To Judge Rightly

We use the word “judge” to often mean “condemn” or “find guilty,” but the Scriptures don’t use the word that way. The word “judge” means “judging correctly” to determine who is wrong.

But the Hebrew word contains another valuable meaning: to plead on behalf of the accused.

This is a beautiful image, because it means every mention of God acting as judge, or judging the nations, points to a God who is going to rightly determine fault, but who is ALSO going to defend the accused.

And this makes Genesis 6:3 rather interesting.

Many translators went with “contend,” which means to struggle with, or assert a position in an argument. Like… “deal with,” or “address.”

But this word is “judge.” Because we naturally read this as “condemn,” we often read the shortening of years as punishment.

But it can be understood this way:

My Spirit won’t arbitrate/defend humans eternally. They’re flesh, not Spirit like Me. But I’ll arbitrate and defend them for 120 years – all the years of their lives. I will not abandon them.

While we often focus on the years being shortened as the primary issue, the first thing God says is that He will not judge eternally, because humans are not immortal. But we can then infer that He will arbitrate and defend us even in our shortened lives.