Judge Not

 

In John 3:17, Jesus told Nicodemus that God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him (Jesus). If the world was not judged by God, neither should anyone judge another. This Greek word for judge is krinoe and it means to separate, to distinguish, or to discriminate between good and evil. Spiros Zodhiates says it is to form and express a judgment or opinion as to any person or thing, more commonly unfavorable. It speaks of a habit of forming a judgment hastily, harshly, and without an allowance for every palliating circumstance, and a habit of "expressing" such an opinion harshly and unnecessarily when formed. Judging is one of the most destructive activities any believer can participate in. The consequences can be immediate. Antisemitism, like all forms of prejudice, should fall into the category of judging. 

Antisemitism

 

The current war in Israel against Hamas is highlighting the climate around the world regarding the attitudes toward the Jews. Antisemitism is rearing its ugly head all over the world, evidenced by protests and other public displays against Israel’s right to defend itself against the horrific evil perpetrated by Hamas against the civilian population near Gaza on October 7, 2023. It is of great importance for the Christian believer to understand the history and nature of this condition.

 

According to the U.S. State Department, “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” It exists prevalently not just in nations that are opposed to Israel and its existence, but even within the Christian community in America and worldwide.

An article written by Gary Rosenblatt in March 2020 quotes Abraham Foxman, a child survivor of the Holocaust who led the ADL for five decades regarding our current state: “We’re living in an environment today that is more user-friendly to the virus [of antisemitism],” he said, “a time of incivility, lack of tolerance, no respect for the truth. And with it comes politicization, polarization, frustration, anger, hate—all the elements that fuel the virus.” The comparison to a virus similar to Covid 19 is appropriate since antisemitism can be both highly contagious and deadly.

"I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. For this reason, the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.John 10:11-18

The world would blame the Jews for Jesus’s death even though Jesus gave up His life willingly. The Roman Emperor Constantine had a Christian conversion experience around 312 and declared tolerance for Christianity in 313. The Council of Nicaea took place in 325 and he wrote a letter referring to Jews as polluted wretches and to have no fellowship with the perjury of the Jews and that we have nothing in common with the usage of these parricides and murderers of our Lord. Even Martin Luther had strong feelings of antisemitism, as he wrote in The Jew and Their Lies (1543): 

What shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews? Since they live among us, and we know about their lying, blasphemy, and cursing, we cannot tolerate them if we do not wish to share in their lies, curses, and blasphemy. In this way, we cannot quench the inextinguishable fire of divine rage (as the prophets say) nor convert the Jews. We must prayerfully and reverentially practice a merciful severity. Perhaps we may save a few from the fire and the flames. We must not seek vengeance. They are surely being punished a thousand times more than we might wish them. Let me give you my honest advice.     

Book of Gad the Seer 

1 Chronicles 29:29 tells us that King David had three prophets he counted on for advice and direction: Samuel, Nathan, and Gad, and each one wrote a book. The Books of Samuel are included in Scripture while the Book of Nathan has never been found. The Book of Gad the Seer is not accepted as Scripture but includes several visions that God gave to Gad and one of them dealt with a donkey and a camel: And it came to pass when I finished crying out, I opened my eyes and saw a yoke of oxen, led by a donkey and a camel, coming up from the Kidron stream, the donkey on the right side of the yoke and the camel on the left. These represent two kingdoms, the donkey being Rome and the Roman church, while the camel speaks of Edom and Islam. Another vision defines the problem with the donkey and the camel, that they both embrace replacement theology, that their religious system replaces Israel in eschatology: 

Woe to you, O Edom, that sits in the land of Kittim [Cyprus] in the north of the sea. For your destroyers will emerge from a terrible nation. They will not even leave you a remnant. For you have said: ‘I sit on high, and only I have a covenant with the God of gods, for the LORD chose me instead of His holy people, for He abhorred them. And His former people, despised and rejected, did not truly know the LORD [the Father] because they did not know His image [the Son]. We are truly wise and intelligent; we know the LORD and His Law, we know His image [the Son] and presence [the Holy Spirit].’ But thus says the LORD: ‘Because you rose up in pride to brag about the God of gods, know that you will perish in your conceitedness. For why would you put confidence in man, whose life is like a vapor, which begins in the morning, and is gone by noonday, placing him to sit beside God? For it is not you whom I knew formerly, and where is the bill of divorce of My people, that you said would be a prey; show it to Me!

The Great Harlot

Consider that the fulfillment of these visions is found in Revelation 17, where the Messiah comes to destroy the great harlot, Babylon the Great: Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality" (Revelation 17:1-2). Replacement theology is completely untrue, and its proselytes have created a religious and political environment for violence against Israel and the Jews. The judgment of this movement, which includes Islam, is the fulfillment of the promises God made to Abram in Genesis 12:3: And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.

 

So much of the current protests are the result of either a lack of knowledge or a total misunderstanding of the history of Israel, particularly since they became a recognized nation again in 1948. Remember, the Jews had just experienced the extermination of 6 million of its own, nearly 1/3 of the world’s Jewish population, by the Nazis. Immediately after May 14, 1948, five surrounding Arab nations declared war on the fledgling nation and this condition has defined Israel’s history since. The six-day war in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973 were intended to destroy Israel completely, but miraculously, Israel ended up adding territory in both wars. Israel has demonstrated throughout modern times that it is only interested in co-existing with Arabs, but the Moslem nations surrounding Israel, for the most part, are not interested in negotiating a lasting peace; their primary motive is in its destruction. Ben Shapiro, a Jewish conservative talk show host has created some YouTube videos that document the political history of the Jewish nation of Israel. They correct the misconceptions and lies that the Jews are at fault for the conflicts since they are the aggressors and occupiers. 

Spiritual Warfare 

The devil (Satan) would like nothing more than to see the complete destruction of God's people, including the Jews and the nation of Israel. We see in Scripture that he is the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10), he who accuses them before our God day and night. Jesus told us that he has come to kill, steal, and destroy (John 10:10). He is a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44) and He is against anyone who recognizes the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He accuses even the high priest as he did to Joshua in Zechariah 3:1-2: Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. And the Lord said to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?" In Revelation 17:6, the great harlot is drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.

Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. It came about after these events that his master’s wife looked with desire at Joseph, and she said, “Lie with me.” But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge. “There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?” As she spoke to Joseph day after day, he did not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her.           Genesis 39:6-10

Testament of Joseph

Let’s examine Joseph, Jacob’s eleventh son and his trial with Potiphar’s wife and her accusation of rape. The challenges of walking with the Lord in difficult circumstances are many times overwhelming. Pharoah’s wife was enamored with Joseph, his handsome appearance and his commitment to integrity before his master, Potiphar. She was relentless in her pursuit of getting Joseph to lie with her and betray her husband. The Testament of Joseph contains the words of Joseph in dealing with this woman.

“How often she fawned upon me with words as a holy man, with guile in her talk, praising my chastity before her husband, while desiring to destroy me when we were alone. She lauded me openly as chaste, and in secret she said unto me, ‘Do not be afraid of my husband; for he is convinced you are chaste, so that even should one tell him concerning us, he would never believe him.’ For all these things, I lay upon the ground in sackcloth, and I besought God that the Lord would deliver me from the Egyptian. When she prevailed nothing, she came again to me under the plea of instruction, that she might know the word of the Lord. She said unto me, ‘If you want me to abandon my idols, just tell me, and I will persuade my husband to depart from his idols, and we will walk in the law of your Lord.’ I said unto her, ‘The Lord does not want those who reverence Him to live in uncleanness, nor does He take pleasure in those who commit adultery.’ She held her peace, longing to accomplish her evil desire. I gave myself yet more to fasting and prayer, that the Lord should deliver me from her.”  Testament of Joseph, chapter 4 

According to other chapters in the Testament of Joseph, she threatened to murder her husband, to commit suicide, and even tried to drug him by “sprinkling my food with enhancements.” Joseph’s response to these attempts was, "Now therefore, know that the God of my father has revealed your wickedness to me by an angel, and I have kept it [the food] to convict you, if perhaps you may see it and repent. But that you may learn that the wickedness of the ungodly has no power over those who reverence God in chastity.” She even came to visit him in prison and promised to get him released from prison if he would relinquish to her demands. It shows the lengths that the devil will go to destroy the godly ones. 

Righteous Judgment  

Therefore, you have no excuse, every one of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?       Romans 2:1-3 

By the very act of sitting in judgment upon your fellowman, one passes sentence upon himself. He declares those acts to be criminal of which he is guilty. As Jesus said in John 7:24, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” What we are talking about is the importance of knowing the truth and the relevant facts surrounding the situation. This is the only acceptable form of judging. Solomon understood that when he became king of Israel, he needed the ability to discern truth in the midst of unclear circumstances to be able to judge the people righteously. He asked God for wisdom and God gave it to him. 

And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, and He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make a decision by what His ears hear; But with righteousness He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; and He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.       Isaiah 11:3-4

The above passage addresses the Messiah during the Kingdom Age, when He will rule as king over the entire earth. As Jesus said in John 7:24, He will judge with righteous judgment. The damage done to anyone without knowing all the facts can be devastating. This environment becomes the devil’s playground, where all kinds of accusations are possible. The destruction caused against one being unrighteously judged can ultimately destroy a person’s life. 

Albert Einstein once said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” This comes from a genius – a genius who didn’t talk until he was four or read until he was seven. Einstein’s teachers labeled him “slow” and “mentally handicapped.” He may have been last in his class to do what the rest could, but certainly, Einstein wasn’t any less than his peers. He just had his own way of thinking — a way of thinking that would earn him the Nobel Prize and change the way we understand our world. 

Straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more." John 8:10-11

 

References

Felix Halpern. “Thy Kingdom Come: The Mystery Of Israel’s Glory”. Destiny Image Publishers