A king who sits on the throne of justice
[Proverbs 20:8-12]
We have already received a lesson from God on Sunday a few weeks ago under the heading ‘Let's not criticize’ based on Matthew 7:1-6. The lesson was, ’If you don't want to be criticized, don't criticize.’ In other words, Jesus said to us, ‘If you don’t want to be judged, don’t judge.’ What is the reason? Why did He forbid us to judge? The reason is because judgment and condemnation can only be done by God. In other words, since God is the only Judge, we should not sit in His place and judge others.
If we look at Proverbs 20:8, the Bible tells us this: “A king who sits on the throne of justice Disperses all evil with his eyes.” Based on this verse, I would like to receive a lesson from God under the title of “A king who sits on the throne of justice”.
First, the king who sits on the throne of justice distinguishes between good and evil and disperses all evil.
Look at Proverbs 20:8 again – “A king who sits on the throne of justice Disperses all evil with his eyes.” Here, the verb ‘to disperse” as used by King Solomon is translated “winnows out” in New International Version, which is the original Hebrew literal meaning (Gesenius). Its literal meaning is ‘to winnow out (to sort out chaffs, etc. from grain)’ (Naver Dictionary). Another literal meaning is ‘to sift something (unwanted)” (Naver Dictionary). What does it mean to winnow? It refers to the act of separating grains and chaffs with a key (Internet). So King Solomon says in Proverbs 20:26 – “A wise king winnows the wicked, And drives the threshing wheel over them.” In the end, the point that King Solomon is making is that the king who sits on the throne of justice is wise and separates good from evil, as if separating grain from chaff. Then the king filters out unwanted evil. As I meditated on these words, I thought of two verses in the Bible:
(1) The first Bible verse that came to mind is Matthew 3:12 – “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
This word is spoken by John the Baptist and refers to the future judgments of Jesus Christ who comes after him. The result of this judgment of Jesus is that the grain is gathered and put into a barn, and the chaff is burned in an unquenchable fire. Here, grain refers to the righteous who believe in Jesus, and the chaff refers to the wicked who don’t believe in Jesus. And Jesus said that He will gather the grain and will put it into a barn. Here, in a word, He said that the barn is heaven and burns the wicked who are chaff in a fire that doesn’t extinguish.
(2) The second word that came to mind was the end times in Matthew 25:31-46. These are words of prophecy that will happen.
Look at Matthew 25:31-33: “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.” In the end, when Jesus comes to this world again, as the King who sits on the throne of justice, He will gather all the nations before Him and separates them, as if the shepherd separates the sheep from the goat. Thus, the Bible says, Matthew 25:46, that the Lord, the King of kings on the judgment seat, will bring the wicked like goats into eternal punishment and the righteous like sheep into eternal life. Do you believe in the Lord who will sit on the throne of justice and will set apart the righteous from the wicked? In the future, when the Lord comes and judges, He will filter out the wicked from among the righteous and punish the wicked forever. And the Lord will lead the righteous to eternal heaven.
Second, no one can say “I am clean and without sin” before the king who sits on the throne of justice.
Look at Proverbs 20:9 – “Who can say, "I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin"?” Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure”? Who can say confidently in this world, “I am clean and without sin”? This is what the Bible Romans 3:10 says: “As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one.” Look at 1 John 1:8 – “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” Nevertheless, in Job 33:9-11, we see Job's friend telling Job: “'I am pure, without transgression; I am innocent and there is no guilt in me. Behold, He invents pretexts against me; He counts me as His enemy. He puts my feet in the stocks; He watches all my paths.” If Job thought this way as Job's friend said, would Job really be a clean person in the sight of God? When I thought about this question, I remembered the lyrics of the hymn “One Thing I of the Lord Desire”, verse 4: “I watch to shun the miry way, And stanch the springs of guilty thought, But, watch and struggle as I may, Pure I am not, Pure I am not.” Who can boast “I am clean” in the presence of a holy God? Who can boast that “My sin has been cleansed” in the presence of God, who searches us (Gen. 16:13) with His eyes like a flame of fire (Rev. 2:18) and who also searches our deepest hearts (Prov. 20:27)? There is no one in this world. But there is only one, perfect God and perfect human being, only Jesus, the Son of God, is pure and sinless. But this innocent Jesus was crucified and died. God made Jesus, who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21). Its purpose is that God cleanse all our sins in Jesus Christ (Ps. 51:2). In other words, in order for God to blot out all our iniquities and create a pure heart in us (vv. 9-10), Jesus died on the cross, who had no sin. Not only that, we were justified before God because God raised Jesus from the dead (Rom. 4:25). That is, the purpose of God's making Jesus, who didn’t know sin, as a sin for us was to make us God's righteousness in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21). The apostle Paul said this in Ephesians 5:25-27: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.” The apostle Paul said that the purpose of which Jesus loved the church and gave Himself for it was to make us a glorious church before God. And the glorious church is a church that is clean and holy and without flaws. This glorious church is referred to as “the bride, the wife of the Lamb” in Revelation 21:9. In other words, the wife or bride of Jesus, who is the Lamb, is the church. And this glorious church is the blessed ones invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb (19:9). This is what Jesus said in Matthew 5:8 – “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” We will definitely see God. When the King, who sits on the throne of justice to come, separates the righteous from the wicked, the Lord will bring us who have been justified by the merits of Jesus into eternal life. Therefore, we will be able to say ‘I am clean and without sin’ in front of the Lord, the King of kings who sits on the throne of justice. The reason is because sinless Jesus took our sins and died on the cross to cleanse all our sins.
Third, we must be honest before the king who sits on the throne of justice.
Look at Proverbs 20:10 – “Differing weights and differing measures-- the LORD detests them both.” There are two more similar verses in the book of Proverbs: “The LORD detests differing weights, and dishonest scales do not please him” (v. 23) and “A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, But a just weight is His delight” (11:1). In summarizing these 3 verses, it is 'What God hates is to deceive.' In other words, God hates dishonesty. Then why do you think King Solomon talked about dishonesty that God hates three times? Perhaps in the days of King Solomon, some of the merchants tricked customers into using the scales, cheated on the quality, weight, or quantity of goods and took more from them (Park). The way those merchants deceived their customers was 'double scale' and 'double measure'. In other words, the dishonest merchants used light scales and small stalks to give less grain when they sold grain, and when they bought grain, they used heavy scales and large scales to get more grain (Internet). So Deuteronomy 25:13-16 says, “You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a large and a small. You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. You shall have a full and just weight; you shall have a full and just measure, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you. For everyone who does these things, everyone who acts unjustly is an abomination to the LORD your God.” Can you imagine a dishonest merchant putting two types of scales in his pocket, the big and the small, and using a double scale to trick a customer? That’s why the Bible Leviticus 19:35-36 says, “You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measurement of weight, or capacity. You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin; I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt.” While watching Korean news, you may have come across news that merchants tricked into selling their country of origin and caught by the police. For example, I remember seeing on the news that some merchants caught by the police while making unrighteous profits by selling stuff that were made in China ad made in Korea. In addition to this, some dishonest merchants don’t cheat the origin but the weight of the contents, and even modify the meter to take unjust profits from customers. I think all this is the same as using the uneven scales and uneven weights that the Bible says in today's text. Why are merchants using uneven scales and weights to make unjust profits from customers? The reason is because of greed. The merchants who are dishonest are taking advantage of injustice because of their greed. What should we do as Christians? Look at Proverbs 20:11 – “Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure and right.” We must do our actions right. In other words, we must conduct our behavior right. We must be pure and right in our conduct. And we must hate the inconsistent scales and the inconsistent weights that God hates (v. 10). In other words, we must hate dishonesty. If we Christian merchants are dishonest in their commercial practices, we must keep in mind that God hates all such commercial practices. We must never act dishonestly to gain unrighteous profits. Rather, we must be honest in our commercial activities (Park). May God renew the right spirit within us (Ps. 51:10, KJV).
Fourth and last, the king who sits on the throne of justice hears and sees everything.
Look at Proverbs 20:12 – “Ears that hear and eyes that see-- the LORD has made them both.” It is said that the Creator God, who made us, made our ears to hear and eyes to see. It means that God, who made our ears and eyes, hears everything and sees everything (MacArthur). Our God is the God who hears whatever we ask for. Look at 1 John 5:14-15: “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” Also, our God is a God who oversees the whole world. Look at Job 28:24 – “"For He looks to the ends of the earth And sees everything under the heavens.” Also, God examines the heart and conscience of man (Ps. 7:9). God's eyes see the wicked and the good everywhere (Prov. 15:3). But the wicked man, in the haughtiness of his countenance, doesn’t seek God and there is no room for God in his thoughts (Ps. 10:4, 13). Therefore, the Lord, the King who sits on the throne of justice, will punish the wicked whom His soul hates (11:5). This is what Psalms 34:15 says: “The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous And His ears are open to their cry.” And this is what 1 Peter 3:12 says: “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” Obviously, the Bible says that God's eyes are toward the righteous and His ears are directed to the petitions of the righteous. But the Bible says that God's face is against those who do evil. And when Jesus comes to this world again, as King who sits on the throne of justice, He will gather all the nations before Him and separate them from each other. He will separate the righteous and the wicked so that the wicked will go into eternal punishment, and the righteous will enter eternal life (Mt. 25:46).
Do you believe in the “last judgment”? This is the final judgment (Mt. 25:31-46, Rev. 20:11-15) on the day Jesus comes to this world again. Look at Revelation 20:11-15: “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” On that day, all people, including believers and unbelievers, will put on a resurrected body and stand before the judgment seat of Christ, the Lord of Judges (2 Tim. 4:1, 1 Pet 4:5, Luke 14:10, Jn. 5:26-27, Acts 10:42, 1 Cor. 3:12-15, 2 Cor. 5:10). Also, all believers, living and dead, will be judged. However, because “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1), judgment on believers who have already passed from death to life (Jn. 5:24) doesn’t jeopardize their eternal salvation. Of course, even the secret sins of believers will be revealed in the last days (1 Cor. 4:5, 2 Cor. 5:9-10). So we must live godly (Internet). How should we live in order to live godly? We have received four lessons about the king who sits on the throne of justice based on Proverbs 20:8-12: (1) The king who sits on the throne of justice distinguishes between good and evil and disperses all evil. Therefore, we must also live a life that separates good from evil and avoids evil. (2) No one can say “I am clean and without sin” before the king who sits on the throne of justice. But we are forgiven and cleansed of all our sins through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we must live in the Lord with the assurance of forgiveness of sins. (3) We must be honest before the king who sits on the throne of justice. Therefore, we must be honest. In this dishonest world, we must live honestly. (4) The king who sits on the throne of justice hears and sees everything. Therefore, we must live godly before God who observes our hearts and consciences and hears our crying petitions.