Judgment Day

If you are reading this today it means that you have escaped yet another prediction of the end of the world. Yesterday came and went and the prediction, earnest as it was, was seen to be false. That may cause us to giggle a bit, or be embarrassed that "Christians" do such things, but it should not lull us into thinking that judgment is not part of the God we serve.
Our readings the last few days have been pregnant with illusions to judgment, some of which took place at an earlier day, some of which are still to come. From our reading today we came across the following:
Psalm 75: 2 - At the set time that I appoint, I will judge with equity.
Psalm 75:6-8 - For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up, but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.
Psalm 76:7-9 - But you, you are to be feared! Who can stand before you when once your anger is roused? From the heavens you uttered judgment; the earth feared and was still, when God arose to establish judgment, to save all the humble of the earth.
Isaiah 23:8-9 - Who has purpose this (judgment) against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princews, whose traders were the honored of the earth? The Lord of hosts (armies) has purposed it, to defile the pompous pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth.
Even our passage in Numbers 31 demonstrated judgment as God used Israel to bring long deserved judgment upon Midian. No, let us not be lulled into thinking that God does not or will not judge. His Word testifies to the fact that God is judge over all the earth, and a day of reckoning is coming.
So, how are we to respond to the realities of God's judgment? Well, it should first of all give us a reverence for the Lord. He is able to cause the earth to teeter, and when He sends His word of judgment from heaven, nothing will be able to stop it. But even more importantly these realities should cause us to come to Christ who actually took our judgment at the cross. God is not only a God who will humble the proud, He is also a God who lifts up the humble. He has already done this in His Son, who took upon Himself the sin John so clearly speaks about in 1 John, and then received the judgment - even the wrath of God on that sin. Now those who will look to Christ, the Judged One, in faith will receive remission of sins, and escape the judgment to come.
Oh rejoice Christian, for the Lord's mercies are great! He has taken your judgment. Now live your days in gratitude seeking to be the means God might use to rescue others from that Great Day of the Lord.