For who is like Me, and who will summon Me into court? And who then is the shepherd who can stand against Me?” (Jeremiah 49:19)

For who is like Me, and who will summon Me into court? And who then is the shepherd who can stand before Me?” (Jeremia 50:44)

Hebrew repetition suggests emphasis. God declared final judgment on Edom and Babylon, likely for their incomparable arrogance against Judah. In three questions, God declared His incomparable authority. 

• Who is like Me? Answer: No one
• Who will summon Me into court? Answer: No one
• Who is the shepherd who can stand before Me? Answer: No one

God's incomparable authority, particularly His authority to judge, is here affirmed and emphasized. 

In the New Testament, where James teaches against believers condemning each other, we read this:

There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor? (James 4:12).

God alone has the authority to make laws and to judge because He alone has the power to save and to destroy. People, even believers, have no such power; therefore, they have no authority to judge, that is, condemn each other. The authority to judge is directly correlated to the power to carry out that judgment. 

Friends, what implications should this teaching have for us. It should produce in us both reassurance and fear: Reassurance because we do not need to fear any man, for no man has authority over our final destiny. Fear because we ought to obey God with fear and trembling, for He has absolute authority over our final destiny. So the Lord taught His disciples,

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28).

Again, we read from Paul,

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose (Philippian 2:12-13).

It is this knowledge that will provide confidence against the greatest trials and challenges in our lives. And this same knowledge will spur us on to greater obedience to God. This understanding will remove every earthly anxiety, as no earthly circumstance can hold sway over God's promises to us. This understanding will continually prompt us to prioritize God's kingdom and righteousness in our personal walk, in our marriages, in our families, in our work, in our past times, even in every facet of every part of our lives. 

God has the power. He, therefore, has the authority. Let us, then, not fear any man. Instead, let us fear God. 

In those days and at that time,’ declares the Lord, ‘search will be made for the iniquity of Israel, but there will be none; and for the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.’ (Jeremiah 50:20).

Jeremiah speaks here of God's sovereign grace in pardoning the sins of His people. It is not that they would stop sinning but that God would remove the guilt of their sin. David expresses this in this psalm:

As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us (Psalm 103:12).

When God works according to merit, there is only the fearful prospect of judgment; however, when He works according to grace, there is pardon from sin. This is the dichotomy between law and grace, Moses and Christ:

For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ (John 1:16-17).

As the Bible teaches, there was grace before Christ came, for Old Testament saints like David and Jeremiah spoke of it and experienced it, but this grace was not fully realized until Christ came. While the Law of Moses revealed the universality and depth of man's sinfulness and inability to be righteous before God, Christ would reveal in full truth the depth and power of God's grace in bringing forgiveness of sin to His chosen and establshing them in the righteousness of God. Here is how Christ accomplished it:

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).

For what the Law [of Moses] could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us (Romans 8:3-4).

Praise God, not for what we have accomplished for Him but for what He has accomplished in us through Jesus Christ our Lord! Therefore, let us daily walk in praise and obedience to Him, who has declared us righteous in Christ, working out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12), knowing that He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it (Philippians 1:6).

Yesterday, I mentioned that it is fascinating that these oracles against the nations have not one call to repentance. I find another interesting observation today. There is also no mention of sins or offenses for which these nations are being judged. The implication is that they are wicked idolators and all enemies of God's people Israel, which we can easily verify by finding other references to these nations in the Old Testament. 

Nevertheless, the pronouncements are given as sovereign declarations of God's will, whether to judge completely or to restore at a later time. Since these oracles have no catalogue of sins or call to repentance, perhaps we are meant to just gain a sense of God's power over the nations and of the nations' dread in the face of God's wrath. 

What is described in these oracles is not nations fighting nations but God fighting the nations, and they are depicted as being helpless against God's attack, with their every effort to repel it being futile.

The collective message of these oracles seems to shout the rhetorical challenge: "Who can stand against God?!" "Who can resist His will?!" The only sensible response is to humble onself in repentance, so that perchance God may withhold His fierce and irrepressible wrath and extend mercy and grace. 

In this way the great city of Nineveh was saved from terrible judgment. They humbled themselves and repented when Jonah pronounced judgment against them. After David's two capital crimes of adultery and murder, David humbled himself with deep and sincere repentance, and he was forgiven. Mark this. He did not deserve to be forgiven, but he was, nevertheless, given forgiveness by God. Of this David writes in Psalm 51:

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. (Psalm 51:1-4, 16, 17 NIV)

You see, there was no sacrifice for willful sins, and that is what David committed against Bathsheba and Uriah. That is why he says, "You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings." He does not mean by this that God rejects sacrifices or burnt offerings, for God instituted them in the first place, but he means that these mean nothing in the context of willful disobedience. The crimes that David committed were capital crimes, for which there was no monetary or other compensation. There was only the death penalty. 

The nations too were guilty of capital crimes. They rejected God and followed their own self-styled idols. We too are guilty of similar capital crimes. Therefore, we too deserve capital punishment. But when we humble ourselves and repent, we discover that our God is merciful and gracious. He went so far as to satisfy His just wrath by taking the punishment upon Himself, through the death of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, so that we, who are the truly guilty ones, might live.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV)

Hallelujah!