Here Comes the Judge

The late Susanna Haik-Vantoura (1912-2000) Was a French musician, composer and code breaker. She was the organist of a synagogue in Paris. Her greatest contribution to music began during World war II when her family fled Paris for Southern France to escape the deportation of Jews to Germany’s extinction camps. From 1941 to 1946, living in this exile, she began the work of decoding the Cantillation marks in the Hebrew Scriptures. These marks are musical notation which aid in memory, interpretation and beauty of the scriptures. They occur both above and below the text line and indicate pitch, harmony, rhythm and duration much like our musical scale and notation. Every verse of the Hebrew scriptures contain these notations and have been long assumed to be musical notation, but the meaning was lost over the centuries. Cantors in the various branches of Judaism sing the scriptures according to the tradition of their group without any consistency between sects. Dr. Haik-Vantouri’s contribution to this science was completed after her retirement in 1970 when she devoted time to interpreting, transcribing and recording many scripture passages, particularly those in the Psalms and the Pentateuch. A recent revival of her efforts has produced the Song of Songs in recorded form. (See end for web site for this and other music from the scriptures). The music, to my Western ears, is alien; somewhat chant like, Middle Eastern in tonality. Sometimes accompanied by a harp and trumpet; sometimes a capella, the music is haunting and one can imagine a shepherd boy composing poetry and music through a long night watch. It is simple, from-the-heart music. Today I received the latest recording of this music, Psalm 96. It is one of my favorites musically, and, uplifted, I went to my Bible program and looked up the passage. Several times the phrase The Lord will “judge the world in equity” appears. At first glance, from the 21st Century view of appearing before a judge, this idea sounds either terrifying or judgmental. Terrifying, because I, a mere mortal, will be judged with “equity:” I know myself and how I would stack up if all were known about me. “Judgmental” because, if I’m on the “inside,” the “redeemed,” looking at the rest of the “world,” I can say, “They’re going to get theirs!” God will judge them equitably and give them what they deserve. Hitler will certainly take a major hit, Stalin and Khadafy as well. Oh, and my neighbor who offended me? I’m sure there is something in that justice for him as well. Growing up, I belonged to a fundamentalist sect which has a unique view of God’s judgment. They believe that On October 22, 1844, a special “Investigative Judgment” began during which all those who have “confessed the name of Christ” will have their records examined. If they have not remained faithful, their names will be blotted out of the Book of Life and they will be cast with the wicked, into a fire which will destroy them forever. This was a terrifying doctrine. One never knew whether one’s name would come up that day or not or whether you would die with “one unconfessed sin” on the record. The Judge was a terrifying figure of infinitely meticulous record keeping in which not one jot or tittle of law breaking would be skipped. If left unknown and unconfessed, it meant eternal destruction at His Son’s second coming. But all these views see God’s justice through the wrong lens. Here’s why: Throughout the Old Testament, the prophets longed for God’s judgment; they cried out for it; they shouted in His ears for it. Why was that? No sane person would cry for God’s justice—unless the judgment was already decided in their favor. In our culture, innocence and guilt has little to do with the outcome of a trial; the price of one’s lawyer is far more indicative of a trial’s outcome than guilt or innocence. But appearing before a God who knows all, who is both Judge and Jury and Executioner is a different matter altogether. To Him, being equitable means taking into account not just the deed itself, but the person, their personality, their opportunities, challenges, circumstances, attitudes, training, choices—all of the person in all her or his many dimensions. Knowing all, He can know not just the how, when, where of a situation but the why of it. He can and is, completely, unbiasedly objective, knowing all facts and contributing factors which impinge on the event. He judges fairly, equitably. When I, in my self-righteousness and “he” in his sinfulness, appear before the great Judge of all mankind, He knows us both better than we know ourselves. Knowing this, we, with the ancient prophets, can cry out to Him who judges all things equitably for His justice to reign—to rain down- knowing that each of us will be vindicated before Him because He knows and takes into account our weaknesses, our missings of the mark, our shortfallings. He knows we are but dust, sprung for a moment from the soil to grow and flourish for a moment, then wither and die to return to the dust from which we were made. He knows that we are weak as water, fragile as a cobweb in a hurricane. He judges equitably: His justice IS His mercy; His mercy IS His justice. As a coin consists of neither the face of a coin nor its obverse, but is made of gold, silver, nickel or copper, so His justice and mercy are the metal from which He views us, not our good or bad deeds. This becomes even clearer in Romans 3. Paul spends almost three chapters describing both Jews and Gentiles as being under condemnation: none are righteous, none have done rightly, all are liars. Then, in verses 23 and 24 he smacks us right between the eyes with the same facts: “All have sinned (hamartano-missed the mark when shooting the arrow) and fall short (hustereo-to fall short, to lack, to be inadequate) of the glory of God, being justified as a gift (dorean-freely, for nothing, without a cause, without foundation) His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” My heart leaps for joy, my tongue wants to shout aloud, my eyes want to weep tears of joy. We’re all in the same boat-our aim is imperfect, we are far too weak to justify ourselves, to stand before the Judge and present a winning case. But He, the Judge Himself, in His Royal Judge suit, comes down off the judicial bench, wraps us in His arms and says, “Welcome home my daughter, my son. You are innocent of all charges-it is my gift to you. No fault, no penalty. It’s so good to have you back again from your long, disastrous journey.” It is His justice/mercy being dispensed without bias, in perfect equity to each and every one of us: to me; if to me, then to you; if to us, to them and they and those and theirs and ours. The family of Adams first and last united; brothers and sisters in one classless family in our Lord, Jesus, the Christ.