Psalm 16:2

Good morning, my LORD.

My Shepherd met me in His green pastures, reading Isaiah 59, Verses 8 and 15, is where the Mind of the Spirit engaged the spirit of my mind:

Isaiah 59:8 The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.

Isaiah 59:15 Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.

The word judgment translates the Hebrew word מִשְׁפָּֽט (mishpat). It includes the official verdict, sentencing, and the execution of the sentence for an offense. The execution of judgment is the primary exercise of justice. What is Just comports with God’s Law. Injustice contradicts God’s Law. Judgment enforces God’s Law and restores justice.

God has committed certain levels of judgment to man, including the death penalty for murder (Genesis 6:9). He has placed His sword in the hands of the ordained powers and charged those who hold it to execute wrath against doers of evil (Romans 13:1-6). When those responsible for executing judgment fail to do so, God is displeased (Isaiah 59:15). It disrupts the peace, not only for the offender but for all disturbed by the offense (Isaiah 59:8).

Along the still waters, I thought of Job’s complaint: “Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net. Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment” (Job 19:6-7). When justice fails, evil prevails. Job’s friends erred in their judgment of him, and he felt that God had abandoned him. He cried out against the wrong that had come upon him but felt God had not heard: “I cry aloud, but there is no judgment” (Job 18:7).

The Spirit reminded me of what Ezekiel taught us. In Ezekiel 9, we learn that before GOD takes the sword of judgment from the hands of men into his own hands and unleashes it to execute His wrath against the evildoers, He mercifully searches the hearts of His people. Those who cry and sigh for the sins of the land are marked and set aside from the scourge (Ezekiel 9:4, read 1-11).

In the valley, in the shadow of His Cross, I got up off my “lees” (Zephaniah 1:12; see Jeremiah 48:11) and went down to my knees. Fear seized my heart when I considered how many are “settled on their lees” and not repenting on their knees. Zephaniah and Jeremiah use the expression to speak of God’s people who have become jaded, self-contented, and smugly dismiss any concern for God’s judgment, saying in their heart, “The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil” (Zephaniah 1:12). Then the Spirit took me to Jeremiah: “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth” (Jeremiah 23:5). None can hide (23:24). Jesus is the Branch (Matthew 2:23, Isaiah 11:1),* the King, prince over all the kings of the earth (Revelation 1:5). The King is our Shepherd. His voice we hear: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18). And the Spirit sang of “the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:19-23).

The King spoke: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). His servant obeyed!

At the table, He anointed my head with His oil and filled my cup with His grace. Goodness and mercy followed us into the Harvest.

Praying for revival! 🙏

A critical prayer meeting is called for Sunday at 5 pm. Please do what you can to attend and participate in what I believe will be a pivotal prayer meeting.

*See Devotional note: 20250713.Branch. Evidence supporting the connection between the Hebrew word for Branch (צֶ֣מַח) and the Greek word for Nazarene (Ναζωραῖος ).