Vengeance, Revenge and Retribution

Psalms of Meaning  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  28:33
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Vengeance, Revenge, Retribution, Retaliation.
Fearful words that have brought immeasurable suffering to the world.
Words which describe some of the thinking behind the endless cycles of violence which we see all around us.
Thinking which we wish would go away when we see it applied on our TV screens and news feeds.
Thinking which we react against when others act in this way towards us.
Thinking which we don’t ever want to admit crosses our mind when we are wronged.
And let’s be honest here, unless you are a particularly gracious saint there have been times when you have wanted revenge on someone who has hurt you.
Maybe as a child, you actually acted out those thoughts on a sibling or someone at school.
Maybe as an adult you have been able to control your emotions better and have only thought about it rather than acting on it.
Maybe not!
Either I am a very bad person or we are all the same and these thoughts cross your mind as well as mine.
So how do we deal with this reality, how do we address the human desire for vengeance, revenge, retribution and retaliation?
How do we defend the calls for vengeance which we see written in Scripture by the people of Israel.
How do we defend a God who says that he will take vengeance on those who oppose him?
It is a challenging area to deal with.

Vengeance by the people of Israel

At the end of Psalm 137 we see one such example of vengeance desired by the people of Israel.
Now for those who were here a few weeks ago you will remember that we have looked at Psalm 137 before, when we looked at Zion the City of God and the incredible significance that Jerusalem has for the people of Israel.
You will also recall that when I read verses 7 to 9 of Psalm 137 I said that they were a blood thirsty lot.
You will also recall how we looked at the popular song, based on Psalm 137 “By the Rivers of Babylon” which was a hit during the misspent youth of our middle aged members.
And no I am not going to dance to that song for you again today.
But this verse sums up for us the vengeance desired and sometimes carried out by the people of Israel during Old Testament times.
Psalm 137:7–9 NLT
7 O Lord, remember what the Edomites did on the day the armies of Babylon captured Jerusalem. “Destroy it!” they yelled. “Level it to the ground!” 8 O Babylon, you will be destroyed. Happy is the one who pays you back for what you have done to us. 9 Happy is the one who takes your babies and smashes them against the rocks!
This is a terrible tragedy.
The Kingdom of Edom was descended from Esau the twin brother of Issac.
Edom and Israel were brother nations.
They should have been friends and allies.
But again and again Edom oppossed Israel.
From the time of Moses they refused safe passage to Israel as they approached the promised land.
During the times of the judges they actively fought Israel.
In David and Solomon’s times they were defeated.
But by the time of the Babylonian exile they were once again acting as an enemy to their brothers.
Again and again they gloated, aided and abetted Israel’s enemies.
And when Jerusalem and the first temple was destroyed they celebrated.
Obadiah verses 10 to 14 expain this.
Obadiah 10–14 NLT
10 “Because of the violence you did to your close relatives in Israel, you will be filled with shame and destroyed forever. 11 When they were invaded, you stood aloof, refusing to help them. Foreign invaders carried off their wealth and cast lots to divide up Jerusalem, but you acted like one of Israel’s enemies. 12 “You should not have gloated when they exiled your relatives to distant lands. You should not have rejoiced when the people of Judah suffered such misfortune. You should not have spoken arrogantly in that terrible time of trouble. 13 You should not have plundered the land of Israel when they were suffering such calamity. You should not have gloated over their destruction when they were suffering such calamity. You should not have seized their wealth when they were suffering such calamity. 14 You should not have stood at the crossroads, killing those who tried to escape. You should not have captured the survivors and handed them over in their terrible time of trouble.
We see Israel acting with vengeance on many occassions.
For example
Samson in Judges 15 killed a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass.
King David in 2 Samual 8 and 1 Chronicles 18 defeated 18 000 Edomites and ruled over their land.
Plus at other times he defeated the Syrians, Moabites and Philistines and many others.
In Esther we see the scheming of Haman to committe genocide against the Jews.
But instead the tables are turned and Haman and all of those who were the enemies of the Jews are destroyed.
Now while it is presented as a wonderful tale of God’s protection let’s be sure that there was certainly an element of vengeance in the victory.
We have to ask ourselves.
Is vengeance the perogative of nation states, or of individuals.
Or is it something that should be left to God.

Vengeance by God

Well the Old Testament was pretty clear.
As a general principle the people of Israel were to leave vengeance in God’s hands.
Wether as a private act or as the action of the nation vengeance was for God.
The law for Israel was quite clear.
Leviticus 19:18 NLT
18 “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
Proverbs 20:22 reinforces this
Proverbs 20:22 NLT
22 Don’t say, “I will get even for this wrong.” Wait for the Lord to handle the matter.
Passages such as Deuteronomy 32:35 and Numbers 31:1-11 sets out that when God decides to take revenge on those who oppose him and his people the message is clearly given to the ruler of the people.
They are told what to do and how far to go.
Vengeance in the Old Testament is never an appropriate act for an individual.
For that is to play God, even though there are many instances where vengeance is taken.
But why does a loving God take vengeance on people?
That is the age old question.
Why does God command the destruction of entire nations?
People often ask, “what did the Canannites do to deserve to be wiped out by the people of Israel as they conquered the promised land?”
The answer relates to the principle of corporate guilt.
If the people as a whole are guilty then the people as a whole face judgement.
We rebel against this principle in our modern individualistic society.
“Why should children be judged for the sins of their parents” we cry!
But let’s look at it like this.
The canannites and all the associated peoples faced God’s vengeance for thier destructive sin.
Look at Genesis 15:16 when God speaks to Abram
Genesis 15:16 NLT
16 After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.”
The Canannites, Amorites and all the other “ites” of the land were a people descending into great evil.
The evil of child sacrifice to the god Molech
Leviticus 18:21 and 20:2-5 specifically forbade this on penalty of death.
The pagan deities are an offence to the Lord.
1 Kings 11:7, 2 Kings 23:10 and Jeremiah 32:35 all speak of the incredible offence this is to God.
The gods of the cannanites and all the people descendeed from them are part of Baal worship and some of the gods associated with this pagan belief system seemed to have a particular desire for child sacrifice.
This is why the people of Israel were commanded to uterly destroy the canannites and all the people in the land they were given.
Their evil was so great that the only way to stop it was to wipe them out totally.
In a similar way the Lord took action against the enemies of his people.
Yes he sometimes used those nations to punish the people for their rebellion against him, usually only after they had descended into worshipping the very pagan gods that we just spoke about.
But when those nations went too far, as they often did.
When their captivity was too harsh on the people of Israel.
Or their kings became arrogant and refused to acknowledge that it was the Lord who gave them the victory.
They would face judgement.
It was like they were given divine permission to defeat Israel, because Israel had turned their back on God.
But this was meant to be an opportunity for them to recognise God as the one true God.
And when they refused to do so, they would face judgement for their harshness and arrogance.
Think of King Nebuchadnezzar who in Daniel 4 became arrogant and boasted to himself of his greatness when he had been warned not to by Daniel.
He was driven to madness for a time.
The kings who followed him were judged by God for their arrogance and also faced destruction.
When we read of God’s vengeance on the Old Testament we are not reading of a capricious God.
We are reading of a God who brings justice to those who commit evil.

Vengeance in the New Covenant

Is always associated with God’s judgement on those who have rejected and oppossed the gift of Grace through the sacrifice of Christ.
In Luke 4:18-20 Jesus reads from Isaiah 61
Luke 4:18–20 NLT
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, 19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” 20 He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently.
But he does something very interesting.
He stops reading just before Isaiah speaks of the day of judgement which will follow the day of the Lord’s favour.
Jesus has come with salvation as his gift to humanity.
In the Psalms the authors cried out for vengeance on those who had harmed them.
The emotion was raw.
The pain expressed incredibly real.
They were expressing incredible hurt and the desire for vengeance was honestly and openly expressed.
They wanted retribution now.
But God isn’t quick to judge.
He desires to save.
In the New Testament we see this shift.
A shift to offering something better than the desire for vengeance as we see so often in the psalms.
Instead we see in many of the words of Jesus a quoting of the psalms which stops short of the cry for vengeance.
An example is John 13:8 which quotes from Psalm 41.
In the Psalm King David prays for opportunity to return the favour to a friend who had done him wrong.
Yet Jesus, even when he hints at the incredible betrayal that Judas is about to commit, omits the words of vengeance in the Psalm and instead speaks of welcoming his message and himself.
Something better is offered.
Salvation.
But and this is a very big but.
But the day of salvation brings the day of judgement closer than it was before.
And the day of judgement will herald something far worse than vengeance.
In Matthew 7:23 Jesus uses the words of King David in Psalm 6:8 and instead of David’s words of simply, “leave me alone” they become Jesus’ words of a sentence of death.
Vengeance under the new covenant becomes God’s eternal judgement.

Principles of Grace

So how are we to live?
The answer is pretty obvious.
Jesus didn’t call us to live a life of vengeance.
Instead he called us to live a life of grace.
Matthew 5:38-48 sets out the principles we are called to live by
Matthew 5:38–48 NLT
38 “You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. 40 If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. 41 If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. 42 Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow. 43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
There is a very simple principle at work in Jesus words,
It is love that wins people over.
Love is the example of Christ.
Love is the currency of heaven.
P. K. Sideliner said,
Blowing out the other fellow’s candle won’t make yours shine any brighter.
—P. K. Sideliner Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations (7092 Epigram on Vengeance)
Vengeance brings vengeance.
There is no other way, only grace breaks the endless cycle.
This is the example of the Lord.
Romans 5:8 NLT
8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
Ephesians 2:5 NLT
5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)
Romans 5:10 NLT
10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.
In our approach to others who have wronged us we are to treat them as if they are weaker, we are to show grace.
In our response to God whom we have wronged, we are to show repentance and acceptance of the gift of grace and spare oursleves
Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 7092 Epigram on Vengeance

He who injured you was either stronger or weaker. If he was weaker, spare him; if he was stronger, spare yourself.

—Seneca

Now none of this is to say that we should not set boundaries, that we should not hold people accountable.
Justice and the protection of the vulnerable demands that we must set boundaries.
We must ensure people are held to account.
That is a clear principle of Scripture.
But that is another topic for another day.

Justice, the Protection of the Vulnerable, and Respect for Self as a Child of God. Grace doesn’t mean we excuse evil

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