The Congruity of the Judgements of God - Glenn Conjurske

The Congruity of the Judgements of God

by Glenn Conjurske

We all know that God judges sin, and not only in the day of judgement, but in the present time, in this present life. His temporal judgements are often striking, and such as compel men to acknowledge their righteousness. That righteousness is displayed in their congruity to the sins committed. This congruity appears in the temporal judgements which God prescribes, as when he says, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed,” and again, “Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” But the same congruity appears in those temporal judgements which God executes himself. He often, with exquisite wisdom, tailors the judgement to fit the sin, in such a way as to compel the conviction that this is the hand of God. It is the congruity of the judgement of God which is rehearsed by the angel in Revelation 16:5, saying, “Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus, for they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy.”

The Bible contains numerous examples of such judgements. These judgements are designed, of course, to give to men a righteous and fitting recompense for their sins, but also to carry conviction to their hearts that this is the hand of God. When Judah fought against the Canaanites, “Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me.” (Judges 1:6-7).

In all this we see precisely the principle for which I contend. “AS I have done, SO God hath requited me.” The judgement was tailored to fit the sin, in such a way as to compel conviction. And observe further, God does not here state this principle himself, but only acts in such a way as to extract it from the mouth of a pagan man. It is Adoni-bezek who states the fact, compelled to this conviction by the nature of the judgement. And observe yet further, the pagan king was compelled by the nature of the judgement to acknowledge the hand of God in it. He does not say to the men of Judah, “As I have done, so ye have requited me,” but “As I have done, so God hath requited me.”

A very striking example of this is found in Ahab, in I Kings 21. Jezebel found Ahab moping and pouting because the righteous Naboth would not give him his vineyard. “And she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters unto the elders and to the nobles of the city, dwelling with Naboth. And she wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people, and set two men, sons of Belial, before him, to bear witness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the king. And then carry him out, and stone him, that he may die.” When this was done, “Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give thee for money, for Naboth is not alive, but dead.” Ahab did not hesitate to do so, but he could not have one day’s enjoyment of the ill-gotten gain, for “the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, which is in Samaria: behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess it. And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him saying, Thus saith the Lord, in the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.”

We observe in this, by the way, that as the old proverb says, “The receiver is as bad as the thief.” The murder of Naboth was Jezebel’s doing, yet God holds Ahab responsible for it. We observe also what pains God took to secure the congruity of the judgement. “In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.” Yet Ahab died in battle, far away from this place. “And the battle increased that day, and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians, and died at even: and the blood ran out of the wound into the midst of the chariot. … So the king died, and was brought to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria. And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood; and they washed his armour, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake.” (I Kings 22:35-38).

Another striking example of such judgement is found in the wicked Haman, who contrived the ruin of Mordecai, and secured the ruin of himself. “So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.” (Esther 7:10).

Another striking example appears in the awful end of the Levite’s concubine, who “played the whore against him, and went away from him unto her father’s house.” (Judges 19:2). When the Levite went to bring her back, and they were forced to lodge in Gibeah, “ Behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him. And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly, seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly. Behold, here is my daughter, a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing. But the men would not hearken to him. So the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning; and when the day began to spring, they let her go. Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her lord was, till it was light. And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way: and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were upon the threshold. And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going. But none answered.” (Judges 19:22-28).

Upon this awful account the good Bishop Hall writes, “O the just and even course which the Almighty Judge of the world holds in all his retributions! This woman had shamed the bed of a Levite by her former wantonness; she had thus far gone smoothly away with her sin; her father harboured her; her husband forgave her; her own heart found no cause to complain, because she smarted not: now, when the world had forgotten her offence, God calls her to reckoning, and punishes her with her own sin. She had voluntarily exposed herself to lust, now is exposed forcibly. Adultery was her sin; adultery was her death.”*

Yet it is plain that there are many adulterers who are not so judged, nor apparently judged at all in this life, nor does it appear that the Levite received any fitting recompense for the awful part which he played in the business, nor his host for the part which he would have played if the sons of Belial had accepted it. No matter about that. Eternity will make all right, and all even. This day is not the day of judgement. The judgements which God inflicts in this time and this life are occasional and representative, not universal. They are designed to teach men to fear while yet there is hope, of which there will be none in the day of judgement. The present judgements are only a small sampling of the judgement to come. Yet they are congruous, tailored to the sin which evokes them, and such as cause men to know and feel the hand of God.

Lot, you will recall, pressed by the same demand from the men of Sodom, made them the same offer. “Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.” (Gen. 19:8). This was the weakest act of a man whose whole course was one of weakness. Though driven to it in the hope of preventing a more heinous crime, still it was unjustifiable on any account, and indeed horrifying to contemplate. God forestalled Lot from doing the base thing which he offered to do, yet that removed none of his guilt for designing it. He had yet a day of reckoning to face for that, and he who offered his maiden daughters to be defiled by beasts of men was in fact to do the deed himself. Lot feared the men of Sodom where he ought to have feared God. He feared violence where he ought to have feared sin, and the price which he paid for this was as meet as it was bitter. And who that knows anything of the workings of the heart of man can doubt that when Lot learned what he had actually done, his conscience directed him back to what he had once basely designed to do? In all of this we learn that the best time to repent is before we sin, and not after we suffer for it, for the judgements of God are no light matter. The rod is meant to inflict pain, and that pain, by God’s design, may be of the most exquisite sort.

David repented before he suffered for his sin, but not before he sinned. That repentance came too late to avert the judgement. But this, by the way. What I wish to call attention to here is the congruity of David’s sin and his judgement. “Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; … and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.” (II Samuel 12:9-12). Observe, this is God speaking by his prophet, and it is God who avows that the judgement inflicted shall be agreeable to the sin committed. Likewise, when David sinned in numbering the people, God judged him by diminishing their number.

But one caution is in order here. We have no right to assume that the afflictions which befall men are judgements for some particular sin. If the sin is known and open, and the affliction agreeable thereto, it is safe to make such an assumption, but not otherwise. It was a great wrong on the part of Job’s friends to assume that Job’s affliction was for some secret and unknown sin. Their assumption was as sinful as it was mistaken. Quite otherwise, however, in the case of Haman, whose sin was not imagined or conjectured. His sin against Mordecai and the Jews was open and flagrant. When he was hanged on the gallows which he had built for Mordecai, it would have been impossible to resist the conviction that this was the signal judgement of God.

But I have no intention of leaving all of this in the realm of speculative doctrine. These matters are as practical as they are solemn. To see such judgements as these fall upon both the godly and ungodly ought to teach us all to fear God and to fear sin. David paid dearly for many years to come for an hour’s pleasure. Yet it is neither the certainty nor the severity of God’s judgements which I wish to rehearse here, but their congruity. It is God who says, “Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein, and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.” (Prov. 26:27). He that digs a pit for another, he shall fall into it himself. He that rolls a stone to hurt another, it will return upon him. Even those evils which we do mistakenly, and in part with good intent, will be returned upon our own heads. “He shall have judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy.” (James 2:13). He who persecutes others, thinking thereby to do God service, will in his turn feel the fires of persecution himself. It is God who secures this, and though his judgements in this life are only representative and occasional, he is certainly much more careful about his own children than he is of the men of the world. Bastards may go without chastisement, but sons must expect it. And what sort of judgement? “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again”—-—or “measured back to you,” as we would say in modern speech. He who slanders another shall be slandered himself. He who smears another’s name shall have his own name smeared. He who disturbs another’s peace shall have his own peace disturbed. He who divides friends shall be divided from his own friends. He who takes advantage of another’s weakness shall have his own weakness exploited. Ah, how careful, how scrupulous, how righteous, how gentle, how merciful we ought to be in all our dealings—-—in all our words—-—in all our thoughts—-—knowing that we may be forging today those instruments which we shall feel another day.

And it may very well be that though the judgements of God are congruous in form with the sin, they are aggravated in degree. To David God said, “For thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.” David employed the sword of the Ammonites but once, to slay but one man, but God said to him, “Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house.” Both the congruity and the aggravation of the judgement of God plainly appear in Rev. 18:6, where we read, “Reward her even as she rewarded you, and DOUBLE unto her DOUBLE according to her works. In the cup which she hath filled fill to her DOUBLE.”

And knowing all this, it is plain enough that the best time to repent is before we sin. Not that we may not repent afterwards. Surely we may, for God is merciful. Yet we know that David’s repentance did not avert his judgement. Ah! but some will say, David was under the law! And what of that? It is an absolute certainty that God did not deal with him on the ground of law. By the law David must die, on two counts, for adultery, and for murder. Yet the first word of God to him upon his repentance is, “The Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die.” (II Sam. 12:13). It is certainly not law, but grace, which puts away sin. The sentence of the law was directly countermanded: “Thou shalt not die.” Law had nothing to do with the matter. Yet David must suffer for his sin.

Neither was David’s judgement to move him to repentance. He never felt one stroke of the rod, nor heard the faintest rumble of the coming storm, until after he had repented. It was after he acknowledged his sin that he heard the first word of the coming judgement, and long after that when he felt most of it. The judgement was neither to fulfill the law, nor to move the offender to repentance, but to express God’s displeasure at the sin, and to teach men that they cannot sin with impunity. Those ends are best attained by judgements which are tailored to fit the sins committed. Hence the congruity of the judgements of God.

Glenn Conjurske