We Need to Know When Something Is a Judgement of God that It Is So

There were opinions like: “it can not be from God while He shows only grace now” or “it is undoubtedly from the devil, let us pray against it, and it has to finish”. Some leaders said, “it is not punishment but only trial”, and others “, it is not essential to know it, but we need to help others”, “we can not know “, and so on. I want to show some scriptures from the Bible that it is essential to see the source.

The Bible clearly says that some tragedies were (and some of the new ones are going to be) a punishment from God.

The Bible clearly says that some tragedies were a punishment from God in many places. Furthermore, not being able to discern that something is the hand of God that is upraised (when it was God’s punishment) was a colossal mistake. God usually wanted people to know if it was his hand – in the more minor judgements (or even “love discipline judgements ") or the total judgements, as could be seen in many Bible places.

In this article, I only mention a few places where I see the need to recognise something as God’s judgement. It should help bring some results from this knowledge (which results and how they can change this is not a part of this article, but I hope we will talk about these things in some others).

“Lord, your hand is lifted high, but they do not see it. "/Izaiah 26,11a/

 Lord, do not your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain;
you crushed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent. Lord, do not your eyes look for truth?
You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent. /Jeremiah 5,3/

The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him. Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured,  your whole heart afflicted. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness—only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandagedor soothed with olive oil. Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; our fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers. Daughter Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field, like a city under siege. Unless the Lord Almighty had left us some survivors, would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.  /Izaiah 1,3-9/

These three places speak about the judgement in times of Isaiah and Jeremiah proclaimed and done by God against these nations, against these people. There are many words of judgement against Izrael and other countries, but there is clearly stated that some of these things are from God. And it was crucial that they could see it.

There are many words of judgement against Izrael and other countries, but there is clearly stated that some of these things are from God. And it was crucial that they could see it.

Some people said that God would not do them any harm, but this was against the Holy Spirit at those moments and situations, which you can see when you read these books. Especially in Jeremiah, it is very clearly seen how the “peace, peace” prophets go against Jeremiah’s prophecies. They could not believe that God would bring judgement on them when there was a city of Jerusalem and the temple of the Lord. But they were wrong.

Bible says that they didn’t see the “hand of the Lord upraised.” There are also places in the Bible when God speaks to Izrael he will put them out of their land and that HE will do it. God intended people to recognise his judgemental hand when it is there.

The verses above clearly state that God is punishing them, but it didn’t bring the results. One of the reasons was that some of them couldn’t receive the idea that God would harm them.

One of the reasons was that some of them couldn’t receive the idea that God would harm them. Especially book of Jeremiah speaks about it very much. We can see that so many people and prophets were deceived by the idea that God could not judge them.

There are so many places in the Bible regarding this topic that are worthy to be learnt, studied and understood well. We could see again and again the wrong discerning of events happening around them. For example, the bad things happened to people in the book of Jeremiah. They thought it was because they left and stopped bringing offerings to the queen of the heavens. However, Jeremiah explained to them why it really happened. He did it all the time, even with other priests, prophets and theologians who disagreed with his message. But God said they had lied about him when saying “he will not bring any harm”. /Jeremiah 5,12/

Maybe shocking was the message in the new covenant church of Corinth when Paul brought the knowledge of why so “many of them are weak, ill, and fall asleep (die).“ /Jeremiah 11, 29-30/ He explained to them that they were “drinking the judgement on themselves“ when coming to the Supper of the Lord in the wrong way.

I am sure that many of those “only grace time now” teachers and prophets would not allow him to preach this message and knowledge. It would go against their false theology about only “pleasant and graceful God” who took all punishment on the cross.

This is precious true, but it does not have all the applications they give to it. For example, thoughts that the death of Ananias and Safira was only God’s and Petr’s mistake. God forgot that we are in grace time now, so he should not bring punishment, after which the whole church started to be more in fear of God. /Acts 5,9-11  /

Paul didn’t come with a message that only the devil was doing it. He knew that human evil desires and devils come to the place when God is judging. We know it from other places in the Word where God describes it. 

18 February 2022

Jiří Joel Krupa

References:

“They have lied about the LORD; they said, “He will do nothing! No harm will come to us; we will never see sword or famine.”/Jeremiah 5,12 NIV/

“For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. “/1 Corinth 11, 29-30 NIV/

“That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.” /1 Corint 11,30 ESV/

Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.  At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.“ /Acts 5,9-11 NIV/