Judging God (August 2012)

Painting by William Blake: God judging Adam.

The Judge

We are a judgmental people. Not just some of us, but all of us. We are judgmental.

In today's culture, this phrase is often aimed at the "other" among us, those we consider to be different from us (read: wrong). We are right, another is wrong; we are justified, others are condemned; we are forgiven, others damned. This is so intrinsic to our natures that we often do not see the problem as coming from ourselves. We consider ourselves to be the objective ones, the unbiased ones, the fair ones.

And so we consider ourselves to be the judge. We can look at others and make judgement without fear of reprisal because we're doing so from our high ground (moral or otherwise).

The problem is, we can all spot the fakes. We know when someone's trying to hoodwink us, and we developed a high ground of our own. A quaint little patch of earth that leaves us untouched and unsullied by the hypocrites and hateful among us. We are not like them, we are above that behavior, and so we speak authoritatively the trump card of reactive judges: "Don't judge me."

We are all judges of our fellows, every one. We judge which foods we should eat, what friends our children should have, which home and neighborhood it's best to live in, what information is true or false, who builds up and adds something to our life, and what course our life will take. We judge where we think we're headed in life, and (even subconsciously) where others are too. But what does the authoritative word of God say to this?

No one from the east or the west

or from the desert can exalt a man.

But it is God who judges:

He brings one down, he exalts another. (Psalm 75:6-7)

There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you--who are you to judge your neighbor? (James 4:12)

Why not also judge the One who says in His word that He alone is judge?

The Jury

Unfortunately, we already do judge God. Our history is ripe with it.

What kind of God would let this kind of thing happen?

If God could stop this, why doesn't He? Doesn't this make Him evil or uncaring?

If God is aware of, but can't stop this evil, then He's not worthy of my worship, right?

Why should I worship God if I'm more compassionate than Him? I wouldn't let these things happen!

We sit as the jury, looking at the work of God, and pass judgment on the righteousness or love or justice of God. We ask questions that assume a greater knowledge of actions and outcomes than the Creator who claims to know more than we do (Isaiah 55:9). 

But only one of us can be right. Our statements are mutually exclusive understandings, so we need to admit to ourselves that we have placed ourselves on the jury to judge the sovereign will of Almighty God.

The book of Job in the Hebrew Bible recounts an amazing dialog between Job and his "friends," Job and God, and even the celestial scene of heaven that we are given a glimpse of through the power of the Holy Spirit. There are not many answers that comfort us in this book, but there are more than enough questions that should make us all uneasy about going to God with a view to what He's doing in this life. Listen to these words from God to Job after he has lamented his sufferings and desires to know why:

Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said:

“Who is this that darkens my counsel

with words without knowledge?

Brace yourself like a man;

I will question you,

and you shall answer me.

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?

Tell me, if you understand...

Have the gates of death been shown to you?

Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?

Tell me, if you know all this. (Job 38:1-4, 17-18)

The Verdict

Before moving on, take a moment to read those words of God again, and ponder them. Who are we as men and women to question this great God when we are surprised by the actions of others, the "Murphy's Law" moments that throw us for a loop, and even how our own words and behaviors seem to bring consequences we were unaware of before?

Who are we to shake our fists at God and say, "How dare you?!"

Just like Job, the understanding we have of evil and pain in the world isn’t so much objective and all-seeing as it is circumstantial and limited. We call God uncaring for the things we see as wrong, and judge Him because they happen.

We cast a verdict in favor of what little we know without much concern for the much larger field of things we do not know. When we see God in this way, we claim the superior high ground, as God Himself says, "without knowledge."

So here's my assertion, my theory, for this article: if others view God the way we, as Christians, portray Him to others, we cannot overstep our bounds when answering questions about God's justice in this world. When we are asked difficult questions by hurting, angry, apathetic, or curious people, we do more harm than good by speaking for God when God has not spoken. When we claim the ideological high ground that stifles conversation, we do not draw people to Jesus so much as delineate (at least in our own minds) who is "in" or "out," a service we are supremely unqualified to provide in the first place.

Do not compromise the authority of God's word. Do not compromise the truth of Jesus Christ. Do not deny the power of the Holy Spirit. And do not mistakenly believe that we must feign the right answers to all of life's questions before we have them.