THE JUDGMENT OF THE GREAT DAY.-17.
By Uriah Smith
1. That in the great Judgment work, the decision of every case is rendered by God, the Father, in the investigative Judgment in the Sanctuary on high. 2. That he then commits all Judgment to the Son, and sends him to execute the same. 3. That the saints have no part to act in the Judgment until the coming of the Lord. The work which is then given to him, he shares with his saints. For his promise is that when he sits upon his throne, all his saints shall sit down with him, as he has sat down with his Father in his throne. Rev. 3:11. A portion of that power which God gives to Christ over the nations, Christ delegates to his saints, that they may share with him in the execution of the Judgment. Compare Ps. 2:6-9; Rev. 2:26, 27. This fact is very plainly brought to view in Ps. 149:4-9:— “For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand; to execute vengeance upon the heathen; and punishments upon the people; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them the Judgment written. This honor have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord.” This passage is worthy of careful study. 1. When the meek are beautified with salvation, it will be by the change to immortality. They will bear the image of the second Adam as in this life they bear the image of the first Adam. 1 Cor. 15:47-49, also Isa. 33:17, with 1 John 3:2. 2. This beautifying of the saints and exalting them to glory, precedes their participation in the Judgment mentioned in verses 7-9 of this psalm. 3. The two-edged sword in their hand is doubtless the same as that which proceeded out of the mouth of Him whose name is called the Word of God. Rev. 19:11-15. 4. And if we consider this psalm from verses 6 to 9, we shall see that the work of the immortal saints in the Judgment of the wicked is effected by the examination of the book of God, the sharp sword which they hold in their hands (Eph. 6:17; Heb. 4:12), and the written record of their evil deeds; so that the record of their lives will be compared with the rule given them to govern their conduct, and the measure of their guilt be determined thereby. When God thus commits Judgment to the Son, and the Son ceases forever the work of intercession, the words of Ps. 76:7-9 will be found to be true:— “Thou, even thou art to be feared: and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry? Thou didst cause Judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still, when God arose to Judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah.” The time when the Son of God saves all the meek of the earth, is when he raises them up from the dust to inherit the throne of his own glory. 1 Sam. 2:8; Matt. 25:31-33; Rev. 3:21. But the adversaries of the Lord will be broken to pieces. Out of heaven will he thunder upon them (Rev. 16:18); he will render decision in strict justice in the cases of all men, and then clothe his anointed king with strength to execute that decision. 1 Sam. 2:10. Indeed, it is because the Son loves righteousness and hates iniquity that he is anointed to do this work. Ps. 45:7; 2:6-9. His arrows will be sharp in the hearts of the king’s enemies (Ps. 45:4, 5), and none will escape his just infliction of wrath. Rom. 2:6, 7. The binding of Satan precedes the resurrection of the just. This seems evident enough from Rev. 20; but it is very plainly taught in our Lord’s parable of binding the strong man and spoiling his house. Matt. 12:29; Mark 3:27; Luke 11:21, 22. He is evidently bound before the complete slaughter of the wicked in the battle of the great day. Then the righteous dead, represented by the goods of the strong man (Satan), are taken from his prison-house (the grave) by Him who has passed through the tomb and taken away the keys. Rev. 1:18. This is the first resurrection. “Blessed and holy,” says Rev. 20:6, “is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath no power.” As already shown, their characters were previously decided to be holy in the investigative Judgment. Satan is cast into the bottomless pit, a term which we have seen is applied to this earth during the thousand years of its complete and utter desolation, between the first and second resurrections. And this binding of the Devil is the antitype of the sending away of the scapegoat on the day of atonement. Here to this earth in its chaotic condition, he, as the antitypical scapegoat, is confined, with his terrible load of guilt upon him, while the saints sit in Judgment upon the fallen angels, and upon all the wicked who joined and continued with them in their great rebellion.