The Holy Spirit and Judgment

Now it came about after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” The Lord said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.”                          Judges 1:1-2

The people of Israel had become a very disorganized, loose confederacy after their conquest of Canaan under Joshua. Therefore, without leadership, they repeatedly fell into idolatry, foreign political domination, intermarriage with pagans, and other major sins. They were in a general state of spiritual confusion. Two verses that characterized this period are Judges 17:6 and Judges 21:25: In those days, there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes. The nation of Israel was in disarray; they needed help from God. This period represented some of the darkest pages in Israel’s history. There were regular cycles of falling away, salvation, restoration, and falling away again. Over and over again, they forgot who the true God was. Each tribe was isolated from the other tribes; they had lost their sense of national identity under God. They adopted Baal worship, the local religion, abandoning the spiritual purity which the Lord required. They were surrounded by hostile nations who wanted the land which the Israelites had taken, the land which God had promised to them as an inheritance, beginning with Abraham. They were an easy prey for enemy invasion. This period represented about 350 years and includes seven apostacies, seven bondages, and seven deliverances.

Speak, Lord, for Your Servant is Listening

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord before Eli. And word from the Lord was rare in those days; visions were infrequent. It happened at that time as Eli was lying down in his place (now his eyesight had  begun to grow dim and he could not see well), and the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was, that the Lord called Samuel; and he said, "Here I am." Then he ran to Eli and said, "Here I am, for you called me." But he said, "I did not call, lie down again." So, he went and lay down. The Lord called yet again, “Samuel!” So, Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he answered, “I did not call, my son, lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him. So, the Lord called Samuel again for the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli discerned that the Lord was calling the boy. And Eli said to Samuel, “Go lie down, and it shall be if He calls you, that you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening.’” So, Samuel went and lay down in his place.               1 Samuel 3:1-9

Samuel means "asked of God" and was designated by God to be a transitional figure, serving as both the last judge and the first prophet. He was destined to become one of the greatest leaders in Israel as a judge, a prophet, and a priest. God communicated directly to the prophets, and they, in turn, notified the people of God's words and desires. Samuel even established schools of the prophets to guide Israel. The above passage is the account of the boy Samuel hearing God speaking to him; Eli, as High Priest, and his two sons could not hear God's voice, as 1 Samuel 2:12 explains: Now the sons of Eli were worthless men; they did not know the Lord. In 1Samuel 3:12-14, Yahweh told Samuel, “In that day I will carry out against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. “For I have told him that I am about to judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons brought a curse on themselves and he did not rebuke them. “Therefore, I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.” Eli and his sons would no longer be priests.

Summoning God

This would be repeated over and over again in Old Testament history. Throughout the antediluvian (pre-flood) period, the Lord continuously warned the patriarchs of the coming judgment, beginning with Adam. Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah all received dreams of the Flood with progressively more details. Gennesis 4:26 tells us that from the time of Seth, Then men began to call [qara – summon] upon the name of the Lord. After the events of Cain and Abel, a change in the relationship with God is inaugurated. Barnes Notes gives further insight into this reality:

Here we perceive that the holy race has passed beyond its infancy. It has learned to speak with God in the language of faith, of conscious acceptance, of freedom, of hope, of love. This is a far nobler attainment than the invention of all the arts of life. It is the return from that revulsive dread with which the conscious sinner shrank back from the felt holiness of God. It is the drawing of the divine mercy and love let into the penitent soul, by which it has come to itself, and taken courage to return to the merciful Yahweh, and speak to him the language of penitence, of confession, of gratitude. These believing penitents, chiefly it is to be supposed in the line of Sheth, of which this paragraph speaks, began to be distinguished as the followers of the Lord; whereas, others at the same time had forgotten the Lord, and renounced even the form of reverence for him. The seed of the woman was now distinguished from the seed of the serpent.                      Barnes Notes

Life Before the Flood

In Genesis 6:1-3, Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit warned the people of a coming judgment for one hundred and twenty years. The Ancient Book of Jasher tells us that in 1536 AM, the Spirit spoke directly to Noah and Methuselah, constantly warning the people, but most would not listen. Jasher would further state that after 115 years (1651 AM), Noah would begin building the ark, which would be completed in five years. At the same time, those who accepted the warning would die, leaving the rest of the people, besides Noah and his family, to experience the flood judgment. The Noahide Laws would govern the people's lives apart from any religious system. These laws include:

1.      Do not deny God (abstain from idolatry).

2.      Do not blaspheme.

3.      Do not murder.

4.      Do not engage in sexual immorality.

5.      Do not steal.

6.      Establish courts and legal systems to ensure obedience of these laws

7.      Do not eat a live animal (no eating flesh taken from an animal while it is still alive).

8 For thus saith the Lord, Behold I give you a period of one hundred and twenty years; if you will turn to me and forsake your evil ways, then will I also turn away from the evil which I told you, and it shall not exist, saith the Lord. 9 And Noah and Methuselah spoke all the words of the Lord to the sons of men, day after day, constantly speaking to them. 10 But the sons of men would not hearken to them, nor incline their ears to their words, and they were stiff-necked.      Ancient Book of Jasher, Chapter 5

Believing in the Promises

The Flood did not solve the problem of man’s fallenness. In Genesis 11, the nations of the world came together at Babel to build a tower, as verse 4 declares, They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” Man's natural desire is to attain to godliness apart from the Spirit of God, to make a name for himself, robbing God of His glory. After scattering the people and confounding their languages, He raised up a man of faith, Abraham, who would hear from God and believe in His promises. For the next four hundred years, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their families, would represent God’s ministry to His people, until Moses came to deliver the people from slavery and to deliver the Law of Moses. Moses would be used to fulfill a portion of God's promises to Abraham, in the form of entering the promised land.

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.                        Hebrews 1:1-2

The Law of Moses, representing the old covenant, was in force until Jesus came to introduce a new covenant. As Paul repeatedly declares, the old covenant did not solve man's problem of fallenness. Samuel initiates a new order in which God speaks to the people through prophets who hear from the Holy Spirit on their behalf. As it turned out, the people still wanted a king, even though Samuel would warn them of the consequences in 1 Samuel 8. The natural and carnal man are afraid to hear directly from God, preferring a man who would be an intermediary. But Jesus is the only mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:4). Religious systems tend to push out the Holy Spirit, replacing it with men who may or may not represent the voice of God. Each believer must be led by the Holy Spirit individually. History tells us that large gatherings of people in the name of God are greatly suspect. The Protestant Reformation is a great example of how the religious system that believes it represents God on earth (i.e., the Roman Catholic Church) is corrupted in its own authority, apart from God and His Word.

Religious Leadership

They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments.         Matthew 23:4-5

"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.           Matthew 23:13

"Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is obligated.' You fools and blind men! Which is more important, the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold? And, 'Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering on it, he is obligated.'                         Matthew 23:16-18

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, 'If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' So, you testify against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.                          Matthew 23:29-31

The above verses address the problems associated with a religious system that has lost its way and represents God apart from the Holy Spirit. Jesus predicted that this religious system, led by Pharisees, would suffer judgment in the coming years, as Matthew 16:1-4 declares, The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. But He replied to them, "When it is evening, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.' And in the morning, 'There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah." And He left them and went away. The Jerusalem Temple would be destroyed by the Romans nearly forty years later, in 70 AD, and a new chapter in Judaism - Rabbinic Judaism would begin, apart from the Holy Spirit.

Laodicea 

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.”                  Revelation 3:15-18

The above letter, addressed by Jesus to the church of Laodicea, represents the churches of the modern age. These churches have promoted themselves as the primary representative of God to His people, but they do not represent His voice. They have allowed the influences of the world to corrupt the heart of the message of devotion to Christ apart from the world; they are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. The judgment they face is that Jesus will spit you out of My mouth. The spiritual man hears from the Holy Spirit and recognizes that Jesus is coming soon to bring judgment and set things in their proper place.

What Now? 

"Therefore, be on the alert [gregoreuo – pay close attention], for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason, you also must be ready [hetoimos – ready for anything]; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.                     Matthew 24:42-44

Before His ascension, Jesus's disciples asked Him what they should do while waiting for His return. His response was short and sweet: be on the alert and be ready. He was telling them to pay close attention to the signs of the times as they relate to the things He spoke about earlier in Matthew 24 and then be ready for anything to happen to them, even great difficulties. Jesus anticipates that severe judgment, in the form of the Great Tribulation, will precede His return. Living in this fallen world is not an easy life, with all of its pitfalls, but the believer has a secure promise of his future in heaven. It means we learn to hear His voice, moment by moment, to be occupied with His thoughts and His will, not the religious man's opinions about what he should be doing. In this way, we experience the Lord as Shepherd, and are not left in a place of insecurity.