judgment valley

Consider the kindness and the severity of God. Romans 11:22

Judgment. Hellfire and brimstone. Second death.

Most of us could go all day without dwelling on those words with their harshness, their sobering reality. Surely God has gotten over all that fire and brimstone stuff, we may muse. Angry God has given way to Nice God. Or perhaps we might think we’ve matured in our understanding of God to the point where we see beyond the fiery demonstrations to the kinder, gentler Man behind the curtain.

I would be happy if there were no hell below us. If there were no harsh “Depart from me I never knew you” verdicts. No lake of fire, no second death, no place where “the fire is not quenched and their worm dieth not.” If when caught up to meet Him we were told Hell is cancelled, that grace has finally trumped everything and everyone; no eternal conscious torment for anyone; instead of the lake of fire there’s only the glassy sea…I wouldn’t complain as I snuggled into Abba’s arms.

But the prophet holds a double-edged sword of a future glory and of a gory fate. There is agony and ecstasy. There is delight and bright day as surely as there is doom and damnation. Isaiah has the redeemed of Zion gazing upon the bodies of the slain. Zechariah has skin melting off bodies and eyes rotting in sockets (definitely one of the lovelier pictures from the prophets). Joel sees the nations called to gather in “Judgment Valley”:

"In those days, yes, at that very time when I put life back together again for Judah and Jerusalem,
I'll assemble all the godless nations.
   I'll lead them down into Judgment Valley
And put them all on trial, and judge them one and all
   because of their treatment of my own people Israel.
They scattered my people all over the pagan world
   and grabbed my land for themselves.
They threw dice for my people
   and used them for barter.
They would trade a boy for a whore,
   sell a girl for a bottle of wine when they wanted a drink.

Let the pagan nations set out
   for Judgment Valley.
There I'll take my place at the bench
   and judge all the surrounding nations. Joel 3:1-3, 12

Blessing and curse. Life and judgment. Kindness and severity. Light and darkness. I can’t escape the theme!  And throughout this journey there were plenty of those who wanted to – those generally called “false prophets” by the true, false prophets who beat a drum of “Peace, peace” while the world crumbled around them. Even in Malachi’s day, a people plucked out of the furnace of captivity found themselves gravitating towards a judgment free universe, and God said it wore him out (his first line is a great line for all preachers and bloggers!):

You make God tired with all your talk.

   "How do we tire him out?" you ask.

   By saying, "God loves sinners and sin alike. God loves all."
And also by saying, "Judgment? God's too nice to judge."  Malachi 2:17

Maybe we do want God as the ultimate Santa. Sure, Santa may only leave you coal, but at least he doesn’t turn you into coal! But Malachi quickly turns up the alarm when we’d much rather hit the “snooze” (again) dashing our images of a God “who’s too nice to judge”:

"Yes, I'm on my way to visit you with Judgment. I'll present compelling evidence against sorcerers, adulterers, liars, those who exploit workers, those who take advantage of widows and orphans, those who are inhospitable to the homeless—anyone and everyone who doesn't honor me." A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies. Malachi 3:5

We can debate about such judgment being temporal or eternal, about the nature of hell (is it darkness, is it fire, are there worms, is it a lake, etc. etc.), whether judgment’s fire is one that consumes or one that purifies or one that torments forever. Maybe it’s none of these. Maybe it’s all of them.

But regardless, Judgment Valley, the Valley of Decision remains before us, the theme picked up by Jesus and the rest of the New Testament. “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life,” says the Savior to whom all judgment has been given by the Father. And in one of his more extended “rants” on hell, Jesus warns his disciples:

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” Mark 9:42-50 ESV

Still waiting to see these words on a Christian calendar – or featured on a Thomas Kinkade painting. It’s a harsh reality that I see mirrored in the world around us.

True, hell has been used as a manipulative tool of religion to build vast religious empires; and true, we need to pay closer attention to just who consistently is said will be there or who will be judged, whether here or there.

But to take the Book seriously and the vistas it shows, I with Paul and the rest of the prophets find myself compelled to “consider the kindness and the severity of God.” And in so doing I find myself driven headlong into kindness as I step across the threshold of my home onto these streets…