I finished yesterday’s post by stating that on judgement day the whole world (both believers and non-believers) are going to be judged by God’s justice system which is this very Torah we’ve been studying over the past five years.
This is a point I think the gentile church really needs to perk up and pay attention to.
Because they’re always talking about the importance of producing good fruit for the Lord by being obedient to God.
However, what does obedience to God really mean?
It means obedience to His commandments.
And where are the Lord’s commandments contained and outlined for us?
Again, they’re contained in this very Torah we’ve been painstakingly studying over the past five years.
The conclusion of the matter is pretty darn simple.
You cannot produce good fruit by disobeying God’s commandments or throwing away His Torah like the church has done.
It is impossible.
Your deeds and fruits have absolutely nothing to do with the size of your bank accounts or even the size of your families or congregations.
You will be judged by that part of your life that has produced enduring good for the Kingdom of Hashem at the direction of His Holy Spirit in accordance with obedience to His commands.
I can’t think of any other plain way to put it.
Let’s talk about the true Biblical meaning of the word “judgement” for a minute.
In our day and age this word has a very negative connotation.
Most folks perceive this word as being synonymous with wrath or punishment.
When we hear phrases like “the world is going to be judged”, we cringe and automatically assume this is talking about the Lord’s wrath and a bunch of fire and brimstone imagery pops into our minds.
And we become even more uncomfortable whenever we hear believers are going to be judged.
We try to explain away those passages by saying “Oh well, you know, that’s not really what the Bible says” and then we engage in all kinds of retarded allegorical gymnastics to change the clear meaning of such verses.
Here’s the truth.
The Hebrew word for justice is MISHPAT but did you know that this word can also mean “judgement” in English?
In fact, from a Hebrew perspective the words “justice” and “judgement” mean the exact same thing.
The Scriptural perspective is that an individual is placed before the Lawgiver (in this case God) and then his or her behavior is examined.
Afterwards a verdict is given.
In other words, the word MISHPAT is neutral.
There ain’t no assumption of guilt here folks.
So how do we apply this to the last days?
When the believer stands before Hashem, he or she will automatically be declared innocent due to trusting in Yeshua’s sacrifice (Thank God! I mean literally thank God! Because I’ve got so much sin on my hands.).
However, after being declared incident, then comes the part where his or her deeds are going to be looked at and what measure of reward (or maybe zero reward) will be given to this person based on his or her obedience to the Lord’s commands.
Sure, the believer will enter into eternal life but there could be much sadness when he or she realizes how much more he or she could have accomplished for the Kingdom of God.
Kind of like that last scene in Schindler’s List when Oskar Shindler breaks down weeping because he knew he could have saved so many more Jews had he not wasted so much money on frivolous things.
So the takeaway here is this.
Moving forward in the Song of Moses, whenever you come across the words “judgement” or “justice”, don’t automatically assume it’s a negative thing.
MISHPAT should be interpreted in a neutral manner.
Another reason this is important is because the proper understanding of the word MISHPAT will also influence how we interpret the word “vengeance” which is another word that commonly comes up in the Bible.
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