morality, good leadership, and spirituality. It is such a dreadful state for God because the siege would mean that the gods of the nation where they are under is stronger than God Himself. It is such a very bad picture of the image of God. It is never easy to just make yourself a loser for stubborn people when you can easily swipe them away and be the God you are. But this is not the kind of God that Isaiah is trying to portray. God is in control despite the appearances of loss, defeat, and hopelessness.

There will be oppression, disaster, and stealing among God’s people. Their leaders will not be men of valor and Godliness and the young will take over the wisdom of the old. The haughtiness and pride of women will be taken away from them and it will be replaced with grief and pains. This will be the time when husbands will be killed in battles and nothing will be left to take care and provide for the women. What will happen is that instead of feasting and display of their pride, it will be mourning. 

What a devastating fall. The once glorious nation of God’s people, and the once standing in the pinnacle of victory, glory, and successes is now being taken captive. Their walls have fallen apart and the honor of their God is trampled upon by their enemies. 

This chapter paints the picture of a future event, it will only happen after a hundred years later. God’s love does not hide the reality and the enormity of wickedness and sin. The presence of God amidst the people exposes the people’s lostness and damnation. But the story never ended right then and there.

Let me bring you to the portion of this chapter that will bring us to a sweet culmination. Isaiah 3:13-15 13 The Lord takes his place in court;

     he rises to judge the people.

14 The Lord enters into judgment

     against the elders and leaders of his people:

 “It is you who have ruined my vineyard;

     the plunder from the poor is in your houses.

15 What do you mean by crushing my people

     and grinding the faces of the poor?”

 declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.

There are leaders and elders of God’s people that lead them into wickedness and sinning. If we look at these lines closely, at first, we will see that God will judge those leaders and elders who are really bad. However, as I read it again and again, I see that God is actually judging to defend His holy ones. God is judging against the evildoers to DEFEND THE RIGHTEOUS. God’s judgment is not destroying His people but rather it is to defend them. His judgment is not to condemn but to restore and defend HIS people. God is entering the judgment seat to condemn no one but rather to defend. The wicked are already judged by their own evil intent. The judgment of the wickedness is already marked upon themselves in their final destiny by themselves. (Please let me be clear that wicked here are not the struggling sinners. The struggling sinners are not evil people. The struggling individuals are people like you and me that are catching the glimmer of hope and restoration from God. The wicked are those who deliberately deny God’s sovereignty in their lives and despite God's ceaseless call they will never listen.)

Friends, God never condemns as struggling sinner rather God defends a struggling sinner. God defends you and me. 

Chapter 3 reminds us that God’s judgments are not to destroy His children but to defend them. God is still for His struggling children. Yes, they are rebellious and idolatrous, but God is saying, “after all the wickedness you have done, I am still on your side. I can still defend you if you just come back to Me. If you just come back to me, because I am your defender, and you are my people. God’s love as our Creator, Father, and Redeemer will always be available—embraces, welcomes back, defends, and pays the prize—to the struggling sinner.”

No matter who you are and what you are going through right now, the thing that you are still reading this stuff, God is your defender because you are still His child.