I recently had a brand new experience—jury duty. Without getting into a lot of details, I’ll just say that it was mostly interesting, and the process had the overall effect of making me appreciate our American legal system. One of the key players of that week was the judge, a mild-mannered man who we only saw from the torso and up until he came into the jury room after we delivered our verdict. He had the job of presiding over the arguments made by the opposing counsels and giving us our directions. Honestly, I can’t imagine carrying around the mental and emotional weight of being a judge. It has to be exhausting. Though I know next to nothing about the law (other than what I’ve learned from TV and movies), I do have the Scriptures to tell me about our Ultimate Judge and Final Authority. For instance, Isaiah 33:22 says, “For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is He who will save us.” It helps to get a little context about this statement from the prophet Isaiah. This was an incredibly difficult time. God’s people were experiencing bleak living conditions. For years, the land had been divided—Israel in the north and Judah in the south. When God gave the prophet Isaiah these words, the Northern Kingdom was losing to the Assyrians, but enemy nations were wreaking havoc on both kingdoms. Even though Judah was ruled by one of the better kings, Hezekiah, the Southern Kingdom would also eventually collapse once Hezekiah was gone. So Isaiah was called on to prophesy about the defeat that was coming. He delivers a lot of “woe to yous” about how bad it was going to be, not only for God’s people, but also for the surrounding nations who God would use to punish His people. You have to wonder if people would head the other direction when they saw Isaiah walking down the street. “Uh-oh. Here comes Mr. Bad News!” But God didn’t just give Isaiah negative headlines to report. God also gave him words of hope, and a reminder that God keeps all His promises—the ones that benefit us and the ones that sting us. So when Isaiah says in verse 22 (as The Message paraphrases it)… “For God makes all the decisions here. God is our king. God runs this place and he’ll keep us safe…” it’s like Isaiah is giving them a little pep talk. He’s saying “It’s going to get really bad…even worse than it already is…but God is always the one who calls the shots. He’s in control.” And just as true as it was 700 years before Christ was born, it’s still true today. Those three job descriptions for God—judge, lawgiver, and king—are the answer to so many questions we may face. Questions like “Why is it wrong to steal?” and “Why should I talk to God first before I make decisions?” and “Why does that evil person keep getting richer/more powerful?” are answered by this verse. As the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end, God has the final say in every situation. And we are blessed by this reality! We could do no good thing without Him!