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God’s
judgements |
God is righteous
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The
Holy Scripture says that “God is a righteous judge” (Psalm |
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Good deeds are rewarded by God
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Let
us see some biblical examples of people rewarded for good deeds or for some
acts done in order to honour God or in obedience to His Word. |
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God
rewarded Abraham because when God commanded him to offer his only son Isaac
for a burnt offering, the patriarch obeyed God. After God prevented Abraham
from doing any harm to his son, and after he sacrificed a ram as a burnt
offering instead of his son, God spoke to him from heaven a second time and
told him: “By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done
this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I
will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of
the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall
possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice” (Genesis 22:16-18). |
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God
rewarded and blessed two Hebrew midwives because they refused to obey the
king of Egypt, who had commanded them to kill the boys of the Hebrew women
when they helped the Hebrew women in childbirth: “And the king of Egypt spake
to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the
name of the other Puah: And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to
the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall
kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives
feared God, and did not as the king of |
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God
blessed Obed-Edom and all his household because of
the ark of the Lord, as it is written: “And the ark of the LORD continued in
the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months: and the LORD blessed
Obed-edom, and all his household. And it was told king David, saying, The
LORD hath blessed the house of Obed-edom, and all that pertaineth unto him,
because of the ark of God. So David went and brought up the ark of God from
the house of Obed-edom into the city of |
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God
rewarded the Shunammite woman (who had no children and whose husband was old)
who had been concerned for Elisha with much care, in that she had persuaded
her husband to build a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a
table, a chair and a lamp for Elisha, so he could stay there whenever he came
to them. God rewarded that woman with a child (2 Kings 4:8-17). |
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Evil deeds are punished by God
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Let
us see now some biblical examples of people punished by God because of their evil
deeds. |
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God
punished Cain for killing his brother Abel. God said to Cain: “And now art
thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy
brother's blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not
henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou
be in the earth” (Genesis 4:11-12). |
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God
punished in the days of Noah the world because of its wickedness. He sent a flood
that killed every human being and every animal, except Noah and those with
him in the ark that he had built, as it is written: “And GOD saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD
that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the
LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth;
both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it
repenteth me that I have made them……… For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the
earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have
made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. And Noah did according
unto all that the LORD commanded him. And Noah was six hundred years old when
the flood of waters was upon the earth. And Noah went in, and his sons, and
his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters
of the flood. Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of
fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, There went in two and
two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded
Noah. And it came to pass after seven days, that the
waters of the flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's
life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day
were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven
were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In
the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of
Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the
ark; They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their
kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind,
and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went in
unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of
life. And they that went in, went in male and female
of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in. And the
flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And
the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark
went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon
the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the
whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters
prevail; and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon
the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was
the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living
substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and
cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were
destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were
with him in the ark” (Genesis 6:5-7; 7:4- 23”. |
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God
punished the cities of |
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God
punished King Saul by putting him to death, for he had not kept His
commandments and he had consulted a medium, as it is written: “So Saul died
for his transgression which he committed against the LORD, even against the
word of the LORD, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that
had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it; And enquired not of the LORD:
therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse” (1
Chronicles 10:13-14). |
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God
punished king David because he had killed Uriah the Hittite and committed
adultery with Uriah’s wife. Here are the judgements which God foretold by the
prophet Nathan to David, and which He sent upon David at His appointed time:
“Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou
hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy
wife. Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of
thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them
unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.
For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all |
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God
punished king Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord and he
followed other gods. Here is the judgement foretold by God to Solomon: “Forasmuch
as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes,
which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and
will give it to thy servant. Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for
David thy father's sake: but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son.
Howbeit I will not rend away all the kingdom; but
will give one tribe to thy son for David my servant's sake, and for |
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God
punished Jehoram, king of Judah, for his wickedness in this manner: “Moreover
the LORD stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines, and of the
Arabians, that were near the Ethiopians: And they came up into Judah, and
brake into it, and carried away all the substance that was found in the
king's house, and his sons also, and his wives; so that there was never a son
left him, save Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons. And after all this the
LORD smote him in his bowels with an incurable disease. And it came to pass,
that in process of time, after the end of two years, his bowels fell out by
reason of his sickness: so he died of sore diseases” (2 Chronicles 21:16-19). |
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God
punished Uzziah, king of |
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God
punished king Herod because when the crowd called him ‘god,’ he did not give
glory to God, as it is written: “And Herod was highly displeased with them of
Tyre and Sidon: but they came with one accord to him, and, having made
Blastus the king's chamberlain their friend, desired peace; because their
country was nourished by the king's country. And upon a set day Herod,
arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them.
And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a
man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God
the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost” (Acts |
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God
put to death Ananias and Sapphira because they agreed together to tempt the
Spirit of the Lord. Here is what the Bible says: “But a certain man named
Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, And kept back part of the
price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid
it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled
thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of
the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and
after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why
hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou
hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias hearing these words fell
down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these
things. And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and
buried him. And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife,
not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me
whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. Then
Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit
of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have
buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she
down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men
came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her
forth, buried her by her husband” (Acts 5:1-10). |
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God
struck some believers of the Church in |
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Some words of encouragement and a warning
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Brothers
in the Lord, having a righteous God who rewards the righteous man on earth
for his good deeds and punishes the wicked man for his evil deeds, as it is
written: “Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more
the wicked and the sinner” (Proverbs 11:31), I encourage you to do good, to
abound in good deeds; and I warn you against doing evil deeds, because our
God is no respecter of persons, and “He that doeth wrong shall receive for
the wrong which he hath done” (Colossians 3:25). Take heed to your ways, do not be deceived, for each of us will reap what he
sows. |
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Be
not deceived into thinking that we are free to do whatever we want. In other
words, do not think that we are free to do evil deeds in that God is a God
who forgives and who is full of mercy!!! Know this, that we children of God
have been set free from sin in order to serve righteousness and only
righteousness. Let those who use liberty for an occasion to the flesh know
this, that in due season God will send His judgements upon them because of
their evil deeds: and His judgements are terrible!!! |
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Giacinto Butindaro |