I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness, Judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
God and the earth
These words teach us--
I. The earth is the scene of God’s operations. There is a Divine intelligence, a Divine goodness, a Divine hand everywhere visible to the truly scientific eye, and deeply felt by the devout consciousness of men. Then--
1. Do not be frivolous. Take your shoes from off your feet: an is “holy ground.”
2. Do not be indifferent. His eye is on you.
3. Do not be slothful. Be earnest.
4. Do not be sinful. Do not break His laws in His presence. Do not profane His name, when His ears catch every sound.
II. God’s operations on the earth are marked by rectitude and mercy. Because righteousness is here, sufferings follow crime; because mercy is here, the world itself is kept up: the sun shines, the air breathes, etc.
III. In the exercise of His “righteousness and mercy” on this earth, God himself has delight. God’s happiness is in the exercise of His moral perfections.
1. It is therefore in Himself alone. It is in His own self-activity: happiness is not in quiescence, but in action.
2. Therefore participation in His blessedness is a participation in His perfections. (Homilist.)
God working on the earth
I. God is acting on this earth.
1. He is working in natural phenomena. He is in all, the force of all forces, the impulse of all motion.
2. He is working in human history. He works with individual men, His constant visitation preserveth their lives; He works with families, communities, churches, nations.
II. God’s agency on this earth is characterised by rectitude and love.
1. Who does not see “loving kindness,” or mercy, in the continuation and enjoyments of human life?
2. Who does not see “judgment,” or “righteousness,” in the miseries that follow sin on this earth?
III. In the exercise of these moral attributes the great God is happy. Justice and mercy are but modifications of love; and love in action is the happiness of God as well of His intelligent creation. (Homilist.)
Divine government
I. The scene of the Divine operations. While there are those who, under the name of science, falsely so called, deny that God exercises any direct control over the forces and circumstances of our earth, we who believe in the Divine Word are prepared to accept this fact as settled. But, while we accept this as a theory, many of us practically deny it. We see the workings of nature around us, and observe the constant and rapid changes that take place in our own and others’ history, and we speak of laws and of chance, of mechanism and of routine, until we forget God, and so leave Him out of our calculations altogether. We have need, therefore, to remind each other now and again, that there is a Divine intelligence and a Divine hand visible in all the operations that are at work in our world.
1. Let us realise that God is at hand, and that He is working around us and in us, and it would put an end to frivolity, and destroy indifference. We would then feel that earth is holy ground, and that life is great and solemn reality.
2. If we were to realise day by day that God is near, exercising His power, and putting forth His operations around us and in us, we would feel that life is too solemn and too real to spend in any other way than with earnestness of purpose.
3. We could not live profoundly and earnestly without realising a purifying and ennobling influence.
II. The character of the Divine operations. He is here not to frown upon and denounce us, but to “exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.” In all God’s dealings with men, love, justice, and fairness of the most perfect kind are blended in the truest harmony. They work one upon the other, so as to maintain the perfect balance of the Divine nature.
1. There is nothing He does, there is nothing He can do, that is not the outcome and result of His love.
2. When He sends sorrow or trial upon us, it is in order to take from us something that He knows will injure us if left in our possession, or to inflict upon us that wholesome chastisement that He sees necessary for our future well-being.
3. Retribution is manifest everywhere, but there is mercy equally, and even more, manifest in supporting the criminal, in mitigating miseries, and in the power of the Gospel to overcome crime itself. Let any one of us here this morning read his own history intelligently, and he will find in every chapter and in every verso loving kindness and judgment blended together and displaying perfect and complete righteousness.
III. The cause of the Divine operations.
1. God delights in exercising these principles Himself. He is love, He is just, He is righteous. He has not therefore to force Himself to their exercise. The spontaneous outgoing of His nature runs necessarily in these channels, and hence He delights in their display.
2. God delights in the exercise of these principles by man. Were we to gather all the teaching of the New Testament upon practical Christian life together we might fairly reduce it all to these elements of “loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness.” This is to be made a partaker of the Divine nature, and to imitate Christ. But we cannot do this by our own strength. We need the inspiration and the power of Christ. On the Cross of Calvary God has shown us this most blessed combination in its fullest and most perfect light. (W. Le Pla.)
