The
Deliverers of Justice and Judgement
Revelation 8:5
Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled
it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of
lightning and an earthquake. (NIV)
God
is the Lord of Righteousness and Justice. He cannot stand for the sight of evil
to be in His presence nor does He tolerate it. Many have tried to get away with
it and although God is longsuffering, His patience will eventually come to an
end when it comes to dealing with the evils of mankind. Habakkuk 1:13 Your eyes
are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you
tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those
more righteous than themselves? (NIV) The prophet, Habakkuk, lived during
a time when evil seemed to thrive and he did not understand why God was
allowing it to continue. Yet, God assured him that the evil had not gone unnoticed
and the justice that was going to be rendered had never been seen before. Habakkuk
1:5 “Look at the nations and watch – and be utterly amazed. For I am going
to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if
you were told. (NIV) God was not going to let evil continue and
eventually justice was served to the Children of Israel who continued with
their wicked ways.
The
Lord has used angels to administer justice on His behalf to the wicked in
throughout Bible history. One example of this was when the Israelites had been
enslaved by the Egyptians for 400 years. Joseph’s brothers and father, Jacob,
had moved to Egypt when he was the governor during a time when there was a
drought throughout the land that God had forewarned Pharaoh about in two
dreams. Unfortunately for the Children of Israel, the Pharaohs that came to
reign during their years of enslavement did not remember this part of Egypt’s
history and therefore, felt the need to enslave what they considered as a
possible threat to their existence.
The Children of were greatly oppressed and
cried out to God for help. Exodus 3:9-10 “And now the cry of the
Israelites has reached me and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing
them. So not, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites
out of Egypt.: (NIV) God heard their cries and sent them Moses as their
deliver, but prior to being able to leave, the Lord sent the death angel all
throughout the land of Egypt to slay the firstborn of the Egyptians as well as
the animals who did not have blood on their doorposts. Exodus 12:23 When the Lord
goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on
the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will
not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. (NIV)
The death angel (destroyer) was sent to administer justice on behalf of God, so
that the Children of Israel could finally go free.
During
the days of the apostles, the early church was going through tremendous
persecution. King Herod, who ruled over the Jews at that time, had already put
to death the apostle, James, and sought to do the same with Peter with whom he
had arrested. To ensure that Peter could not escape, Herod had a total of 16
soldiers on guard and Peter slept that night between two of them, while bound
with two sets of chains. This, however, was unable to hold Peter as an angel of
the Lord led him out to safety. But once Herod heard the news of his escape, he
had the soldiers executed after questioning them and went to another city to discuss
the citizen’s concerns.
The
people did not have food of their own and relied upon Herod to provide them
with food. He gave a public address to them, but as he did so, they began to
praise him as a god. Herod’s heart became full of pride as they rendered his
praises during his speech. This offended God and the Lord sent an angel to
strike him down. Acts 12:23 Immediately because Herod did not give praise to God,
an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died. (NIV)
Herod received justice for his evil ways and the angel carried it out in
accordance to the will of God.
In
the book of Revelation, we read where God uses angels in the last days to pour
out His wrath on mankind. Revelation 16:1 Then I heard a loud
voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “T, pour out the seven bowls
of God’s wrath on the earth.” (NIV) During this time, God will begin to
administer judgments upon the wicked through His angels – similar to the
plagues that were sent to Egypt. Because God is holy and true, evil cannot
reign forever without being punished; therefore, angels are sometimes sent by
God to be the delivers of justice and judgment.
No comments:
Post a Comment