An Avenging God

We return to take another look at God, to take another shot at answering the question: What is God like? We’re doing this because it’s so very important to know God and to know Him well - to know His character, His attitudes, His goals. The knowledge of God is the basis for living well. An incomplete understanding of God results in problems. The person who doesn’t understand God well will not understand reality well. And how can anyone live well without understanding the reality within which he lives?

Listen to another description of God.

An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh. The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. ​The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. ​He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers. ​The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him. ​The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness. Nahum 1.1-8

Let me repeat the quality of God that I want to stress today, the characteristic of God that I want you to notice.

The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. Nahum 1.2

There is one key word here. This is where I am going to focus my attention first. It is, here, translated ‘avenging’ twice and ‘takes vengeance’ once.

So, first, a definition. So, what does ‘avenging’ or ‘vengeance’ mean? Whatever it means, we’ve all been told that it’s wrong and something to be avoided. Vengeance is just a bad thing, right? But isn’t this like what we were told about anger? Is anger something bad, something to be avoided? Well, it is if the anger is all about you. But as you now know, getting angry can be good. Jesus got angry and for good reason. It’s the same with avenging. If it’s all about you, then you’ve sinned. But wanting to see a wrong avenged can be good. God wants to see wrongs avenged. And that’s because He wants to see justice. Our God avenges wrong because He is a God of justice, a God who will, in the end, avenge every wrong and establish justice throughout His creation.

In what I read to you from Nahum, God is declaring that He is going to pursue justice in the case of the Assyrian empire. God is promising His people that He is going to take vengeance against Assyria for the evil that it committed against them. He is going to crush Assyria for what it did. And it’s important for Him to make this declaration to His people because He had allowed, for a time, the evil of Assyria to go unpunished. And that could be very discouraging to the people of Israel who suffered so at the hands of Assyria. So, what we find in Nahum is, in part, to encourage Israel to hope in God’s justice. It will come.

Now, let me say all of that in a different way. I want to do this to make something quite clear to you. God is not going to forgive Assyria. Remember, from last week’s sermon,

He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished… Exodus 34.7

I want to restate Nahum’s message in this way because there is a basic misunderstanding about God that is quite rife these days. That misunderstanding goes something like this: God will forgive me. It’s His job. Nahum disagrees. Believing what Nahum has to say about God is an important part of understanding God, especially these days.

God blesses, and He curses. Holding to just one of these, either one of these, leads to so many problems. But God was quite clear about this when He spoke to Abraham.

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.” Genesis 12.1–3

Assyria cursed the children of Abraham. God saw this. Being slow to anger, He waited patiently for repentance. But when there was no repentance, He acted. As an act of vengeance for Israel’s sake, He cursed Assyria. And the result? That kingdom was violently destroyed.

God blesses, and God curses. This should not be surprising. God will welcome some into heaven and send some to hell. He doesn’t always forgive.

Now, I said all of that so that I could say this. Just as God doesn’t always forgive, you don’t have to always forgive. Just as it is sometimes right to be angry, it is sometimes right to want God’s vengeance. Sometimes the right thing to want is for God to bring justice.

I suspect that this idea may be new to some of you. So, we’re going to spend a little time exploring it.

First, let’s consider some examples in Scripture of saints crying out to God for vengeance, for justice. Listen to David.

Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me! Take hold of shield and buckler and rise for my help! Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers! Say to my soul, “I am your salvation!” Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life! Let them be turned back and disappointed who devise evil against me! Let them be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the Lord driving them away! Let their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of the Lord pursuing them! For without cause they hid their net for me; without cause they dug a pit for my life. Let destruction come upon him when he does not know it! And let the net that he hid ensnare him; let him fall into it - to his destruction! Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord, exulting in his salvation. All my bones shall say, “O Lord, who is like you, delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him, the poor and needy from him who robs him?” Psalms 35.1-10

Whatever else might be true here, it’s clear that David is not forgiving his enemies. No, he is rather calling on God to act to defend him, to avenge him, to bring justice to those who attacked him without cause.

Here’s another.

Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me! They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain. ​Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies. Psalm 139.19-22

I think that you will agree that this is some very strong language. ‘Slay the wicked’? ‘I hate them with complete hatred’? Doesn’t sound very forgiving, does it?

This Psalm includes an important element when it comes to this cry for vengeance. Who are these enemies of David? He tells us.

They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain. ​

David prays this violent prayer not because someone has wronged him. His prayer is all about his zeal for God’s honor.

Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?

You might say that this is an application of the prayer: ‘Hallowed be Thy name’.

Based on these Scriptures, we can say that there are times when it is right not to forgive, but rather to ask God to curse.

Now, of course, there are those who object to what I’m telling you. Some will tell us that it just can’t be right, that we have to see such desires as evil. But both passages that I quoted are from the Psalms. And what are the Psalms but a collection of inspired prayers and songs for us to pray and sing. Do we want to say that these two Psalms aren’t inspired by the Spirit?

Others will tell us that we can’t pray like that anymore because that was all before Jesus arrived. Everything has changed with His coming. We are now supposed to love our enemies. And that means that we need to forgive them. We need to always forgive them. Well, it’s true that some parts of the Bible before Jesus were temporary. But those portions were declared temporary by the teaching of Jesus and His apostles. So, we don’t have animal sacrifices and while David couldn’t enjoy bacon with his morning eggs, you can. Some parts were designed by God to be temporary. But other parts, like what God promised to the children of Abraham, the children of faith, still continue. So, just because something was written before Jesus arrived doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t for us.

Actually, we see the same sort of attitude in those two Psalms being expressed after Jesus arrived. First, there’s this.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. Galatians 1.8-9

Accursed. By God. Paul wants such people damned. And again, like David, it’s not that Paul is personally attacked by someone. It’s the truth of the Gospel that is under fire.

Then, there’s this. It’s about someone who was trying to block the spread of the Gospel.

But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. Acts 13.9-11

That doesn’t sound very forgiving, does it? Note that Paul said that ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’. And the result wasn’t something Paul did. It was God who cursed that man with blindness.

I have one more example of this after Jesus’ arrival. And this is a very clear cry for the avenging God to act. This is from Revelation.

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. Revelation 6.9-11

These saints cry out for justice, to be avenged. They are not rebuked. Rather, they are told to be patient. Justice would come.

Our God is still an avenging God. There still are times when He will not forgive. And in situations like that, neither should you.

However, there are some things that should give us pause. What about all of those commands about loving enemies and being forgiving and all of that? What shall we do with them? That’s the right question.

Jesus teaches us,

…if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, ​but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6.14-15

and

If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” Luke 17.3-4

What do we do with teachings like this? Well, we certainly don’t get rid of them. But at the same time, we don’t get rid of the passages where there is a cry for God to avenge wrong. They are all from the same Bible. They are all words from God. That means that there is a way to hold on to both.

Let’s start with this. It is so very important for us to pursue reconciliation with those who are estranged from us, and that includes those who have sinned against us. Here, just consider Jesus’ teaching recorded in Matthew 18 which starts,

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. Matthew 18.15

Jesus is here calling for His disciples to pursue reconciliation. Doing this is critically important. But there are, sadly, too many times when our attempts at reconciliation are frustrated by the refusal of the other party. So, also in Matthew 18, Jesus teaches that if the other person continues to refuse to repent in order to be reconciled, the proper response is not to forgive him but rather for the Church to declare that that person is not a Christian. So, in Matthew 18, Jesus teaches us,

let him be like an unbeliever and a tax collector to you. Matthew 18.17 [HCSB]

Such a person lives under God’s curse against rebellious sinners.

We need to pursue reconciliation. We must. And if the problem is with another Christian, then the result really ought to be either reconciliation or excommunication.

But what if the problem is with someone who is not a Christian? You still pursue reconciliation, though you won’t have the resources of the Church to aid you. But what do you do if this other person refuses all your attempts at reconciliation? One of Jesus’ last words fits here.

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Luke 23.34

Sometimes there are circumstances that soften the offense. Here, Jesus prays for forgiveness because these others had no idea of what they were doing.

However, it’s very important to be clear about something here. Who is Jesus asking forgiveness for? It’s not the Jewish leaders who were there, mocking Him and His claim to be the Messiah. They knew what they were doing. No, it was the Roman soldiers that Jesus was praying for. All they knew was that they were executing three more Jewish peasants. And we know that these were the people Jesus was praying for because of what Luke wrote in the very next sentence.

And they cast lots to divide his garments.

Who is the ‘them’ that Jesus prays for? This sentence identifies them. They are the Roman guards who divided His garments. Jesus prays that they would be forgiven by the Father. They really didn’t know.

However, Jesus says nothing about forgiving those Jewish leaders. And, in fact, God’s justice, His vengeance, came down on them and those with them when Jesus sent the Roman armies to destroy Jerusalem and wipe out the people living there. Earlier in Luke Jesus describes this coming destruction of Jerusalem as ‘days of vengeance’ (Luke 21.22).

So, sometimes there are circumstances that soften the offense and make it possible to forgive instead of condemn. But that means that sometimes there are circumstances that reveal the utter wickedness of the offense and require that you call for vengeance. You need to discern the right choice by prayer and wise counsel from other saints as, together, you reflect on the appropriate Scriptures. That’s how you can know whether to forgive or to cry out for justice.

Now, why is all of this important? There are a couple of reasons. First and foremost, you need to know your God. You need to understand what He is like. One reason for seeing Him as ‘a jealous and avenging God’, as ‘avenging and wrathful’, to use Nahum’s language, is so that you will fear Him. What is a God who only forgives and never gets angry? He is a wimp, someone with no backbone. There is no respect, let alone fear, for such a person. That kind of god becomes a mere vending machine. He is there simply to give people the things that they want. Sometimes that’s forgiveness, sometimes that’s a nicer job, sometimes that’s winning the lottery. But that’s not what the God of the Gospel is like.

For who in the skies is comparable to the LORD? Who among the sons of the mighty is like the Lord, a God greatly feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all those who are around Him? Psalm 89.6–7

There is too little fear of God these days. And is that a surprise when so much of what is taught about God is simply that He is loving and forgiving and wants you happy? Now, it’s true that He is loving and forgiving, and it is His long-term goal to make you happy. But it’s also true that He is a holy, just, avenging, violent and angry God who will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Half the truth presented as the whole truth is a lie. You need to know your God.

But here is another reason why all of this is important. What do you do when you are confronted by some injustice, some great evil, that you are powerless to change? What do you do then? Too many just get angry and fume. The people who caused that great injustice are unaware of that anger, or even if they are aware, they don’t care. It is so easy, then, for that anger to become a cancer. It metastasizes into bitterness. And if left untreated, bitterness will, in due time, destroy that person. And out of that comes despair.

But you have an alternative to sinful anger, bitterness and despair. You can cry out to your God for justice. You may well be powerless, but He certainly is not. It is His promise to you that there will be justice. Like those martyred saints in Revelation 6, you may need to wait for it, but there will be justice. And instead of falling into the poison of bitterness and despair, you can hope. You can wait for your God to keep His promise. You can hope, be blessed because of this exercise of your faith and get on with the rest of life.

Believe in your God. Believe in the God of vengeance.