I am still wondering why I can’t get revenge and only God can get vengeance?
Sometimes it’s the only reason to live.
Delayed gratification is an adult concept (one at which I often fail).
But the answer to why? Because God will do a much better job in exacting the required punishment.
Someone may truly deserve torture, maiming and death. If so, I have confidence that when warranted, God will do a much better job of it than I ever could.
Having said that, I must admit that I oftentimes feel more like the penitent thief on the cross beside Christ: “Lord remember me when you come into Your kingdom”.
Yes - me too Lord - please...
Because seeking vengeance is destructive to our souls. thus the saying “pray for those who despitefully use you.” It took me 20 years to forgive my ex-wife for leaving me and moving in with another man and having his child. The lack of forgiveness/wanting revenge in some manner to her gnawed at me and my soul. One day, I accidently went by her and afterward realized that I had had no negative reaction. Will I forget what she did, No; have I released my desire for vengeance/hurt what she did, yes.
Because you cannot read the heart of someone else. Only God can read hearts. He alone knows how that person was raised, what truths, if any, he was taught and how he applied those in his life.
If anyone were entitled to seek revenge, would it not be Jesus Christ, who was unjustly accused and crucified for upholding the truth? We follow His example.
Because it will cause you emotional, mental and spiritual harm.
Justice is different then vengeance. Justice can be measured and coolly meted out. Vengeance burns and boils. It eats away at you, stealing the joy, the calm and the peace that is suppose to be in your heart as a child of God.
God does not want you hurt.
Because your vengence will be with mixed motives, and not pure, un-biased justice.
God’s vengence is pure, and only meted out without bias or personal motive like yours.
You don’t know all nor do you see all. He does. Your perspective cannot be fair simply because your persective is tiny compared to His. Nor is your heart or motive pure, for you, like all of us, are a fallen, damaged creature, wholly dependent on His mercy, grace and redemption.
That’s why you need to leave it in His hands.
Ask yourself, “If I meted out all the vengeance I could, and got all I wanted, would it be enough?”
Well, would it?
Revenge is sin no matter how good the cause or how we may feel. 1 Samuel 25 tells us about David and his near revenge on Nabal until Abigail interceded.
1Sa 25:33 Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from working salvation with my own hand!
1Sa 25:34 For as surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male."
1Sa 25:35 Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he said to her, "Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice, and I have granted your petition."
1Sa 25:36 And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until the morning light.
1Sa 25:37 In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.
1Sa 25:38 And about ten days later the LORD struck Nabal, and he died.
1Sa 25:39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Blessed be the LORD who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The LORD has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head." Then David sent and spoke to Abigail, to take her as his wife.