Execute the judgement written
In the contemporary world, there is separation of powers in democratic government. We have the executive arm of the government that rules. There is the legislative arm that makes the law and then you have the judiciary that interprets the law, punishes the offenders and decides on litigations that may arise from the law. There is an important arm of the government which enforces and carry out the implementations of the laws made. In this category you have the law enforcement agency like Police, Immigration and custom officials and such similar bodies.
Psa 149:6-9 KJV 6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a twoedged sword in their hand; 7 To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; 8 To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; 9 To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the LORD.
The dictionary defines the word “execute” as to carry out; to put into effect.
In order word, the laws and judgement made mus be effected.
In the passage that we have, one of the honours that we have as people of God especially the saints is to execute the judgement written. In this article i will be looking at both the Old and New Testament and we will see how judgement were executed and what is our roles today.
1Sam 15:2-3 KJV 2 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. 3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
God asked Saul to take vengeance against the Amalekites because of what they did when Israel were coming out from Egypt.
Exo 17:8 KJV Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.
It was in this war that the Sun and the Moon stood still while Joshua battle with the Amalekites. The Amalekites had troubled the Israelites.
Deu 25:18 KJV How he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God.
And God had vowed to destroy and blot them out completely. So He sent Saul to go and execute the judgement of four hundred years now. This is the judgement:
Exo 17:14 KJV And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
It was documented and it was to be executed by Saul. I guess the inability of Saul to duly carried the mandate out made God to reject him as king. This will tell you how serious it is to effect or execute the judgement already written.
In the time of Elijah, Ahab was the king and he alongside with his wife Jezebel committed many atrocities. Ahab through his wife killed Naboth and God sent Elijah to meet him in the garden of Naboth. This was his judgement:
1Ki 21:21-24 KJV 21 Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, 22 And will make thine house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and made Israel to sin. 23 And of Jezebel also spake the LORD, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. 24 Him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat.
In second kings, Jehu was to be anointed to carry out that judgement and this is what Elisha the successor to Elijah said to Jehu:
2Ki 9:7-10 KJV 7 And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, at the hand of Jezebel. 8 For the whole house of Ahab shall perish: and I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel: 9 And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah: 10 And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her. And he opened the door, and fled.
Did it happen as prophesied?
2Ki 9:35-37 KJV 35 And they went to bury her: but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands. 36 Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel: 37 And the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel; so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel.
Because of what Jehu did, God rewarded him:
2Ki 10:30 KJV And the LORD said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.
This will tell us how God value the execution of the judgement pronounced.
When the Lord Jesus came, He operated as man even though He was God in His spirit. The reason is that only a spirit with physical body can operate on the earth. God Himself in His majesty cannot deal with the evil being perpetrated on the earth because He has given the rulership of the earth unto man Ps 115: 16. It will amount to violation of His word if He began to do those things. This is what the Lord said as regarding execution of judgement:
Joh 5:27 KJV And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
Many times the demons been cast out knew Jesus and they wanted to challenge His authority because they knew that God cannot cast them to hell before their time but what they forgot was that Jesus even though as God did not act or operate as God but man, so He has authority to send them out.
Mat 8:29 KJV And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?
As we go through the new Testament we see the Apostles exercising their authority and equally executing judgements. From the book of Acts to the remaining part of the epistles, the execution were duly carried out.
The Execution can be categorized into two:
- Judgement directly against the devils, demons and evil spirit
- Judgement executed against souls that were sold to the devil.
Act 16:18 KJV And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.
Here the girl was possessed by the spirit of soothsaying with which the owners were making money, she was following Paul up and down for many days until Paul rebuked the spirit that possessed the girl and he came out of her. Why was Paul able to do this? Jesus had said before He left in Mark 16: 17 In my name they shall cast out the devil. That is the judgement. They must be cast out and not tolerated.
Act 8:7 KJV For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed.
Act 5:16 KJV There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one.
Judgement were also made against people that have sold their souls to the devil and had become agents of the Satan.
Act 8:18-24 KJV 18 And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, 19 Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. 20 But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. 21 Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. 22 Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. 23 For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. 24 Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me.
Simon was a sorcerer who had deceived many to the extent that many thought that he had magical power but when he saw that power pass power, he believed. However, his mind had not changed so he offered money to buy original power and that got Peter to deal with him. Simon knew the power behind words so he begged Peter to revert his curse.
Paul did a similar thing to a man called Bar Jesus who was like a principal to the ruler of a town. He was perverting the gospel. This is what Paul said concerning him:
Act 13:11 KJV And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand.
Paul also handed over people to Satan:
1Co 5:5 KJV To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
1Ti 1:20 KJV Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
To delivered someone unto Satan means to excommunicate the fellow from the intercessory prayers and communion of believers. When a person is excommunicated, it is assumed that he is under the dominion and jurisdiction of Satan who may inflict bodily afflictions on him. Most likely this will make him him to retrace his footsteps and come back to the Lord. The person will not also benefit from the intercessory prayers of the church and so he is at the mercy of the devil.
We can remit people sin and we can hold it on them.
Joh 20:23 KJV Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.
The word “remit” in Greek is “aphiemi” and it means: to send ; (to go)); to send forth, in various applications: – cry, forgive, forsake, lay aside, leave, let (alone, be, go, have), omit, put (send) away, remit, suffer, yield up.
In order word we can allow an individual to reap the wages of his sin that he is committing by withdrawing our intercession for him this is remission and on the other hand, we can use our intrcessory prayers to stay off the devil from inflicting the consequence of an individual sin on them while we are reaching out to them in speaking and preaching the gospel and this is retaining.
Let us go back to our text in Psalms 149: 6
Psa 149:6 KJV Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a twoedged sword in their hand;
Praise is also an instrument of warfare. It was used in 2Chro 20 when three nations came against Jehoshaphat, while the the children of Judah were praising God, God set ambushment against their enemies, they helped to destroyed one another.
While Paul and Silas were in the prison singing praises, the prison doors were thrown open and all the bounds were loosed.
Act 16:25-26 KJV 25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. 26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.
This is what the Lord says about praise:
Mat 21:16 KJV And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?
But this is what the Psalmist said:
Psa 8:2 KJV Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
The Lord changed the Psalmist word ordained strength to perfect praise and the purpose is to still the enemy. Praise still the enemy.
Psalm 149 also says we are to take the two edged sword. In the book of Ephesians where Paul was talking about the armour of God which we are to put on, he mentioned the sword there.
Eph 6:17 KJV And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
The sword of the spirit is the word of God. The word there means rhelma. Rhelma is the spoken word over you. It is special word for a particular situation and time spoken over you. In the book of Revelation, the Bible talked about two edged sword coming out of the mouth of Jesus Rev 1: 16. I believe it is the word that is being referred to there.
What the Bible is saying is that we should take the word of God in our mouth and use it to execute judgement over the devils and his cohorts. And if there be any agent of the devil, we do the same. We should take advantage of this to heal the sick,deliver the oppressed, set the captives free, change lives, resist the devil as Jame 4: 7 says and put the enemy to flight.
A Christian that is passive and asking God to fight for him will become a prey in the hand of the enemy. God will rise through you. You need to take up the sword of the spirit praying the word of God.
Execute judgement over sickness, afflictions of the devil, poverty and lack. Tell them to go to where they belong. Declare that you have been redeemed from curses of the law, let the devil know that you are no longer under his jurisdiction of the devil Col 1: 12-13. Cancel every evil word spoken over you by any man dead or living.
We are the law enforcement officers in the New Testament. The victory that has been won for us has to be enforced over the devil. Jesus is sitting on the right hand of the father waiting till His enemy will be made his footstool. We are the one Jesus is waiting for as His physical body on the earth today to put the enemy under.
Heb 1:13 KJV But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?
Jesus said the prince of this word is judged already.
Joh 16:11 KJV Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
The Greek word used for “judge” there is in Perfect tense. Therefore, rightly, hath been judged. The death of Christ was a judgment or a condemnation of Satan.
So it has our duty to execute that judgement. He has lost his authority that he stole from Adam. The second Adam has restored us to a place of authority and power. We are seated in heavenly paces in Christ Jesus. This is our honour and privilege. We can never be disadvantaged.