“But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed,” Romans 2:5.

“For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment,” James 2:13.

“But let judgment run down like waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream,” Amos 5:24.

Many people think that a loving God would not be a God of judgment, and yet if one is not angry at evil, than how can one be loving?

It would seem like a strange dichotomy perhaps for some, and yet the characteristics come from the same God.

A loving father would want to protect his children and to guard them from all harm. He would warn them of the dangers of traveling out upon a busy highway.

He wouldn’t want harm to come to them, and would do his best to keep them protected.

The same is true of our heavenly Father for He knows of the dangers that are ever-present around His children. And yet one would wonder why a loving God would allow severe floods and hurricanes to come and wreck havoc upon many.

It would seem to not make sense for the lives of many who are innocent to die in natural catastrophes.

But perhaps the only way that we can view things like this is to see them as signs of His warnings for a corrupt and fallen people.

How can a loving God get the attention of people who are always turning unto other things?

When the foundations of a person’s life are shaken and many of the things that he always trusted in are taken away, who would he turn to?

Would this person find his nearest psychic or tarot card reader to help him at his most desperate time?

Or would someone turn to drugs and seek out an escape from the many problems that have beset him?

Perhaps one would dig into his vault of riches and hope that his money would save him in the day of calamity. There are many choices that a person could take and yet only one would ultimately save him from his ruin.

We live in a fallen world and it has ever been this way since the beginning. Even though the prince of the power of the air has sown his evil seed upon many, it is only because the Father has allowed him to do so.

We know from the account of the patriarch Job that Satan had approached the throne of God and had asked him about the man. God allowed the enemy to bring catastrophe after catastrophe upon him, and yet even in his lowest state, he never denied God but praised Him.

He could have given into all that had happened to him and become bitter and angry at what God had allowed to happen to him.

We are told that “Mercy triumphs over judgment,” and we see this as shown in various sections of the bible. And yet, perhaps it is out of mercy that judgment must come. For without the judgment that falls upon a nation, one may not know or be aware of the sinfulness that is so prevalent.

“For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment,” James 2:13.

For truly God is a God of justice and without true justice the world continues to allow evil men to practice evil deeds. And yet our court system doesn’t always dole out true justice.

Oftentimes decisions are settled out of court and flea bargains allow for a lesser sentence than what should occur.

The rights of those who kill and maim others are protected, and oftentimes the innocent are not given the true justice that they deserve.

As Dr. Martin Luther King said,

“We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now.

This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy… It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.

This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality…

We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

But justice has not rolled down like a river. Instead we have seen the bloody waters flowing as innocent men and women have been killed because of prejudice and greed.

We are no better off now than when he spoke those words over fifty years ago.

True justice is seldom seen if ever in the world we live in. When judgment finally falls upon a nation and world because of its sinfulness, we must know that it comes from the same loving God that wants all to come unto Him.

When we read the prophecies of Isaiah we see a God of judgment and yet one of salvation as well.

In those words of judgment there are also sections of mercy for those who would have a true and penitent heart.

Even in the severest of judgments that are prophesied, a true balance of justice and mercy is seen as the pendulum swings.

But when that pendulum swings be prepared and ready for what comes next.

 

Selah,
~ Stephen Hanson

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Stephen Hanson of In His Truth Ministries came to the LORD is a special way in 1975 and has prophesied regularly since. In these end-time birthing pangs we are reminded that judgment must first begin with the household of God. Will we be prepared and ready?

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