VENGEANCE

    

VENGEANCE 

Taking vengeance is an act of wanting to take revenge which means to perform any form of personal retaliatory action against an individual, institution, or group for some perceived harm or injustice. As human beings, there arises a tendency to want to make someone feel the same way you felt when they did something bad to you, many times there arises the longing or urge to make them suffer even greatly than you did. So you begin to plot several schemes to attain this purpose. 

Genesis 34 gives a narration about the only daughter of Jacob, Dinah who was borne to him of his first wife Leah, who perhaps out of boredom and no other sister amongst her siblings, thought about joining the ladies of the town to at least have some feminine company. Upon this adventure, a young man Shechem, prince of the land, cast his eyes upon her and would not be patient in having her but forced himself upon her and defiled her.

This act angered her brothers and they even considered making war against the people of Shechem. At this time, Shechem now calmer after satisfying his urge and in his proper senses was now willing to follow all due process to marry her and make her his wife, but the sons of Jacob, Dinah's brothers had other plans, they were not going to allow someone defile their sister and go scot free so they planned to deceive Shechem's people, asking them to get circumcised, tearing off the foreskin of all the male children in their community, making them feel as if they were following the plan for him to marry their sister, Shechem's people complied and by this all the men were vulnerable and the sons of Jacob struck and killed them all, taking vengeance over the wrong done against their sister.

A very rich and powerful king once lived. By his greatness, this king had several wives who bore him many children, sons and daughters. Now one of his sons happened to lay his lustful eyes upon his step-sister, he cooked up many different ways of achieving his hideous plans, many of which didn't turn out perfect until he then thought to himself and he pretended to be seriously sick and he then made an assumably innocent request of asking his step sister, the one whom he had long desired to bring him food. Seeing that she was just helping her brother get his health better, he took that advantage and defiled her.

Now this sister after the incident reported to her own brother, who from that time forward began to nurse nothing else in his heart but how to kill his step brother for defiling his sister, this he did eventually and he had to run away from the town after the event because his life was equally threatened. All in all, he took vengeance for the wrong did to his sister and lost out on a huge portion of destiny fulfilment as all chances to ascend the throne after his father was totally wiped out. This narration was the same of David's son Absalom when he murdered his brother, Amnon for defiling his sister, Tamar. (2Sam. 13). 

Matthew  5:38-44 "Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;"

The Jewish laws instructed that whatever someone else does to you should be the basis upon which you should equally act in return, if the person has done you good, you do good and If it were bad, you pay back with bad. Hence, vengeance was a very rampant thought in those days, what we today call "DO ME, I DO YOU". But the Lord JESUS has taught in Romans 12:19 saying "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."

It is safe to assume that Absalom the son of David didn't learn about leaving vengeance to the Lord as his father had earlier understood. David's life, existence and purpose was seriously hunted by King Saul, several attempts were made upon his life by the king but David understood properly what it meant to let GOD do the fighting even though he found himself in positions to take the life of his tormentor (1 Sam. 24:1-12, 1Sam. 26), he chose not to and GOD still fulfilled His promises in David's life

David still didn't stop there, he went on to befriend the son of his tormentor, Jonathan and marry his daughter, Michal. Now, even after king Saul was killed, Jonathan his son was no more, David still went on to seek out who remained in His tormentor's lineage to whom he could still be favourable towards (2Sam. 9) and Mephibosheth was brought forward and he henceforth dwelt in the king's palace and ate at his table.

Joseph was the first son of his father's favourite wife (Racheal), hence the father loved him so so much, far above all his elder brothers. This love was made obvious in the preferential treatment that Joseph received from his father. He even went ahead to make for him a coat of many colours, one which was so attractive it elevated the jealousy of his brother's towards him taking it to the summit. They got to a point that they didn't mind killing him but for divine intervention and scheme he was sold into slavery only for him to be the one to eventually save his family from hunger and starvation during the harsh famine that broke out later on as he rose to prominence in the land of slavery.

Joseph had every reason to immediately lock up and torture all his brothers after they were reunited back in Egypt, but he did not, he had already allowed the Lord to fight for him and when the Lord did that, he was greatly increased that his brother's, the ones who sought to have him dead, had to bow down to him. So a simple question we might need to answer anytime we are on the verge of taking vengeance is, would I prefer to make this person suffer by my own hands, with acts that could invariably be sin towards GOD or would I prefer to allow GOD fight for me such that these wicked men have to come bow before me.

So are you one who has been seriously hurt and perhaps your revenge plans are already in the finishing or execution stages and at any moment now your violator would feel the full brunt of your anger? Think again. Allow the Lord to stand up and fight for you. Truth is you can't even do as much as HE would do if it was based on resources available to punish the wicked man, so why not let HIM have your case and sit down relax as HE defends your case. The instances cited of people who took the laws into their own hands away from the judgements of GOD upon their violators didn't have the best results eventually, so I'd rather we let GOD have it because no matter what evil they had in store for you, GOD is always channelling it towards your elevation. 

"VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY SAYS THE LORD" (Rom. 12:19, Heb. 10:30)

GOD BLESS YOU.