God rules in His world.
a. judging nations
When Sodom and Gomorrah allowed evil to go unchecked and their wickedness exceeded God’s established boundaries for mercifully restraining judgment, He destroyed their cities.
His decision that Abraham’s descendants would be slaves in Egypt for 400 years was determined, in part, by His timetable for destroying the nations of Canaan — holding back His wrath, but measuring their wickedness to the extent and, consequently, the time He had set for judgment (Gen 15:13-16).
David recognized and relied on God’s faithfulness to judge and punish every nation’s sin:
“The nations have sunk down in the pit which they have made;
In the net which they hid, their own foot has been caught.
The Lord has made Himself known;
He has executed judgment.
In the work of his own hands the wicked is snared. Higgaion Selah.
The wicked will return to Sheol,
Even all the nations who forget God.
For the needy will not always be forgotten,
Nor the hope of the afflicted perish forever.
Arise, O Lord, do not let man prevail;
Let the nations be judged before You.
Put them in fear, O Lord;
Let the nations know that they are but men. Selah” (Ps 9:15-20).
The Lord sent Jonah to Nineveh to warn that He was about to destroy it because “their wickedness has come up before Me” (Jonah 1:2). Hearing Jonah’s warning, the king of Nineveh commanded a fast: “Let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence that is in his hands” (3:8).
Nineveh was spared, only to take up its wicked ways again. Nahum declared God’s coming judgment at the hands of Babylon: “Woe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage” (3:1).
b. judging individuals
Job and his friends were renowned wise men, who lived in Arabia and Edom a couple of generations after Abraham’s time and centuries before the Law was given. They evaluated every condition in men’s lives on the basis of the certainty that God always blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked.
Israel’s psalmists and prophets frequently celebrated God’s faithfulness to render judgment on behalf of the oppressed.
“The Lord performs righteous deeds
And judgments for all who are oppressed” (Ps 103:6).
“Every morning He brings His justice to light;
He does not fail” (Zeph 3:5).
Jesus is even more emphatic: “Will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly” (Luke 18:7-8).
James warns those who grow rich by abusing and taking advantage of others that they will experience loss at the hands of the Lord of Hosts:
“Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire” (5:1-4).
Paul focuses on a particular way that God deals with those who reject Him. He gives them over to the degrading passions they choose and to their defiling consequences.
“Even though they knew God, they did not honour Him or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations. . . . Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity” (Rom 1:21, 24, 26, 28).
How much better for those who honour Him as the Judge and accept His dealings, so that their lives can be right in His sight!
“My flesh trembles for fear of You,
And I am afraid of Your judgments” (Ps 119:120).
“I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are righteous,
And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me” (Ps 119:75).
'Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Scrutinize me and know my disquietings;
And see if there be a way of pain in me,
And guide me in the way everlasting” (Ps 139:23-24).
c. eternal judgment
The scriptures call on all nations and peoples and on all creation to rejoice in the Lord because He is coming to render complete and final judgment on every act of wickedness and injustice in human history.
“Say among the nations, ‘The LORD reigns;
Indeed, the world is firmly established,
It will not be moved;
He will judge the peoples with equity.’
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
Let the sea roar, and all it contains;
Let the field exult, and all that is in it.
Then all the trees of the wood will sing for joy
Before the Lord, for He is coming,
For He is coming to judge the earth;
He will judge the world in righteousness
And the peoples in His faithfulness” (Ps 96:10-13).
(Spotlight 7, Lesson 10 in Doctrine 101: Learning about God)