Shophet – the Judge of the Earth

The name of God for week 21 in Ann Spangler’s Praying the Names of God for 52 Weeks is judge, shophet. What comes to mind? A fusty, crusty curmudgeon who’s all too willing to bang his gavel and declare, “Guilty?” When I was a child, that’s what I thought. I had this vague idea that God was watching me, shaking his head while cataloguing my faults on a clipboard with a pen whose red ink never ran out. Well, I was wrong.

So wrong.

He’s a just and merciful judge who understands our weaknesses. He took my punishment upon himself and removed my sin as far as the east is from the west. I wasted years running from him, thinking he thought of me as a disappointment. No! He wants us to run to him when we fail, knowing we will find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4)

Yes, he’s a judge. What did that look like? In the Ancient Near East, there was no separation of powers like we have in the US Constitution. The king was the executive, legislative, and judicial branches all rolled into one monarch. He made the laws, interpreted them, and enforced them. When you read a passage about the king sitting in the gate, that’s when he acted as judge.  One well-known example can be found in 1 Kings 3. We see King Solomon the Wise acting as judge, using a shocking tactic to get to the truth.

²⁵ And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.” ²⁶ Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him.” ²⁷ Then the king answered and said, “Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put him to death; she is his mother.” ²⁸ And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice. – 1 Kings 3:25-28

Just what kind of Judge is our King? When Abraham bargained for Lot’s life, he knew Yahweh was righteous and just.

Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” – Genesis 18:25

The psalmist of Psalm 94 trusted the Shophet of the earth to be his stronghold and refuge. He knows the steadfast love of the Lord.

For the Lord will not forsake his people;
he will not abandon his heritage;
¹⁵ for justice will return to the righteous,
and all the upright in heart will follow it.

¹⁶ Who rises up for me against the wicked?
Who stands up for me against evildoers?
¹⁷ If the Lord had not been my help,
my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. – Psalm 94:14-17

What about you? Do you fear his justice? Do you know his mercy? Do you trust him to punish evildoers and to uphold you with his steadfast love?