But with righteousness shall he judge the poor

Isaiah {11:1} And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of
Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: {11:2} And
the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of
wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; {11:3}
And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of
the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes,
neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: {11:4} But
with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with
equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth
with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips
shall he slay the wicked. {11:5} And righteousness shall be
the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his
reins. {11:6} The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and
the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the
young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall
lead them. {11:7} And the cow and the bear shall feed; their
young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat
straw like the ox. {11:8} And the sucking child shall play
on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his
hand on the cockatrice’ den. {11:9} They shall not hurt nor
destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full
of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea


'And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes.
Neither reprove after the hearing of his ears.
But with righteousness shall he judge the poor.'

The only way we do judge is with the sight of our eyes and hearing of our ears.

We only have the ability to judge in those ways, right?

We have no righteousness in ourselves with which to judge with because we are all sinners and subject to judging only as sinners.

The judges we have in courts are they righteous?

No.

They like to claim impartiality and fairness but all their judging is colored by their own sinfulness.

The juries we use to judge others are filled with sinners.

We like to think we are fair and for the sinners we are just maybe we are as fair as we can be, yet there is no getting around the fact that we judge without the purity that only the Lord can judge us with.

He judges without sight, without hearing, but with righteousness.

We are told not to judge--

Matthew
{7:1} Judge not, that ye be not judged. {7:2} For with
what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what
measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.


Does this mean we cannot judge anything at all? If this were the case how could we even judge right from wrong? This doesn't mean we aren't to judge for ourselves, it means we are not to judge for others.

You'll get a lot of people shouting and condemning others, pointing their fingers at them and telling them they're doomed. Even in our Bible we have those men of God who went to the people and told them if they didn't change their ways they'd be destroyed. We have to know right from wrong to be able to judge the difference. We can judge an action, we can shout the penalty for wrong actions, but we cannot condemn anyone, we cannot judge their eternal life- that is only for the one and only Righteous One to do, the One who can judge without sight or hearing but with righteousness.

Am I saying we shouldn't have judges and juries, trials and hearings, jailings and dismissals? No. We do what we need to do in society to keep people safe and such.

We can't claim to know anyone's eternal life status.

We might think we can, but we can't.

We can judge actions, but not the eternal life.

I can judge that the action of a person as being an action that is wrong, I can tell that people what they are doing is wrong, I can even tell the person that if it's not repented of they may lose eternal life, but ultimately I cannot tell that person they are unsaved and never going to have eternal life. I cannot be that judge, I only judge with what I see and hear, I don't know the heart, I can't know their thoughts. The One who judges with Righteousness, He knows it all.

There is a special reassurance for all of us that we will be judged with Righteousness and not as men judge one another. God will judge with pure righteousness. This is why we cannot be saved of our ownselves in our own righteousness-

Romans {3:10} As it is written, There is
none righteous, no, not one.

2 Peter {1:1} Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus
Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us
through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ

Through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ.

Gal. {5:5} For we through the Spirit
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

Our hope, our faith, our righteousness is found only in Jesus Christ.

We have no righteousness of our own, our righteousness exists by faith in Jesus Christ and His righteousness.

There is comfort knowing we are not judged by our own righteousness which falls far short of any righteousness at all.

This doesn't mean we aren't to judge between right and wrong actions and follow after what we know to be right, it does mean that ultimately every one of us sinners has to rely on Christ and His righteousness, we have no righteousness of our own that is even comparable to the righteousness of Christ.

There is hope in knowing we aren't to be judged by sight, by hearing as we know it but by righteousness, Christ's righteousness. There is hope and the knowledge that it is only by the mercy and grace of our Lord will we be saved by His righteousness.

May the Lord bless and keep us, by faith in Christ may we live.

Amen.