Vengeance: Whose Job Is It Anyway?

On Sunday, May 1, 2011, President Obama announced to the country that Osama Bin Laden, a man who was the very definition of terrorism in the eyes of the American people, was fatally shot by U.S. troops during a raid on his hideout compound. Within minutes, social networks lit up with status updates, singing the President’s praises, a natural response for a nation plagued with the memory of the countless lives lost on 9-11 and in the ensuing war. Then, something else happened. People took to the streets, rejoicing in Osama’s death.

al Qaeda once rejoiced, too. For days, even weeks after 9-11, photographs and videos flooded the internet of the terrorist organization’s supporters singing and dancing, burning the American flag while raising their own. Back then, bile filled the mouths of every U.S. citizen at the spectacle; how could they dance when over 3,000 of our people had perished? What if it had been their mother, their father and their children whose lives had been snatched from them?

Ten years later, we find ourselves a mirror of the thing we detested. We now revel in what we once found appalling. What does that say about us as a race when the death of another human being is celebrated? How dare we hold ourselves higher than the terrorist, when we have engaged in and perpetrated the same act? We should be careful when judging others folks; our garbage is much more rancid.

Furthermore, when God is the giver of life, who are we to take it? (Personally, death was too good for Osama; cutting him off from humanity would have been more fitting, but that is only my opinion, as is everything else I have shared on my blog).

So this whole thing got me to thinking about what God says to us about vengeance. Admittedly, when someone has wronged us, our carnal instinct is to take matters in our own hands. We start cooking up ways to “get back” at the person, scheming on how we can inflict the most harm. We become consumed with the thing, so much that we can get little else done. Meanwhile, they aren’t even thinking about us, having gone on happily with their lives. Over the years I have learned that it never, ever works out the way we planned it. Our plot to exact revenge always backfires, and most times, we make the situation worse than it was in the first place!

In Proverbs 24:29, we read that we are not to repay wrongdoing with wrongdoing: “Do not say, “I’ll do to them as they have done to me; I’ll pay them back for what they did.” Along with the fact that God says retribution is His to hand out (Deuteronomy 32:35, Romans 12:19) there are a few reasons this scripture is important. Here are three key ones:

First, the need for “revenge” keeps us emotionally and spiritually stuck! It prevents us from being able to forgive the offense as Christ commanded, and in turn, being forgiven by God for our own offenses. “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” (Mathew 6:14).

Next, we are also commanded to love and to pray for those that persecute us (Mathew 5:44). Not a prayer for God to rain down judgment on them, but one of sincere intercession on their behalf. In this, we are trusting God to do what He needs to do in their lives so that a change can take place (think about Saul on the road to Damascus…if that isn’t a prime example of God’s ability to facilitate change in someone, I don’t know what is!).

Finally, when we strive to repay someone else’s wrongdoing, we are copying what they have done to us. In essence, we become no better than they are! Remember that we have all done or said something to offend another of God’s children. Could you imagine what your life would be like if every person you have ever wronged decided to enact revenge against you? I thank God for grace!

Whosoever, I know the ability to hand it over when we’ve been wronged is challenging! However hard it may be, despite the emotion behind it, we must make the conscious decision to let it go. Only then, will our healing begin. Believe that even when it doesn’t feel good, God is working it out for your good! So, during your quiet time pray for release from the offense, but most importantly, for the ability to live out 1 John 3:18:

“Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

Until next time, be blessed!
Sue