“Vengeance is mine, and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that are to come make haste”. Deuteronomy 32:35 (Song of Moses)
Have you ever wanted to take matters into your own hands when injustice or terrible things are happening? Or maybe you don’t want to deal with it, but wish that someone, somewhere would please DO something! Patience feels wrong, as if we are adding to the awful situation by not speaking up or doing whatever we can to fix it. There is a time for everything: a time to speak, and a time to remain silent. Knowing which time it is – that’s wisdom. Wisdom from experience, from prayer, from seeking counsel. Wisdom comes from God as well as vengeance. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”
Vengeance is always wrong, and will bring pain, not wholeness or blessing. Devising ways to make someone suffer is straight from the heart of evil, and never satisfies. How do we know when to speak, when to look for justice or even demand it? Again, wisdom. But the writer of James differentiates between what only appears to be wise and true wisdom.
But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.
Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. James 3:14-16
There’s the difference. Is our desire for what we call justice – or even revenge – actually about “evening the score”? Do we truly care about the situation and people involved, or is there a tinge of envy and selfishness, hoping to promote our own agenda? This is where it hurts.
I recall a time I was asked (begged, cajoled) to speak up on behalf of someone else. It was cloaked in language of caring for others, of preventing bad behavior, righting wrongs, looking for better ways forward. At the time I bought it: hook, line, and sinker. The result? Broken relationships. Misunderstanding. Pain. And I looked the part of the Fool.
I’ve often thought about that situation and why it went so wrong, when my intentions were for good. Now, I realize the demand for me to speak was rooted in the envy and selfish ambition counseled against in the book of James. It wasn’t really about care for others or justice at all.
My first clue that something was “off” was the silence that followed after I spoke. The ones who were prodding me to speak, who wanted me to add my voice to theirs, said nothing. Just sat there, letting the weight of what had been said fall squarely on me. Well, it was a lesson for sure. I thought I was acting out of concern and wisdom, but it was “earthly, unspiritual, demonic”. That word demonic is quite something…not a word to use lightly.
Not everything that happens that we don’t like is “demonic”. Wow, though, I hear it all the time – particularly in church contexts. Any resistance or struggle is called “demonic” when it’s actually that things aren’t going the way a person wanted them to go. If we label these frustrations ‘From The Devil’, then surely others will understand and come alongside us!
Is Satan working? The Bible says he always is. Is part of his strategy to confuse us, to create a smokescreen or hall of mirrors to deflect from where he’s really creating havoc? Also yes. From life experience I can say that it’s generally the ones whispering in hallways or having secret meetings that are doing most of the devil’s work for him. Putting on a happy face while twisting the screws in the background is the art of deception, or manipulation, and that is the playground of the devil.
The vengeance passage in Deuteronomy echoes in the New Testament:
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. Romans 12:19
We don’t have to take matters into our own hands, because God is working. He will bring justice. Though things seem hopeless, though evil people appear to be going from strength to strength, getting their way, it won’t last. Take a moment to read the verse at the top of this article again. The things that are to come make haste. The NIV version reads, “in due time their foot will slip”. It’s not going to end well.
When situations are crushing the very life out of us, we can hope in God. Ask for wisdom, stay rooted in the Word, look for His help coming from the hills with the dawn. Wait for wisdom, and know it by its fruit. Is there fighting, violence, confusion, envy, selfish ambition? True wisdom is not present.
Vengeance is mine, God says, and also “recompence”, which means “to make amends for loss or harm suffered”. God works in the realm of justice and also of healing. He can make up for lost time as He is the creator and author of time. He can resurrect torn relationships as He is the creator and author of love.
May He restore what the locust has eaten in your life and mine. We can leave the justice up to Him. He knows what’s going on.
Stories for Humans 