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Sept. 11, 2001, has stamped our time with vengeance. Angry men turned fuel-loaded passenger planes into missiles that destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center and ended nearly three thousand lives with their own. Similarly, suicide bombers in the Middle East bring more bloody vengeance. And in Afghanistan, vengeance has brought war, and war more vengeance.

U.S. News and World Report featured the Crusades in its April 8 issue. In 1095, Pope Urban II blessed warriors who would fight to recover the Holy Land from the Turks. On the Third Crusade, in 1191, King Richard Lionheart of England fought Saladin, the sultan of Egypt, in the Holy Land. Saladin had declared that he would fight defensively, but not in vengeance. Richard had a different approach. After one battle, he beheaded thousands of captives in full view of their own armies.

Vengeance has fired Israelis and Palestinians in their struggle for the Holy Land. Palestinian jihads seek the elimination of Israel in Palestine. Israeli reprisals seek vengeance in the Palestinian territories.

Scripture speaks seldom of man’s vengeance, but often of God’s. “ ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Heb. 10:30). The “Song of Moses” in Deuteronomy declares that God the Rock is perfect: “For all His ways are justice . . . righteous and upright is He” (Deut. 32:4). His saints may long cry to Him for justice, but in His time, His vengeance will come in wrath. At the second coming of Jesus Christ, He will in flaming fire take vengeance on all oppressors and murderers (Rev. 21:8).

God says “Vengeance is Mine” to warn us against avenging ourselves. Vengeance must always appeal to justice, and there’s the rub. Only God sees our hearts; only He is Judge of all.

Jeremiah declared the vengeance of God against Babylon: “Behold, I will plead your case and take vengeance for you. . . Yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall” (Jer. 51:36–44). Micah later pronounced God’s vengeance against the Assyrian invaders (Mic. 5:13). Because God is holy and just, His judgment of vengeance must fall on His own people as well. Ezekiel tells of God’s search for a single prophet, priest, or prince who might “make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found no one” (Ezek. 22:30). Samaria and Jerusalem were two adulterous sisters who had lusted for the warriors who would invade them. They had served idols and sacrificed the Lord’s children to them (Ezek. 16:21). Through Ezekiel, the Lord threatened their judgment by stoning, the penalty for adultery: “You shall pay for your idolatrous sins. Then you shall know that I am the Lord God” (Ezek. 23:49).

Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones shows the result of God’s fierce judgment on His people. They are no longer seen as Samaria and Jerusalem. All identity is gone: they are not even fleshless skeletons, but dry bones scattered on the valley floor (Ezek. 37:1–14). The Lord’s vengeance has utterly destroyed His people in exile.

In the drama of this vision, the Lord speaks to His prophet in the sepulchral silence of the valley of death: “Son of man, can these bones live?”

Ezekiel’s faith lays hold of God’s question: “O Lord God, You know” (Ezek. 37:3). The Lord commands him to prophesy to the bones: “O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!” (Ezek. 37:4) Another prophetic word and flesh clothes the bones. Then another command through the prophet: “Thus says the Lord God, ‘Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live’ ” (Ezek. 37:9). Resurrection happens in the valley. God’s people stand before Him, a great army. God gives life from the grave.

The living God alone can deliver from death. When He sees there is no deliverer, none to stand between them and the vengeance of His wrath, He comes as a Warrior. His own arm will bring salvation. He will put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head. He will put on the garments of vengeance, the vengeance of the Redeemer.

But His vengeance brings salvation, not destruction. His vengeance redeems. To the amazement of the heavenly host, the Lord of justice comes, not to bring vengeance upon His sinful people, but to bring it upon Himself. The Judge bears the judgment; the Lord of vengeance bears the wrath due to us in our place. He did it on the Cross. We cannot possibly imagine what it meant to the holy Son of God to bear the vengeance of His Father’s holiness there. Yet He did it in the place of those given to Him by His Father. When by the Spirit we see more of what that meant, we must surely shrink back from avenging ourselves, and heed the words of Jesus to repay wrongs with love—for His sake!

Christ’s gospel breaks the cycles of vengeance that bind our world. For Israeli and for Palestinian, for racial prejudice in our own cities, yes, for your workplace and your home, healing comes through the blood of Jesus. Leave judgment with the Lord, love your enemies, follow Christ. The church of Jesus Christ calls the vengeful to a fellowship of forgiveness and peace. “Repay no one evil for evil. . . If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Rom. 12:17–19).

Let There Be Love

Love in Action

Keep Reading Abraham Kuyper: A Man for All Spheres

From the October 2002 Issue
Oct 2002 Issue