Romans 12:19

New International Version (NIV)

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.

For Meditation

It was September 26, 2002 in Dallas, Texas. The President of the United States of America (USA), George W. Bush, was holding a press conference. The statement was short, but very insightful.

“After all, this is the guy that tried to kill my dad, one time.”

He was referring to the then President of Iraq, the late Saddam Hussein. Six months later, March 20, 2003, the USA and her allied forces invaded Iraq, “ostensibly to pre-empt Iraqi WMD deployment and remove Saddam from power.” The USA and the “Coalition of the willing” forces prevailed very quickly and Saddam Hussein, “the guy that tried to kill my dad”, was killed. Today, the world is still suffering from its terrible effects. Was it a personal revenge against Saddam or about national security and world peace?

In Romans 12:19, Paul commands Christians not to “take revenge…but [to] leave room for God’s wrath.” He goes on to quote Deuteronomy 32:35 as basis for the command: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

1. Why then do we often determine to take revenge when people offend us?
2. Is it because we don’t trust the Lord to do just what He has said He will do or because we think He will be too lenient on our enemies?
3. Do you remember Jonah’s anger after God forgave Nineveh? “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home … I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” (Jonah 4:2).
4. Don’t you love the way God dealt with Jonah’s anger (4-11)? Did Jonah deserve that loving response from God?
5. Isn’t it sad to note how we care more about our personal comforts and satisfied egos than the salvation of our perceived enemies (10-11)?

I pray we will remember that without God’s “gracious and compassionate” nature, none of us would have been saved. Thankfully, God has opened His heart to us in Christ Jesus (Titus 3:4-7), and we are His true disciples, if we also forgive those who hurt us (Col.3:13) and leave them to Him who judges uprightly (Rm. 12:19).

So: May the Lord apply the balm of Gilead to the hurt and wound you may be nursing, and save you from a costly revenge; and may you be freed from the tyranny of unforgiveness, into the grace of God that waits to embrace you before His throne.

Vengeance costs more than forgiveness.

Shalom