Here Comes the Judge!?

(Will the Real Judge of the Universe Please Stand Up?)

The problems come between us and G-d when we unwittingly fall into judgment of Him over some seeming discrepancy between what we thought He said, and what actually happened in the realm of our limited human experience. It takes some nerve when you think about it, we finite beings trying to stand in judgment of our Creator! But we humans have never failed to over-achieve when it comes to exhibiting gall, also known as PRIDE. We are seriously up on ourselves!

But in entering into judgment of G-d, we forget in our finiteness that we are incapable of seeing the multi-level, multi-layer, work which G-d is weaving! We lose touch with the awareness that our view is limited to this side of eternity, which is, for all practical purposes, much like viewing the backside of the tapestry! It may be a great work of art from the top side, but underneath it looks like a mess! A bunch of chaotic, mismatched, unrelated, individual, "strings" - or happenings - that do not even remotely resemble our limited understanding of what He is supposed to be about, of what we understood Him to be creating!

And we look at this mess (from our very limited perspective) and we say, "What the heck!? This isn't what You said!" And we stomp off in a pout, and get submarined in doubt! That whole process of trusting Him gets annoying to us! Inquiring minds want to know! But even though logically our case against Him may look pretty good, rarely is there any real reason to judge Him or doubt His integrity! What part of - "the finite human mind will never really grasp all the facets of infinity" - do we not understand? Most of it apparently! Probably because the "finite human mind...." Okay, we could do that all day! But back to the discussion at hand! It is said that we, "see through a glass darkly", and it is insinuated, if not out right stated, that we will not see the reality which He sees, as clearly as He sees it, until we are face to face with Him! In the meantime we are to trust Him implicitly.

Well, I don't know about you, but that proved to be a bit of a problem for me. First of all, from the earliest days of my earthly existence I found His representatives to be the utmost examples in why one should never trust anyone! There were very few exceptions, and they were far apart in the time table of my growing up years. So that meant that the majority of those who surrounded me in my developmental stages were unstable at best, and made Hitler look like "little bo peep" at worst! And unfortunately I am not exaggerating by much, if any! I am talking about some pretty mentally twisted folks! I mean, let's face facts, sane people do not use and abuse children for their own craven lusts. So I was born into a vat of them, and only survived by the grace of G-d. That is the blunt, uncomfortable and unfortunate truth.

However, that environment produced a conflict in me from the beginning. I knew, deep in my spirit, that my survival could not be credited to me. I knew that there must be a higher power that came to my aid when I sang praises to Him in my childish ways. I believed that He was the "be all to end all" - so far so good. However, as I said, I grew up in an atmosphere where trust could be nearly fatal. So I had a well developed sense of "wait and see"! But you know, though my hesitancy often offended the religious minded around me, especially the leadership, it never offended G-d.

His Word invites us to "Taste and see that the Lord is good..."; and to "count the cost"; so my position of "wait and see" was no problem for Him. In fact He seems to prefer that we "count the cost" before signing on with Him! It is more stable that way, more apt to be a long term commitment. If we know the terms and have agreed to them, after weighing the pros and cons, we are less apt to defect when the heat is turned up; we are less apt to bail on Him when the going gets rough! Which He forewarns us that it will!

So, though the journey has not been without its bumps it continues! However, at this point the fine-tuning has gotten down to the nitty-gritty! Though it has taken much longer than I thought it would (silly me), we have finally gotten to the laver of cleansing! This means that we have moved past the outer courts of the "minimum requirements of the law", and into the inner courts where He examines the heart motivation behind the sacrifices we offer Him. And that He is getting pickier about whether it is offered from loving obedience or just fearful compliance - that is, whether it is about me or about Him!

Which means that now we are heading toward the "Holy of Holies" - where purity is a matter of life and death - for eternity! This is where the spiritual rubber meets the road! This is where we do have to sweat the "small stuff"! (If there is actually any "small stuff"! G-d does not judge as we do. It must be a "big deal" to Him!) I think the reason is because this is where we trust Him or leave Him to go our own way. It is where we must "put up, or shut up". It is where the choices we make begin carrying more weight! Our example of how serious this is becoming comes from studying the service of the Cohen Ha Gadol, the highest of the high Priests. In order to enter the Holiest Place, the High priest had to be ceremonially pure! He had little bells around the bottom of His garment and a rope tied around him, so that if he did happen to be harboring anything offensive to G-d, and lost his life as a result, they could pull him out without endangering themselves. If the bells stopped tinkling for more than a couple of seconds, they pulled him out and notified his family.

This used to frighten and offend me! I wondered in amazement and ignorance, how could we ever know if we were that pure or not?! How would we know if there was something we overlooked? The standard seemed much too exacting, too harsh! Etc. Etc. I am not the first one foolish enough to make such assumptions, and I will not be the last, of this I am pretty sure. But it is illogical reasoning based on some pretty foolish assumptions. We are assuming many things, those of us who make such objections, whether we realize it or not. We are assuming that the high priest was not given ample opportunity to prepare for this possibility. We are assuming that the guidelines were not laid out for him well enough. We are assuming that no appropriate sacrifice was made on his behalf. But all those assumptions are wrong, unscriptural and show our utter ignorance of G-d's character and His Word! They knew the deal! And so do we, if we care to tune in and find out what it is! This is not a crap-shoot people. It is not some cosmic gamble! There are specifics which, if we cold manage to stop judging them as radical legalism, and spitting on them, will lead us into His presence completely informed and prepared! Utterly Holy and purified.

Where are those guidelines and how serious should we take them? The guidelines are clearly outlined in the Torah, if Yeshua's teaching is anything to go by, and how serously we take them depends on what our goal is. If the outer court is good enough for us, if we do not hunger and thirst to be in His presence, then we won't need to reach the level of personal purity that is required for walking right into His presence, we don't need to endure the grueling introspection necessary to meet Him in the holy of holies - but neither will we ever know the ecstasy of His overwhelming presence! It is a grand mistake of the religious and spiritual world, a tragic misunderstanding to think that receiving the "free gift of G-d", means that it will not cost us any effort - that we can receive the atonement without allowing ourselves to be subjected to His rule in our lives! How can we separate holiness from grace and expect either to work properly! It won't! It can't!

It is completely illogical to assume that the reward of obedience will go equally to the half-hearted goof-off as it will to the truly loyal and dedicated follower! It is insane to believe that the one who will take no pains to be holy can enjoy the gains of the blessing which G-d has firmly attached to that holiness! All through His Word G-d talks about separating the Holy from the profane! And He expects us to be about that process if we expect to be allowed to come into His presence! He makes it plain that no profane person can stand in His presence! If we are not to be profane then we must be made Holy! The Word does talk about coming boldly into His presence to find grace to help in time of need! But that same scripture talks about first having our consciences washed from all impurity! Purity equals boldness, purity equals Holiness! Holiness or purity equals freedom to enjoy His presence! Purity is the standard by which we are measured! Holiness! Without which, it is written, no man shall see the Lord!

How have we bought the lie that we will see Him without meeting His requirements! How have we missed the lessons taught in the parable of the wedding garments! Or the parable of the ten virgins? How can we believe that we can go out to meet the king looking like a whore that has spent the night in a dumpster, and still hope to be received! It is one thing if that is where we are found at the moment our life ends, and we only receive Him on the way out - then we can expect His mercy to cover us! But those who have had time to know the deal are expected to comply! No exceptions will be granted! He is a G-d of justice and righteousness! He is a G-d of unswerving standards of Truth and Holiness!

One day the real judge will stand up! Will we be able to look into His face, or will we still be burning with shame over our fleshly ways? The flesh must die, because it will never be holy! He does not want dressed up flesh! He wants transformed spirit beings, truly clothed in His holiness! It is time we stopped judging G-d and allowed His standard to be the judge! Is the fruit of Holiness being produced in our lives? Are we growing in righteousness? Which list, found in Galatians 5, describes us better - the one listing the deeds of the flesh or the one outlining the fruit of His Spirit? Do we know Him better than we did at this season last year?

Perhaps it is time to take an inventory, time to do some fruit inspection, or better yet, let His Spirit inspect your fruit as you dig into His Torah! Our place is not in the seat of judgment. Our place is bowing before it. But we need to remember this, He will never lower His standards to our comfort level, therefore we must rise to meet them! We can put sofas in the sanctuaries and serve coffee and play our worldly oriented music to appease the squirming flesh all we dare! Not that any of those things is intrinsically wrong, but somehow I think it messes with our reverence! But, that is not the point! The point is that our efforts would be better used, our time better spent, in just going ahead and dying to the stupid flesh - so that we can be transformed into His Image! We should spend what time we have getting used to His high standard of Holiness! One day we will all bow before the High King! I think a bit of bowing practice may be in order now!

Selah~