Matthew 11:20 Then Yeshua began to denounce the towns in which he had done most of his miracles, because the people had not turned from their sins to God. 21 “Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Beit-Tzaidah! Why, if the miracles done in you had been done in Tzor and Tzidon, they would long ago have put on sackcloth and ashes as evidence that they had changed their ways. 22 But I tell you it will be more bearable for Tzor and Tzidon than for you on the Day of Judgment! 23 And you, K’far-Nachum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Sh’ol! For if the miracles done in you had been done in S’dom, it would still be in existence today. 24 But I tell you that on the Day of Judgment it will be more bearable for the land of S’dom than for you!”
25 It was at that time that Yeshua said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you concealed these things from the sophisticated and educated and revealed them to ordinary folks. 26 Yes, Father, I thank you that it pleased you to do this.
27 “My Father has handed over everything to me. Indeed, no one fully knows the Son except the Father, and no one fully knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.
28 “Come to me, all of you who are struggling and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Luke 10:17 The seventy came back jubilant. “Lord,” they said, “with your power, even the demons submit to us!” 18 Yeshua said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Remember, I have given you authority; so you can trample down snakes and scorpions, indeed, all the Enemy’s forces; and you will remain completely unharmed. 20 Nevertheless, don’t be glad that the spirits submit to you; be glad that your names have been recorded in heaven.”
21 At that moment he was filled with joy by the Ruach HaKodesh and said, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I thank you because you concealed these things from the sophisticated and educated, yet revealed them to ordinary people. Yes, Father, I thank you that it pleased you to do this.
22 “My Father has handed over everything to me. Indeed, no one fully knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” 23 Then, turning to the talmidim, he said, privately, “How blessed are the eyes that see what you are seeing! 24 Indeed, I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see the things you are seeing but did not see them, and to hear the things you are hearing but did not hear them.”
Are you ordinary?
I doubt you’d tolerate that being said of you at work. Or at church. Or as a parent. Or as a friend.
No, we love the fact that we are sophisticated and educated. We’re smarter than the next person and look forward to exercising our dominant beliefs over them in order to bring them into correction. That makes us special.
Don’t believe me?
Think about your judgments. Why would you have them?
Before we answer that, maybe we need to know what a judgment actually is.
Matthew 7:1 “Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged.”
We all know this one quite well. We pull it out anytime we feel others have judged us, or if we want to give a subtle warning to someone else. But what if we keep reading?
Matthew 7:2 For the way you judge others is how you will be judged — the measure with which you measure out will be used to measure to you. 3 Why do you see the splinter in your brother’s eye but not notice the log in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ when you have the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite! First, take the log out of your own eye; then you will see clearly, so that you can remove the splinter from your brother’s eye!”
What this is telling us is that the same measuring stick we use on others is the one that will be used on us. And the warning? Be careful you aren’t more guilty of breaking the standard you’ve set upon them.
And what is this standard? Well, it kind of depends. We need some context before we can answer definitively.
The Greek word used here is:
G2919 κρίνω krino (kree'-no) v.
1. (properly) to distinguish, i.e. decide (mentally or judicially)
2. (by implication) to try, condemn, punish
The KJV interprets this in a variety of ways: avenge, conclude, condemn, damn, decree, determine, esteem, judge, go to (sue at the) law, ordain, call in question, sentence to, think.
These words are somewhat abstract so let’s map back to the Hebrew for a more concrete meaning. Using the LXX, we can then map this to:
H8199 שָׁפַט shaphat (shaw-fat') v.
1. to judge, i.e. pronounce sentence (for or against)
2. (by implication) to vindicate or punish
3. (by extension) to govern
4. (passively, literally or figuratively) to litigate
Judge: To rule over cases of dispute or wrong doing.
Not much clearer. But one more step may help.
The letters that make up this word are shin-pey-tet.
Putting this together we have something like this: “destroy the mouth of the snake”
Weaving the Greek, Hebrew, and Paleo together, we can get a much broader understanding of what it means to judge. Distinguishing, pronouncing, governing, destroying, snakes…I think we now have enough to get an accurate definition.
To “judge” essentially means to make a decision regarding what is good and what is evil -- right and wrong.
Seems simple enough, huh? The trouble is that we make all kinds of rules and concessions as to what is good and what is evil.
Isaiah 5:18 Woe to those who begin by pulling at transgression with a thread, but end by dragging sin along as if with a cart rope.
19 They say, “We want God to speed up his work, to hurry it along, so we can see it! We want the Holy One of Isra’el’s plan to come true right now, so we can be sure of it!”
20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who change darkness into light and light into darkness, who change bitter into sweet and sweet into bitter!
21 Woe to those seeing themselves as wise, esteeming themselves as clever.
22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, men whose power goes to mixing strong drinks,
23 who acquit the guilty for bribes but deny justice to the righteous!
And do you know how that ends?
24 Therefore, as fire licks up the stubble, and the chaff is consumed in the flame; so their root will rot, and their flowers scatter like dust; because they have rejected the Torah of Adonai-Tzva’ot, they have despised the word of the Holy One of Isra’el.
Uh-oh.
In our quest to gain knowledge of good and evil way back in the Garden, we opened the door to destruction upon ourselves. We’re way too stupid to sort out the difference between the two, and yet we confidently run around sizing people up with our pride and arrogance.
Why would we want to do this?
What is it that causes us to see others’ faults so easily? More importantly, why do we remain blind to our own?
For some reason, that standard we set to measure other people’s actions and intentions doesn’t really apply to us. I have a suspicion as to why this is true: if other people are good, obedient, and genuinely caring of me, my life will be amazing. No one would be an inconvenience and no one would hurt me. Life would be perfect. Well, at least my life would be perfect.
As believers, we want…well, demand others follow the Word of God with perfection. We know His Ways are right and true (sort of). They also lead you into life and life in full (we suspect). Yes, God’s plan for our lives carries fruit that ensures shalom dwells mightily in the earth (but we don’t really believe it).
But…
For some reason, Abba’s standard doesn’t apply to us.
Ok, ok, we know it does apply to us. So why don’t we walk His Ways? There’s likely a few reasons.
This can be resolved through reading and studying the Bible. Closing the gap between what we don’t know and what we should know is an actionable thing that can get sorted out (somewhat) quickly.
This can be resolved through wise counsel. We perhaps know what the text says but it’s using farming lingo and that seems supremely disconnected from our technologically-driven society. Having someone explain principles and seeing how they apply could be helpful in learning how to read the Bible from a principle-based perspective. Again, an actionable item.
This one seems super-easy to correct but hundreds of years of history tells a different story. Could you imagine someone telling Yeshua that His Father’s Words were of no consequence? Wait, I guess this is exactly what the Pharisees did. In the name of God, they changed what God’s Word says. We see the devastating result of people 2000 years ago making this decision and yet we somehow found a way to do it all over again. Laying down what is being taught in favor of #1 and #2 above should correct this one also.
Now we’re moving away from the external and turning back within ourselves. Our flesh does a remarkable job at saving itself even if it means the real us has to die as a result. Our flesh wants what it wants and it seems we are an innocent bystander in this destructive dynamic. Even the Apostle Paul struggled in this space:
Romans 7:7 Therefore, what are we to say? That the Torah is sinful? Heaven forbid! Rather, the function of the Torah was that without it, I would not have known what sin is. For example, I would not have become conscious of what greed is if the Torah had not said, “Thou shalt not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, worked in me all kinds of evil desires — for apart from Torah, sin is dead. 9 I was once alive outside the framework of Torah. But when the commandment really encountered me, sin sprang to life, 10 and I died. The commandment that was intended to bring me life was found to be bringing me death! 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me; and through the commandment, sin killed me. 12 So the Torah is holy; that is, the commandment is holy, just and good.
13 Then did something good become for me the source of death? Heaven forbid! Rather, it was sin working death in me through something good, so that sin might be clearly exposed as sin, so that sin through the commandment might come to be experienced as sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the Torah is of the Spirit; but as for me, I am bound to the old nature, sold to sin as a slave. 15 I don’t understand my own behavior — I don’t do what I want to do; instead, I do the very thing I hate! 16 Now if I am doing what I don’t want to do, I am agreeing that the Torah is good. 17 But now it is no longer “the real me” doing it, but the sin housed inside me. 18 For I know that there is nothing good housed inside me — that is, inside my old nature. I can want what is good, but I can’t do it! 19 For I don’t do the good I want; instead, the evil that I don’t want is what I do! 20 But if I am doing what “the real me” doesn’t want, it is no longer “the real me” doing it but the sin housed inside me. 21 So I find it to be the rule, a kind of perverse “torah,” that although I want to do what is good, evil is right there with me! 22 For in my inner self I completely agree with God’s Torah; 23 but in my various parts, I see a different “torah,” one that battles with the Torah in my mind and makes me a prisoner of sin’s “torah,” which is operating in my various parts. 24 What a miserable creature I am! Who will rescue me from this body bound for death? 25 Thanks be to God [, he will]! — through Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord!
To sum up: with my mind, I am a slave of God’s Torah; but with my old nature, I am a slave of sin’s “Torah.”
Fascinating. What’s even more fascinating is that even though we humbly acknowledge we do what we don’t want to do, we still have the audacity to make supreme judgments of others.
Contrary to your fleshly desire, you don’t need to judge.
John 12:44 Yeshua declared publicly, “Those who put their trust in me are trusting not merely in me, but in the One who sent me. 45 Also those who see me see the One who sent me. 46 I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who trusts in me might not remain in the dark. 47 If anyone hears what I am saying and does not observe it, I don’t judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 Those who reject me and don’t accept what I say have a judge — the word which I have spoken will judge them on the Last Day. 49 For I have not spoken on my own initiative, but the Father who sent me has given me a command, namely, what to say and how to say it. 50 And I know that his command is eternal life. So what I say is simply what the Father has told me to say.”
Can you see it now?
Our inability to separate good from evil seems to present an impossible task. We can’t even live our own lives appropriately, let alone sort out the lives of others.
How then can we live? How do we learn to sort things out in the same way Yeshua would? If only there was some tool that could shed some light on how to live. Even better, a tool that helps us help others live as well.
Of course, you know exactly what that tool is. And if you haven’t spent the time learning from it, then you should seriously keep your mouth shut. More importantly, you should keep your judgments shut.
If you can’t see clearly enough that your goal is to “destroy the mouth of the snake” and not "destroy the lives of others", then you should remain silent all the days of your life. We are called to be light-bearers in this earth, not facilitators of darkness.
Life and life abundantly.
Is this process reserved for the pastors and bible teachers only? Do you need to be super-smart and charismatic to get others to hear you? Do you need to be sophisticated and educated to do this?
If you want to manipulate others, then sure. But for the ordinary folks?
At that moment he was filled with joy by the Ruach HaKodesh and said, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I thank you because you concealed these things from the sophisticated and educated, yet revealed them to ordinary people. Yes, Father, I thank you that it pleased you to do this."
Revelation of His Ways is reserved for the everyday person. It’s reserved for you. It’s reserved for me. And you don’t need to hire someone else to go and get it for you:
Deuteronomy 30:10 “However, all this will happen only if you pay attention to what Adonai your God says, so that you obey his mitzvot and regulations which are written in this book of the Torah, if you turn to Adonai your God with all your heart and all your being. 11 For this mitzvah which I am giving you today is not too hard for you, it is not beyond your reach. 12 It isn’t in the sky, so that you need to ask, ‘Who will go up into the sky for us, bring it to us and make us hear it, so that we can obey it?’ 13 Likewise, it isn’t beyond the sea, so that you need to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea for us, bring it to us and make us hear it, so that we can obey it?’ 14 On the contrary, the word is very close to you — in your mouth, even in your heart; therefore, you can do it!
15 “Look! I am presenting you today with, on the one hand, life and good; and on the other, death and evil — 16 in that I am ordering you today to love Adonai your God, to follow his ways, and to obey his mitzvot, regulations and rulings ; for if you do, you will live and increase your numbers; and Adonai your God will bless you in the land you are entering in order to take possession of it. 17 But if your heart turns away, if you refuse to listen, if you are drawn away to prostrate yourselves before other gods and serve them; 18 I am announcing to you today that you will certainly perish; you will not live long in the land you are crossing the Yarden to enter and possess.
His Ways have been concealed from those that have no interest in serving Him. But for those that love Him, the secret to life has been revealed. Walk in His paths, the ancient paths, and things will go well with you all the days of your life.
More than that, you can now see clearly to help others do the same.