Rush Hour
RushHour helps RushChurch members stay connected to each other, informs them about current RushChurch happenings, and also includes bible study/theology talk. We will speak about RushChurch specifics but also on current events, tough questions on faith, church and the Bible
Rush Hour
The Joy of Judgment
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We start with our usual office banter, summer sports stories, and quick Rush Church announcements before turning to a big Bible question: why the Old Testament celebrates God’s judgment. We unpack judgment as rescue and restorative justice, and we end by talking about Jesus as our advocate, healthy guilt, and what it looks like to actually live like we know him.
• Rush 1.8 plans for the Fourth of July community event, plus what we’re bringing
• Kids Jam signup timing, where to register, and how we can help families who need it
• why we connect God’s judgment to justice for the oppressed and vulnerable
• Psalm 96 and Psalm 9 as examples of creation rejoicing when God comes to judge
• the Old Testament idea of judges as liberators who restore peace, not just punishers
• righteousness and judgment as “putting things right” language in Scripture
• modern examples that make judgment feel like salvation, not fear
• Jesus as our defender, plus why guilt can be a good sign when it leads to repentance and repair
Sign up your kids on Sunday
Please, volunteers, we still need more volunteers. Make sure to sign yourself up for volunteering
If you’re going to have a kid going to camp, make sure you take advantage of the $60 camp scholarship
www.rushchurch.com
Welcome, Sports, And Community Updates
SPEAKER_00Welcome everybody. We're back on Rush Hour. Thanks for joining us on our podcast. It's me, it's Ashley, and it's Brittany. We're all here. And we're glad that you're here joining us today, bringing you all things Rush Church and things about the Bible, and then anything else we feel like talking about as we go along, which we all know could be anything. Oh, anyway, never mind. Okay. Announcement time. I was we were me and Ashley were at paintball camp last week, and like there was a conversation. I thought that we had to make a good icebreaker, but I can't remember what it was now.
SPEAKER_03Oh.
SPEAKER_00Remember? You remember what we were sitting there? I was like, this would be great. Right. Yeah. And I said, Don't forget that. Yeah, I forgot. Oh well. So it's a beautiful day in WrestleMania. It was rainy this morning, but had a late night last night at the ball fields. Timmy played last night at 8 p.m. in Bellfountain, so it was a late night under the lights.
SPEAKER_02You guys win?
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_02Nice.
SPEAKER_00First tournament game. Check. Check. It was a good game. One by one run. Brittany, you guys had softball, didn't you?
SPEAKER_01Yes, we did. We had a doubleheader last night.
SPEAKER_00You won all of them?
SPEAKER_01Yes, we won both games last night. There you go. So Wrestlevania girls eight U as minimum third place. Nice.
SPEAKER_00So what did you say? 10 U? 10U. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Out of how many teams?
SPEAKER_00I have no idea. Eden played in 8U Wrestlevania softball in West Liberty over the weekend. Played nine games.
SPEAKER_01I mean, it was a lot.
SPEAKER_00It was a 19-team tournament with double elimination, one bracket. It was awful. We lost our first game Saturday morning at 8 30. And then we won all the rest of the game Saturday. We played until 6 30 that night, I think. Wow. They won four games in a row after they lost one. So they were then they went on to win another one the next day and got fourth place in the county. So they did a good job. That's our telephone. Ashley, you want to answer that? So Ashley's on the phone. Yes. She's taking a phone. We have to answer the phone today. Yeah. So there you go. And she's out of here. Me and Brittany will talk about Rush Church stuff. Okay, we'll wait for you. It's fine. All right. Wow. Well, now what? I don't know. We can talk more about baseball and talk about it. Oh, yeah, we can. Wrestlevania sports.
SPEAKER_01Well, Russellvania sports are doing pretty good. I'm proud of our ball team.
SPEAKER_00So far, so good. Yeah, they're out there swinging the bats and catching the flyballs.
SPEAKER_01They are. And it's it's been a lot, you know.
SPEAKER_00And turned into a WrestleMania sports talk show. Here we go. Bring on some coaches.
SPEAKER_01So last night we were down by three.
SPEAKER_00No one cares. But
Rush 1.8 Fourth Of July Setup
SPEAKER_00so yeah, we have let's see, Rush 18's doing 4th of July this Saturday. Yes, this Saturday. If you're listening this week, which would be what is that, June 27th? So that's in a couple days for us. I don't know when you're listening to this, but we're gonna have all of our stuff out. It'd be a fun time. We love the the being a part of the community up there for the 4th of July fire. Hopefully it didn't rain.
SPEAKER_01I hope not.
SPEAKER_00Might be a little soggy in the morning.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, which I think last year it rained a little bit in the morning.
SPEAKER_00Rain don't hurt.
SPEAKER_01But we will have all of our stuff out. Well, most of our stuff out.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01We'll have popcorn, cotton candy, snow cone.
SPEAKER_00Do we have anybody to make the cotton candy?
SPEAKER_01We do.
SPEAKER_00Oh, nice.
SPEAKER_01You and I.
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01Well, no, actually, we do have two signups. Um I think Luke and Lori are gonna make it first round.
SPEAKER_00Oh, we'll be around. I know how to do it. We've done some in the past here.
SPEAKER_01So and we'll have our little baby area.
SPEAKER_00But yeah.
SPEAKER_01The bounce houses are separate from us.
SPEAKER_00So right, bringing those in from somewhere else, but they'll still be there.
SPEAKER_01So yeah.
SPEAKER_00They usually have food trucks and stuff up there. It's a whole big community thing, but we're part of it. Ashley's back.
SPEAKER_01Ashley's back. She had to run the phone.
SPEAKER_00I don't know what she wanted to talk about, but we just talked about the 4th of July this weekend for Rush 1.8. What else did you think? Well, we don't we can go back. Go back to what I was doing. I was just talking about WrestleMania sports there for a minute, but yeah, you need your headset on. Oh just ran across the church. She just ran across the church. Everything good? She did too. All right.
SPEAKER_02Oh my word.
SPEAKER_00Okay, she's back. That's just how it goes. We're recording in the office, so we sometimes we have office stuff to do, too. So we do work.
SPEAKER_01She's literally doing my job. I'm sitting here under a blanket, but you're sitting by the phone, so I'm like, oh good.
SPEAKER_00Actually, Brittany is supposed to be the one answering the phones and running over the church.
SPEAKER_02And I'm the one running across.
SPEAKER_00What did you want to say? Anything about paintball camp or what?
SPEAKER_02No, I was gonna tell you about Carter. You guys are talking about Carter had soccer. Yeah when you guys had baseball going on, and this was his first ever shootout. In soccer. Like a penalty kick. Yeah. Well, not like a penalty, but like when they tie and they have it was tournament, so they have to go.
SPEAKER_01Sorry, I'm not a soccer person.
SPEAKER_00They are penalty kickers, they go to PKs. It's a shootout. Is that what it was called? Okay.
SPEAKER_01So maybe I am.
SPEAKER_00So everybody everybody's right.
SPEAKER_02First of all, he played for like every team that Ben Logan entered. He played on the girls as the goalie. He played varsity as the goalie, and he played JV as the goalie. So he was running from field to field.
SPEAKER_00Well, they had a co-ed team. They had a co-ed team. There you go. He didn't play for the girls' team.
SPEAKER_02No, no, no, no. It was listed as co-ed.
SPEAKER_00Pretty speech.
SPEAKER_02I don't think that's allowed.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. All right.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00He played a lot.
SPEAKER_02He played a lot. And so he gets to this one game, and the other game is waiting for him to come, run across to play goalie. And so he's getting there. Anyways, I was so nervous. I was standing next to Wes and I'm like, he's never done this before. What do we do? And he's like, he's got this, he's got this. Well, first two kicks went by him, but the same with the other goalie. And then they had to go then switch to goalie to goalie, but both goalies got a goal. So then they had to switch to just regular teammates that would come in and out. And the other goalie missed one. And then Carter saved it for the game. And the whole like there were four fields. The entire place was standing there because you had everything stops because it's all run on a timer. And so they're all watching him. And I'm like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. And he did it.
SPEAKER_00Erica was a goalie, and she had some of those. She's like, PKs are the worst.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00They are definitely no, they're just luck. You just you pick away and you dive, and that's what hopefully you make it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And our coaches weren't even there. Our coaches were at the World Series. No, that's baseball. What's the soccer stuff going on right now? World Cup. The World Cup. Yeah. So they're they were in Canada at the World Cup. The the coaches were so they sit in last year's varsity team to coach these kids for the weekend. They did great, but nice.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's awesome. This is a sports podcast now. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So well, the story's so much better now that Carter was successful.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. We're hoping it was. She's like, I what if she waited the whole time to come back and say, and he failed.
SPEAKER_01And he failed. So we've enrolled him in lessons and he's grounded for a month.
SPEAKER_00I'm glad it was, I'm glad it was a happy ending that she came back to tell us a story. That'd be weird if she was like, Yeah, it was terrible.
SPEAKER_02But which Darren always reminds me, he's like, the success he has in soccer does not reflect who you are. And I'm like, I know, it's just a nervous thing.
SPEAKER_00I get nervous watching, you know, my kids play things, and it doesn't even matter.
SPEAKER_01They're rationally nervous when my kids are playing. It's fine.
SPEAKER_00We're having fun, guys. All right. Well, we did 4th of July Rush 1.8. What else announcements do we have? Kids can sign up for Kids Jam soon,
Kids Jam Signup And Volunteer Need
SPEAKER_00right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, this Sunday.
SPEAKER_00This Sunday.
SPEAKER_02This Sunday opens up the site. Sign up your kids on Sunday. If you need assistance, so we encourage you to please do it on the Rush Church page. There'll be a tab that says Kids Jam. Sign up. But if you need assistance, Grace, the today or that Sunday, Grace link will be out there with her computer and can assist you in signing your kids up. So super excited. And please, volunteers, we still need more volunteers. Make sure to sign yourself up for volunteering.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you can sign up and pick what you want to do. It's fun. Um, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I apparently there's you have to pick two different things. So you pick your first choice. First preference, you pick where you want to help out at. Right. And then if you can't, like if I can't fit you in there, then I need you to pick a second preference. Well, I didn't realize that there was an other button.
SPEAKER_00You can fill in your own answer. Yeah, so I took advantage of that. My second preference, my first preference is crew leader. I'll hang out with the kids, take them places. My second preference is other. And then I typed in stand in the corner and drink ice coffee.
SPEAKER_01Oh no, that was my job.
SPEAKER_00Oh, well, darn. I didn't get there in time. So okay.
SPEAKER_01Please don't do that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, don't be like me. Volunteer. Help out.
SPEAKER_01The truth is, Cody goes wherever Ashley tells him.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I do. I'm just all over the place. It'd be fun. Well, but what else? I don't like don't have anything announcement
Camp Scholarships And Paintball Camp
SPEAKER_00wise.
SPEAKER_01Camp scholarships.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, if you're going to have a kid going to camp, make sure you take advantage of the $60 camp scholarship to get reimbursed or you get towards camp. If you have a kid that wants to go to camp and $60 isn't enough, well, talk to me and we got people that'll give big other scholarships as well, too. I have some people that want to help out with kids going to camp and stuff. So there you go.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Camps are getting expensive, some of them.
SPEAKER_02It is. House Mill has been very affordable. I've appreciated that.
SPEAKER_00They do. They try to not, if they don't have to, they're not going to raise it. But sometimes they do have to, you know, food costs and all this stuff. But it's still pretty good. Under $300 for a week and food food every day and a place to stay and plus all the activities and stuff. That's pretty good. Yeah. So shout out to House Mill in West Virginia. All right. Well, you guys have anything about paintball camp? We were just there.
SPEAKER_02We were it was such a good camp. Like I good.
SPEAKER_00I agree.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I want to go back.
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02Well, no, I do, I do love it there. It's, I mean, I think it was very impactful. There was obviously by like three days in, we were kind of getting annoyed with each other. Not you and I. I mean, Cody, you and I got along, but you know, you could tell the kids were like, they were just drained. They were tired, you know, late nights, early mornings, um, lots of walking, lots of heat exhaustion. But all in all, our group got to got what's the word? Got along very well together. Unity. Yeah. And I think they loved your friend who came in and taught. Did they call him Bogue?
SPEAKER_00That's his last name. His last name. His name's Brandon Bogue. Okay. Shout out to Brandon. Yes, they liked him. He he had a good time. They wanted him to come back next year, but I told him, no. I'm just kidding. But he was good. He gets I like to bring in other people to talk because the people that we bring with us hear me talk a lot. So under voice. Which we all say the same thing, but sometimes it's just helpful to hear it some some somebody else. It's one of the most frustrating parts of youth ministry.
SPEAKER_03And parenting.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And parenting.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I can see that too. Oh, you know, I told this, told my kid to do this all week, and then they go to their friend's house, they come back. Well, they did the why did you do this over there, but not over here? Same thing. But all right. What
Jokes, Icebreakers, And Hot Dogs
SPEAKER_00do you got next? Icebreakers questions, jokes. What do you got? Anything good for us today?
SPEAKER_02Well, let's do the jokes first. Do you want joke first? Okay. All right. What do French fries do when they haven't seen each other in a while?
SPEAKER_00French fries? High five fry. High fry. Give each other a high fry. I don't know. I'm sorry. I'm like, genius. Genius. Tell us.
SPEAKER_02They catch up.
SPEAKER_01They catch up. My brain was way off. I was too. I was thinking potatoes.
SPEAKER_00That's where I was too. I was like, I did go to dip for a minute, but I was like, dip. I don't think that has anything to do with dip. Good job.
SPEAKER_02But high fry is pretty good. All right, last joke. How does a cat like its steak?
SPEAKER_03Medium. Medium.
SPEAKER_00Just as that. Did you say that?
SPEAKER_01Was that you, or was that a sound effect we have on the board? No, I did that.
SPEAKER_00That might be one of the top jokes we've had on the board.
SPEAKER_01I promise you, I'm telling that joke all the time. Oh my god. All the time.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01I need a tissue. Too bad we don't have those here. All right.
SPEAKER_00We really don't. I don't think there's any in here.
SPEAKER_02It's fine.
SPEAKER_00Ashley doesn't cry, so there's no tissues in her office.
SPEAKER_02I just cry alone.
SPEAKER_00All right. Let's bring it back here. We're off the rails already after the jokes. You got anything we can talk about to break this?
SPEAKER_01Icebreakers, obviously.
SPEAKER_00Like we obviously need icebreakers here.
SPEAKER_02Okay. First icebreaker. So here we've never done an office party, right? Like we don't, you know, we haven't done a Christmas party last this past year. We kind of did a little bit. Anyways, so the icebreaker is if you had a thousand dollars, how would you spend it on an office party?
SPEAKER_01One ice sculpture.
SPEAKER_00Would you say one ice sculpture? Wow. Well, I want to well, the obvious follow-up question is what is this sculpture of?
SPEAKER_01All of us.
SPEAKER_00Photo made of ice. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02All right. I kind of awesome.
SPEAKER_00Moving on. That's the only answer there could possibly be. So the rest of us are boring. Yep.
SPEAKER_02All right.
SPEAKER_00Did you have anything that you wanted to spend a thousand dollars on?
SPEAKER_02Not really. Nothing better than that.
SPEAKER_00Nothing better than that. That's right. That's the answer. Why did you just like she was thinking about it?
SPEAKER_01It's on the office, isn't it? Okay.
SPEAKER_00She stole it from somewhere.
SPEAKER_01I think so. I don't know. That's the first thing that popped into my mind. An unnecessary eye sculpture.
SPEAKER_02I was thinking more something like all of us get in a race car and like zoom around a track or something. What?
SPEAKER_00I don't know. I just a thousand dollars. We each give one, like we have one sharing go-kart, we just get track together.
SPEAKER_02Not a go-kart, like a NASCAR.
SPEAKER_00Oh, fine. So we can buy a tire for a NASCAR car with a thousand dollars. Do you know what a thousand dollars is? Sorry. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01I'm actually dying right now. A thousand dollars is a lot of money.
SPEAKER_02You are correct.
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay. It is a lot of money, but you can't you can't get us all race cars with a thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_02I don't know what no. Oh my gosh. Okay, there's experiences you can do at a NASCAR track. Okay, so you want to go to a NASCAR track. I want to do the the it's the right ride along it. No, we're all in the same car.
SPEAKER_00Oh, well, this is better then. Good. You want to ride along on the track.
SPEAKER_01Okay, moving on. I physically have a cramp in my side.
SPEAKER_00Wow. I would if I would spend my thousand dollars if I could. Here we go. Ice sculpture good. NASCAR good. Maybe. Now that I understand we're all in one car together, then we're not racing.
SPEAKER_03We're just cruising.
SPEAKER_00Do you want to after this? Do you all want to get in Brittany's car and just drive around the parking lot? Okay. We'll make Ashley's dreams come true.
SPEAKER_01At least my car has enough seats for everyone. I hope. We're gonna pull together each other. You know, I hope people are still listening. Oh shoot.
SPEAKER_00Alright, I'm not even gonna tell you my ideas.
SPEAKER_01No, you gotta, you gotta.
SPEAKER_02Okay, we're we're good. We're good.
SPEAKER_00Oh, it would be like an elaborate scavenger hunt.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that would be fun. Actually sounds reasonable.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, with a thousand dollars, you know, the prizes.
SPEAKER_02Anyway, it would be like one of those race things, like the great race.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like one of the you know, or oh, I really want to do a heist.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_00We all have something, there's something one thing in the church, and the first person to have it by a certain time limit is the winner. So I stole that from a TV show too. Okay, but that would be what I would do. I would spend a thousand dollars on a heist.
SPEAKER_02But in all honesty, we could do an escape room together.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we could do that.
SPEAKER_02Or it only costs like 50 bucks. Right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And we could all get in the same car and go there together, do laps around a roundabout, call it a day. All right. Sorry. I need to your idea was good, Ashley.
SPEAKER_02Okay, all right. My last icebreaker, nothing.
SPEAKER_00No, we're not doing any more icebreaker. Okay, all right, fine.
SPEAKER_02Okay, it's almost 4th of July.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02Right. This Saturday we're gonna have some hot dogs. Okay. What is your go-to toppings on your hot dog? Like, what's your ultimate hot dog look like?
SPEAKER_00I I mean, anything on a dog. I like cheese conies. They're the probably the best toppings. Chili, cheese, mustard. I'll put coleslaw on my hot dogs too. I love slaw on a dog.
SPEAKER_01I think that I like like a ruben topping.
SPEAKER_02Yes, I was gonna say hot dog. That'd be good. Like the shredded butt, corned beef, and sauerkraut.
SPEAKER_01If anything, I'm just ketchup mustard relish. Normal.
SPEAKER_02Like if that's all that you have available. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, if that's all we have available, that's what we're gonna use.
SPEAKER_01This is what I normally eat. Ultimate hot dog.
SPEAKER_00You know how icebreakers work? Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I gave my dream and my reality.
SPEAKER_00All right.
SPEAKER_02Ashley, it's only in our dream. I always live in my dreams.
SPEAKER_00Dream dog? Okay. Sorry. We can move on to the Bible
The Joy Of Judgment Question
SPEAKER_00now. All right. Thanks for if you're still listening. Thank you for being here. We appreciate you. We're gonna talk a little bit about a topic that was brought up. We thought this would be good to talk about. This might turn into a mini-series. We'll see how it goes. But we're gonna talk about judgment, the idea of judgment, because it's into the Bible. We talk we hear the word a lot. We hear judging or judgment from scripture, and and sometimes we have this. So I'll just ask, you know, what imagery comes to mind when you hear the word judgment? Courtroom. Courtroom?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I do think like final.
SPEAKER_00Final? Yeah. Like judgment day is coming.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like any it could be like I think you've heard that in movies before, like judgment day is coming.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Or like it could be anything that, you know, uh to a uh you know, resolution of some kind, like it's coming.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then in church, you know, judgment days, like the end of end times and stuff like that. You hear about that and stuff. A judge like on a bench with a one of those hammers with gavel. You know, that's what I think of when I think of judgment. And it's usually you think of judgment in in our culture where we live at, you hear the judgment you hear, it's not good, right? It's like negative. Yeah. Usually judgment in a negative context of you know, whatever it may be. Oh no, the judge is coming. It's bad. It's it's that's that's how I see people seeing judgment in our culture today. It's like negative, scared, not good. The judge is coming. Oh, that's terrible. And so that's kind of what we have in our minds, and we kind of have that idea. But I want to read a couple Bible verses from the Old Testament and the Psalms, and I'll show you that what judgment was in the Old Testament, and then kind of have this conversation about how we view judgment now, how uh Israelites viewed judgment in the Old Testament. So I'll just read these three verses that I pulled from the Old Testament. We have Psalm 96, 11 through 13. It says, Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice, let the sea and everything in it shout his praise. So we have creation shouting God's praise. We have this is a joyful time. Let the fields and their crops burst out with joy, let all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he is coming. And he's coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with justice and the nations with his truth. So we have this idea of judgment's coming, but everything is celebrating. Everything's joyful. It's this is a joyous time. The judge is coming, hoorah, let's do this. And so from what we just talked about, it's kind of flipped. It's not like, oh no, the judge is coming, it's gonna be bad. It's negative. This is joyful things. And then Psalm 9, seven through nine, but
Psalms Show Judgment As Good
SPEAKER_00But the Lord reigns forever, executing judgment from his throne. He will judge the world with justice and rule the nations with fairness. The Lord is a shelter for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. Once again, judgment and a positive thing. This is a good thing that God's coming to judge. And so this is a theme you see in the Old Testament of God's judge, and this is great. And so, and then you get to the New Testament a little bit later, and now we see judgment as what? Oh, it's more flipped, it's more of a negative thing. It's like, oh no, the jud judgment's coming, and it's more like a fear-based kind of thing, almost. So, this kind of just to talk about why the Old Testament speaks of judgment in a positive way. Isaiah 11, 3 through 4. He will delight in obeying the Lord. He will not judge by appearance or make a decision based on hearsay. He will give justice to the poor and make fair decisions for the exploited. The earth will shake at the force of his word, and one breath from his mouth will destroy the wicked. So you hear this, you see this idea of delighting in judgment, being joyful for judgment and things like that. And so that's where I look and I see this episode's gonna be called The Joy of Judgment. And like that title just kind of they don't go together. They don't go like that's that's the point is like well, the joy of judgment. Why are we happy about it? And so, but if you read the Bible, you read the Old Testament, apparently it's something to be celebrated. So, what is a judge anyway? What's a judge in our culture today? What do you guys think? What's a judge judge's role? How do people view judges? They determine the outcome, they determine the outcome, and they only show up when what? When we did something wrong, when someone's in trouble, when someone's in trouble, you know, and you've done something wrong. Our justice or our judging system in is kind of primarily in our in America is you know, for punishment.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00It's like it's a punishment, it's a judge determines guilt and hands down a sentence. That's what I think of when I think of a judge. I think of judgment, I think of punishment, guilt, judging a situation, things like that. And so it has a negative kind of thing to it in our culture. You know, uh if you're in a court, it's rarely a happy day. It's not like we're not happy to be in court. No one no one's happy to be there. Well, in our in our heads, we think that. Would you say anybody's happy to be in court?
SPEAKER_02Only when there's an adoption.
SPEAKER_00Only when there's an adoption? Yeah. That's happy. Yeah, that's happy. But when you're there to punish somebody, yeah, that's not happy. Not happy. Or can we see it in a different way? Maybe there is a reason to be happy once there's a judge around.
SPEAKER_02I mean, yeah, if somebody did
Judge As Rescuer And Justice
SPEAKER_02something wrong to you, then you'd want justice.
SPEAKER_00There we go. Now we're hitting on the the what the old testament's talking about. A judge was more like in the old testament, a judge was a liberator or a champion. You know, we read the book of judges. You remember any of their names?
SPEAKER_01Oh, shoot. Why'd you ask so fast?
SPEAKER_00I was just asking if you knew any of the judges. Like Gideon or there was a girl.
SPEAKER_01Deborah. Deborah. Deborah.
SPEAKER_00There we go. And Samson, all these judges, they weren't sitting behind big desks with a hammer, like just sitting on a bench, giving out things. They were actively, what, rescuing people from oppressors, trying to restore peace to the land. What the good judges did.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00There were terrible judges that didn't do that. But the good judges kind of wanted to try to make peace in the land. It didn't go very well. But they were at least out there attempting to do that. To ancient Israel, a judge arriving didn't feel like a police officer punishing you or a judge giving you a sentence. It was felt like uh a rescue. The judge showed up and it was like, Thank goodness the judge is here. He's here to help us because we're being oppressed, we're being taken advantage of. And so when you flip it and look at it that way, like if we have a courtroom today and somebody is being punished for something wrong they did to you, you're pretty happy with justice being served. So there is joy in that judgment. You're like, finally, they're getting what they deserve, right? Or at least some kind of consequence for their actions. And so that's how it ancient Israel sees God come in as a judge because if you think of Israel's history, what's their history been like?
SPEAKER_01Pretty great.
SPEAKER_00No, I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_01Just kidding. Like, what? What?
SPEAKER_00They were perfect, they were pretty good. No, they were they've been slaves in Egypt, they've been oppressed, they've been attacked by people outside, and then they they've oppressed themselves, and they have, you know, it's been rough.
SPEAKER_02Wandering around.
SPEAKER_00And so you hear God coming to the earth to judge, and they're like, about time. Like, good. Deal with these, deal with these injustices that are happening, rescue us. They see judge coming as a rescue. And so if we start to see it like that, it kind of makes more sense of these passages where the judge is coming and creation's shouting for joy, and there's celebration about it. And so I kind of like that. Also, in the Old Testament, I have there's two words that usually go together. Uh, in the Old Testament, you see judgment, and it almost always travels with righteousness. So you have judgment and righteousness usually in the same sentence. And when it's talked about in the Old Testament, they come together a lot. They are relational terms, they are terms that mean restoration, life-giving words of you know, judgment is good, righteousness is good. This is right, this is the right thing. And and the judge is coming to put things right. Uh, if you can look at it that way, putting things back the way they belong. That's what they saw when they saw the judge coming. That's what they thought of when they thought of judgment, they thought restoring things the way they were supposed to be. For us in our culture, uh and what we see, we usually hear judgment, and we're like, ah, punishment or you know, not good, scary, you know, and and and stuff like that. Well, when we look at this, we see bringing life, bringing things and putting them back together. Kind of like if a bully steals a kid's lunch money, judgment isn't just punishing the bully, it's making sure the kid gets his money back and can eat lunch in peace. This is like a restorative justice. Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00A little bit. And I think when we really break it down, we our initial reaction to judgment is kind of negative and kind of thing. But when we really think about it, we really want judgment, don't we?
SPEAKER_02We do. And the more I think about it, I'm like, even in our time now, like I think about all the bad that's happening. I'm like, man, I can't wait till God just comes and takes care of it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So yeah.
SPEAKER_00And who God judges for in the Old Testament? We read some of these in these pastures. It's it's who's he judging for? He's coming to judge for the people that can't stand up for themselves, the vulnerable people. Uh talks about widows and orphans, the poor, the foreigners, the people that are lowest on the scale, and he's coming for them. He's coming to put things right for those people. And so, and that's a lot of Israelites in the Old Testament, oppressed, poor, widows, orphans. It's a hard time. And to think in your head that the creator is coming to judge and put things back the way they should be. And that's kind of what they see in that way. Judgment is well, judgment is scary if you're the one doing the oppressing, if you're the one in the wrong, yeah, then judgment should be looked at as a negative thing, right? The corrupt kings or the liars, but if you're the victim of the abuse or the people who's, you know, been taken advantage of, the arrival of the judge is your only hope. And I think that's what the message is in the old testament of this. You know, true love must judge. If God is all loving, then he has to judge, right?
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00What if God did not judge? What if he just let it go because he's all loving? What do you think about that statement?
SPEAKER_01I have a lot of thoughts.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Because some people would say that they'd be like, Well, God's all loving.
SPEAKER_01Why is he gonna come and judge everybody and and and do this to the well, there would either be no justice or we would be in charge and it would just be a bigger mess.
SPEAKER_00No justice in yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, that's kind of where my mind goes to. That just probably wouldn't work out very well.
SPEAKER_00Probably wouldn't work out very well.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I think he judges because he loves us.
SPEAKER_00There we go. That's the you know, true love must judge. If he's all loving, then he has to judge. He has to come set things right, he has to look at something and be like, that's not good, that's bad. And there's consequences for that. So yeah, God's all loving and he judges because he does love us. If God looked at all the horrific things that happen and just shrugged and said, It's fine, I'm loving God, then you're not a loving God anymore.
SPEAKER_02Right. So you don't care if they change their ways. It's just like parenting. He wouldn't we didn't sorry.
SPEAKER_00Sorry, go ahead.
SPEAKER_02I just thinking, like, if we didn't, if we'd never corrected our kids because we love them, you know, can you imagine the muck that they would make of themselves because they're like, oh, mom and dad love us, we can just keep doing what we want to do. You know, no, love shows correction.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yeah, it's he can't just look at all the bad things and be like, I'm not gonna judge it because I'm full of love. But doesn't work. He wouldn't be good. He would be something else. I don't know, but it wouldn't be good. The Old Testament rejoices because God refuses to be silent about human suffering. He is gonna judge, he is gonna make things right. He's and that what that looks like is well, sometimes there's consequences for your actions of what you choose. And so they're rejoicing because God won't remain silent and he is going to judge. And so that's good. It's a good thing. The Old Testament, the the judgment is the you know cleaning up the messes, it's God rolling up his sleeves to fix a broken world. That's what he's doing when he comes to judge, he's trying to put things back the right way. And it's good for those who've been oppressed by sin and oppressed by brokenness and all these different things. Uh and it's not so good for the ones that are doing those things and rebelling against God. That's just the way that's how things work. And that's how
Jesus, Guilt, And Living It Out
SPEAKER_00God works. If judgment is this beautiful thing in the Old Testament, how did it become so terrifying? When did the narrative flip from think God the judge is coming to fix things to oh no, God's coming to get me? And so does that make sense?
SPEAKER_02It does.
SPEAKER_00When did it when did it change?
SPEAKER_02I was gonna say, I don't know what.
SPEAKER_00No, we're not gonna talk about that today. That's just kind of a thing to think about. We might talk about that on another episode, but that's where you kind of you go through all this things like, yeah, judgment's good, and and you know, we should we should need a a judge. So like real life things, like I put some examples on these papers of like a hit and run. Like if you're imagine somebody you're parked on the street and someone smashes into your car, and a police officer tracks down the driver, but then looks at you and says, Hey, I'm a loving guy. I'm just gonna go let him go off, let him let him go with a hug and make him say he's sorry.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Is that justice? Is that no? You'd be really angry because of the lack of judgment means your damage doesn't matter. What happened to you doesn't matter. In the real world, absolute absence of judgment isn't love, it's just not caring about people. And so I think there's a need for a verdict, there's a need for judgment. And you know, even if the first thought of judgment is negative and we're like, we don't like judging, we don't like judgment, it's bad. But if we dig a little deeper, we'll be like, yeah, actually we do need a judge. We do need somebody to come and make things right for us. Speaking of sports, how we started off, you know, the refs on the field. We all complain about the refs we hate, you know, we absolutely despise sometimes, but like we hate people we hate when people are judgmental, but we don't like referees who refuse to call fouls or just let things slide in a game. You're like, that was obviously a foul. Like you're not calling anything out there. What are you doing? Especially in basketball. Brittany, you played basketball, right? Yes, I did. Did you ever have in games where times when no fouls were called and you're like, what's happening out here?
SPEAKER_01No, no. Yes, those games were out of control.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they get out of control. They are very out of control. And so if a basketball game just turns into a chaotic free-for-all where people are just doing whatever they want, no one's getting fouls called, players get hurt, and the joy of the game is gone. A ref blowing the whistle to enforce the rules isn't ruining the game, they're saving the game. Yeah, that's what we can look at like God's not trying to ruin your life by having rules and being the judge, he's actually for you, and this is you know a good thing. And then kind of judgment as restorative justice, a landlord of an apartment, you know, if he ignores all the broken things and it gets moldy or broken pipes and it's everything's running down, all while just keeping the rent for himself. A city inspector shows up, slams down a big fine, and forces the landlord to rebuild the complex so the families have a safe place to live. That inspector is bringing judgment. But to the tenants, the judgment feels like absolute salvation from a terrible situation. You know, to the guy that, you know, he's judging me about what I'm doing. But the people living at the place are like, thank goodness you're in forcing this guy to make this a live better living place. And so these are just kind of examples in real life that I thought would help paint the picture as we close out the conversation. Anything else you guys think of or want to add? How does it change your view of God to realize that the Old Testament prophets viewed his judgment as a rescuer rather than an angry God? I think it helps see us see God better for those that may not know him very well. Because you hear about God's judging the world and it's angry and he's wrathful and he's all he is all those things sometimes.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, it's a lot to think about. I like the examples that you gave.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01That definitely helps.
SPEAKER_00Helps a little bit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I mean, in the end, we we will be judged, right? Like we're gonna we're gonna stand before God and be judged for what we've done in this life. And it still can be a little scary.
SPEAKER_00Well, only if you don't know who Jesus is, I guess. Yeah. Because if you have a relationship with God Himself and you have a relationship with Jesus, then you you get judged, but But we still have freedom.
SPEAKER_02Well, not freedom. I mean, yes, freedom, but yeah, but basically we have somebody who steps in and says, Yes, they did all these things, however, I knew them.
SPEAKER_00Like walking into a courtroom knowing you're gonna be innocent. There's nothing to fear, there's nothing to be scared of. It's Jesus is your defense attorney, and he's like, got this. And he just goes up and then you're like, Yeah, this isn't nothing to worry about because I know that guy, and he's on my side, and kind of how you can turn the whole thing around there.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, I think sometimes maybe the fear is just unknown, maybe, and like what how's it gonna look? What's it gonna be like? But the judgment part itself, we've already been declared innocent because of what Christ did for us. So it's not like we're gonna you should you shouldn't have to stand there and worry about you know how the how the scales are gonna fall because Jesus already promises us that if we trust him and we love him, we're good. And that's the good news of the gospel. Does that make sense? Kind of. You have a question, don't you?
SPEAKER_01I don't know if we want to open with more questions or not.
SPEAKER_00We still got a little bit of time left. We're not crazy long yet.
SPEAKER_01Okay, is it normal to feel like okay, I understand what you're saying, and I understand that Jesus is gonna be my lawyer or my defender.
SPEAKER_00And yeah, it's not it's not that simple, really, but that's just kind of a analogy that I use real quick.
SPEAKER_01I think that that's like if well, however you want to picture it.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01I feel like what about the people that I've hurt? I mean, I've done a lot of bad things. Like God's gonna take care of those like I just I don't know. It's just a lot of guilt. Because I'm like, man, I deserve so much judgment for the things that I've done in my life. And I I don't take that lightly that you know Christ is taking that punishment for me. And those people that I've wronged. I mean, hopefully it's made right. I mean, I think that it will be. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's where uh just trusting God as who he is and knowing that he's fair and he is just in all things. And so whatever that looks like, you know, he's gonna take care of it. But for all the things we do against people, yeah, we should care about that. Especially if we know if we know Christ now and we we wrong somebody, it should. I mean, you should you should want to make it right after that. Yeah. If you if you if you claim to be a follower of Christ and you're you're a Christian and you say, I want to trust Jesus and I love him, but you find yourself still hurting other people or wronging other people.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and just thinking like, oh well then guess what that means?
SPEAKER_00What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01I want you to explain it.
SPEAKER_00You don't really know who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You don't have him on your side. You've misunderstood who he is and what he wants from you. If you claim him and you're still mistreating others, that's not good. That's you don't know who he is. Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because you can't you can't trust him. Very nervous. You can't trust him. You can't trust Jesus and say you follow him and then go out and be an oppressor and be one of the people that are causing violence and think, you know. Blessed are those who are the peacemakers, blessed are those who mourn for the world, blessed are those who seek justice and and thirst for his righteousness. You know, that's what following Jesus is about. And if you don't strive for those things, then you've rejected him. You might think you haven't. You might think like, I love Jesus. I want to you can say that all you want, but if you're not those things, then you don't you've you've missed him somehow. Just like the Pharisees in the New Testament, they they've missed God. They've they think they know God, they think they're doing the right thing, but that's why Jesus comes and he talks most harshly to those people because they should know better. So those are the people that should really worry on judgment day, is the ones that claim Christ, but have no idea who he is. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00And I'm not saying when we bec when we're following Jesus that we don't slip up, but when you do, you should feel it.
SPEAKER_01You should be like, I So my guilt is okay.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01I think I think I knew we were going there.
SPEAKER_00I think your guilt is a good thing, actually. Like if you don't feel guilty when you then you've got a problem. But if you you trying your best to follow Jesus, yeah, you'll make mistakes and things happen. But if if the thing the worrisome part is when you do it and you're like, ah, it'll be okay. I'm forgiven. No, go make it right. Go do your best not to hurt people again.
SPEAKER_01What? I just that's uh I mean I know that people think like that.
SPEAKER_00What do you mean, people think like that?
SPEAKER_01Like, oh, it's okay, God'll forgive me.
SPEAKER_00I can shoot people however I want to because I'm for yeah, that's the danger. That's I that's a danger. And we have to be like, no, that's not really Jesus. It's a it's a sh it's almost you know, you get the point of like, yes, you're forgiven, but you have a higher standard to live by now because of whose you are and who you belong to, Jesus, and that's what he says. He's like, you know, you claim my name and I don't know who you are. Get out of here. That's not good. No. So for those of you guys listening, I mean, hopefully you all know who Jesus is and you understand that yeah, you make mistakes, but if you're not striving, if you're not feeling guilty when you wrong somebody or when you do something against him, re recheck yourself, I guess, you know, just to recenter. And so yeah, judgment is a good thing. Especially when you're on the side of Christ. It's we should rejoice, we should be, and that's what they're doing in the Old Testament. They love God, they they're seeking after him, and they're like, He's coming to judge. This is a good thing because he's gonna save us, he's gonna rescue us. There you go.
unknownThank you.
SPEAKER_00I think that's enough for today. We've talked about a lot, but that's just kind of a I thought it was a actually it was, you know, who John threw this idea out there about the Old Testament judgment and New Testament judgment. How did it get to to where it is now? We'll discuss it on another, we'll go another step further and talk about how we got to where we got to on another episode sometime.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm really interested in that.
SPEAKER_00And we'll we'll do one there. But yeah, just I think it's interesting to see, especially when you're reading through like is the Psalms are like, ah, joy, the judge is coming. It's so we're so happy that the judge is here, and to a regular person in especially American culture, because you know the one of my
Privilege, Hope, And Closing Prayer
SPEAKER_00favorite scholars listen to is N.T. Wright, and he says, our modern American fear of judgment actually betrays our privilege. If you're comfortable and safe, a judge arriving to upend all uh upend things sounds annoying or scary, you know, because we're we really our lives in America are pretty comfortable.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And we're, you know, we don't face all these things. And yeah, there's some small things, there's some bad things, obviously. But if you're comfortable and you're safe, a judge coming sounds like uh annoying, like he's gonna make us do things, or he's gonna, you know, but if you're being oppressed or abused, or you're a victim and completely powerless, the arrival of the judge is your only hope.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00And that's what we see: God being for his people, the only hope to rescue us from being oppressed by sin, being oppressed by brokenness in the world. True love must judge oppression, or it isn't actually love. So that's what I'll leave you with. What the Bible talks about judgment, and we'll do another one uh sometime to move forward. But good job. That was a fun one. Yeah, I think. Even though we started off crazy. Um sorry. Hopefully, people keep listening. And let's pray and then uh we'll sign off. God, thank you so much for today. Thanks for allowing us to have discussions about you, have crazy talks about weird things, and and laugh and tell jokes, and thank you for humor and letting us enjoy life. Thank you that you are loving and that you will judge, and that you don't let things just go, that you will make things right, whatever that looks like to you, and we trust you, and we know you're fair and that you are qualified to judge things, and that you do love us, and that's why you judge. And so we thank you for the people listening. Be with us this week as we go out and give us opportunities to show uh who God who you really are to people, and thankful for Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, thanks, guys. We'll see you next time on rush hour.