Jesus is our Judge

 And He commanded us to preach to the people and testify that He (Jesus) is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.          Acts 10.42

A judge is a person who has the authority to observe and decide what is right and wrong.

After their time in the desert, God led the Israelites to the land He had promised Abraham long ago. He wanted them to build houses and enjoy this Promised Land. It was such a nice place to live. Bees could make buckets and buckets of honey visiting all the flowers. The cows had plenty of grass to eat, so they could give gallons and gallons of milk. It was a land flowing with milk and honey!

Before the Israelites settled in, God told them to clean up. He told them to make sure all the other people in this Promised Land leave, because they worshipped fake gods. The people believed that these fake gods, called idols, would give them what they wanted. Does this sound like a familiar lie? Sin tells us we don’t need God and we can be happy without Him. Trusting anything besides the God of the Bible to save us is called idolatry.

But the Israelites didn’t do the one thing God said. Instead of cleaning the evil people out of the land, the Israelites let them stay. Eventually, they decided to marry them! Soon, they were even trusting in the fake gods!

God loves His people too much to leave them alone in their sin. Before long the Israelites were suffering attacks from other countries. They prayed to God for help. His loving response was to send judges to free His people from their enemies.

God sent many different judges to help free His people. God gave Samson amazing muscles and strength to free God’s people. God gave Gideon great ideas and courage to free God’s people. God gave Deborah wisdom and insight to free God’s people. Each time, the judge followed God’s plan and the Israelites could live in peace. Each time God set them free, the Israelites eventually felt they no longer needed Him and turned back to their idols. Again, enemies would attack and Israel would pray and God would send a judge to bring peace. Do you see a pattern?

Jesus is called our “Judge” because He knows what is right and wrong and has the power, position, and authority to give His enemies the punishment they deserve for their sin. The judges in the Promised Land would free God’s people from God’s enemies for a time. Jesus frees us from the enemy of sin forever. Samson had some strength, Gideon had a few ideas, Deborah had limited wisdom, but Jesus has all strength, all knowledge, and all wisdom. No enemy will ever stand against our Judge Jesus and win. Jesus is the best and truest Judge.

This verse shows what happened when the Israelites did not clean up the Promised Land.     Judges 2.12

What was the pattern of the Israelites during the time of Judges?

God saw the Israelites' pattern of behaviour yet kept helping. What does that say about God?