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“God judges gods”
When we think of the final judgment, we usually think of the infinite throng of humanity down through the ages standing before the Great White Throne of God and receiving what is due them for the deeds they did or did not do while in the body. Perhaps we think of ourselves as individuals, bowing the knee before the Father, and seeing God searching out our name in the Lamb's Book of Life. Maybe we think of Matthew chapter 25 and the picture of judgment Jesus painted where God separates people left and right, sheep and goats, saved and unsaved.
And it is true, all of this. But there is even more to judgment, in fact. Did you know that God also will judge the gods? What do I mean? Consider Numbers 33:1-4. This is an account of the children of Israel leaving Egyptian slavery - walking out of Egypt to the place God had prepared for them. The language of the text is quite dramatic (and, in a sense, horrific) when it says that as they walked out, they passed by the Egyptians, now busy burying their firstborn, slain in the 10th and final plague that led to the exodus.
One day after the first Passover, Israel left Egypt "triumphantly" by the power of God, while massive burials are taking place all over the most powerful nation on earth. This was a terrible judgment from the Lord upon the people of Egypt, from great to small. But that wasn't all the judging that had happened. Notice the closing phrase - ""On their gods also the Lord executed judgments." What gods? The "mighty" gods of Egypt. God judged the gods. Through the plagues, God confronted the power of the so-called gods of the Egyptians, and defeated them all thoroughly.
In the same way, at the final judgment, God will not only deal with individuals like you and me and the guy down the street - God will also deal with the gods of this world. You name them, they are all around us. Things people worship, things they devote themselves to, give their time and money to, adore and lust after, ignore the One True God for. God will deal with them all. He will judge them. He will expose their fraud. He will defeat them finally and fully. In the end, only God will stand. He will be all in all, for eternity.
Revelation 4:11
Revelation 5:13
