Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward. (Isaiah 58:8)
And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. (Psalm 37:6)
Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. (Psalm 97:11)
Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. (Psalm 112:4)
Remember that there are conditions for all this. God promises that our light will break forth as the morning when we readily help those in need with their practical needs and spiritual needs. The same blessing is given to the upright, so I hypothesise that the upright man is a man that does these practical things. It seems that the righteous man is essentially the same as the upright man.
It makes sense why we would want our righteousness to be like the morning light, but why would we want our judgment to be like the noonday? Do we want all our sins and faults to be on display?
No of course not, the sins of the wicked will face them, but not the righteous. Judgment is not a bad thing for the follower of Jesus. One who follows Christ is forgiven and his sins covered. His name will come up in the judgment and his deeds will be seen by the angels but not in his presence. The judgment will not find him "guilty" but rather "not guilty" and it will be shown to everyone that he was righteous. It is a comfort to me that when everyone thinks I have done something wrong when I have not it will be known one day that I was innocent. We do not necessarily need to vindicate ourselves, Jesus will do that. We never need to avenge ourselves, Christ will judge. The judgment is important and comforting and holds no fear to the sincere follower of Jesus.
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