Revenge. Oh, how we as a world love it. Just last night Marge and I watched a Bruce Willis movie where the bad guys kill his wife and he spends the next 90 minutes killing every last one of them (and their bad guy friends.) Oh well, they had it coming right? One of the craziest movies ever is Taken with Liam Neeson where the bad guys kidnap his teenage daughter. He then proceeds to hunt down and kill a whopping 32 bad guys to secure the return of his daughter. I guess they all had it coming? When I watched it, I thought of the irony of how many widows, orphans, and sonless parents Liam caused just to get his one daughter back. Or what about the irony of the one bad guy that was just a temp bad guy that day filling in for another sick bad guy? Ah, who cares, bad guys deserve to be punished and revenge is good. ‘Merica.
But if you go a little deeper, who really deserves punishment based in revenge? Is it merely anybody that makes us mad? Anybody that ticks us off? But what if in the process of upsetting us they satisfy a larger group? What if that one bad guy on the highway cuts us off in a fit of speed and rage and just as we are ready to curse him in vengeance, we find out that his family was just in a house fire and he’s on his way to the hospital? You see to accurately deal out vengeance and revenge, you have to have all of the information and folks, we never do. But guess what? Yep, God does.
In Numbers 31 today we see revenge upon the Midianites based on two offenses. Their refusal to accept God and His laws and their open war upon God’s people. As God carefully collects all the cards, He decides when the proper time for vengeance is and He executes it when His timing says it correct. Read these two verses, the first from our study chapter today and the second from a few chapters ago, Numbers 25:
“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people.” So Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian to execute the Lord's vengeance on Midian.” Numbers 31:1-3 (italics mine)
“Harass (attack) the Midianites and strike them down, for they have harassed (attacked) you with their wiles, with which they beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the chief of Midian, their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague on account of Peor.” Numbers 25:17-18 (parentheses mine)
First of all, notice why they are attacking the Midianites, “to execute the Lord’s vengeance.” Not theirs, not because they’re mad, not even because the Midianites deserved it, but because the Lord decided it was the right time. Secondly, notice that since God is calling them to this battle who will actually be leading and empowering then the victory in this battle, Almighty God. As they entered the battle they were led by the High Priest, Eleazar, and the Holy implements of the Tabernacle. You see God told them to battle the Midianites and He was the one leading them into the very battle. Not the other way around. It was not the Hollywood movie way, an angry vengeful people rushing off to get revenge and then praying to God to assist them only as they needed Him. Lastly notice that God gives the people the exact reason why they are attacking and killing the Midianites. And it all ties back to good ol’ wily Balaam. Remember a few chapters ago, when he was hired by Balak to curse the Israelites and he failed three times. But in a last ditch effort to get his big paycheck, he came up with a rather clever, evil idea. Send all the young attractive Moabite and Midianite women down into the Israelite camp and seduce the young men. As a result, the Israelite men intermarried with gentiles, which was against God’s law, and then started worshipping their new wive’s false gods as well. Put all this together and as the people approach the Promised Land, God sees it as time to enact vengeance upon the Godless Midianites.
There’s a great lesson for us here today. In fact, a huge lesson. Whose responsibility is revenge? Whose responsibility is it to exact vengeance in our lives. Well, if you’re a follower of Jesus Christ, the correct “church answer” is God. But it’s very easy to say and very hard to do. What does it actually look like to seek no revenge for yourself in this world but let God handle it all?
First you start with Faith. How much do you really believe about God? Do you wholeheartedly believe in His omnipotence, His omniscience and His omnipresent? God is all powerful, God is all knowing, and God is everywhere throughout all time. Think about it this way. If you were a judge and you were hearing a capital murder case, wouldn’t you like to know every single detail of the case before you sentenced someone to death? Of course, you would. But you’re limited to what you’re told by the witnesses, the prosecution and the defense teams. No matter the case, you as a judge will never have all the information to make the best decision regarding retribution, punishment and vengeance. But folks, God does. He knows every detail of every heart involved and He will exact perfect vengeance when He deems the timing to be perfect. Your faith in God and His character will help you to wait for Him to act in His time.
Secondly, you must deal with your pride. I think this is where we all get tripped up. We were wronged, we were assaulted, we were stolen from and we want justice right now in the very moment. You see, pride is very good at acting rashly without all of the facts. We merely react on human emotion and folks, human emotion is tainted with sin. Just two days ago, Margie came home from the mall she works at and someone had stolen a side view mirror off our car. What, is this really a thing? I did some exhaustive research and found out it will be $200 to get it replaced if I do it myself. I was of course furious with some young punk for doing this, I mean we live on a monthly budget and I did not budget in $200 to replace a car mirror that was fine. But I sat down, took a deep breath and prayed for God to enlighten me, for Him to allow me to let Him handle the vengeance and then I prayed for the thief. You see, I’m completely out of control in this situation and if I pretend that I'm in control, I cause myself great grief and stress. Give it to God, He already has it anyway, it’s just a matter of our pride in letting it go.
As we walk in this sin-filled world we are going to get hurt. We will be stolen from, lied to, betrayed and for some very unfortunate, maybe even physically or sexually assaulted. Each of these journeys will be difficult to walk, but God will enact His vengeance when the time is right. It might be 1 year later, 10 years later or at judgement day, but He will deal justice. Why? Because God is just and righteous, it’s who He is and God cannot deny Himself. I’ll leave you with two verses that will hopefully offer you some comfort as you fight with the sin of dealing out your own revenge, punishment and vengeance. As you are tempted to lash out at those that have hurt you, remember, it’s God’s responsibility, let Him have it.
“Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” Romans 12:17-19
“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” Gal 6:7
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