VENGEANCE
Nahum 1:1-3, “The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.”
“God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.”
“The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.”
God is saying here that he is a God of vengeance. He is saying the Lord revengeth. He then goes on to say he will not acquit the wicked. God then says there are something’s that help him.
He has the lever that turns on and off the whirlwind. He has the buttons that turn on and off the storm. He has the power to make the clouds to come. He has tornadoes and hurricanes at his disposal. God is telling his people that he has all of these things at his disposal.
Our God is a loving God, but our God will not acquit the wicked. He is a God of vengeance. Please do not misunderstand this, but God wants people who do wrong to receive their just desserts. God will not acquit the wicked. God has three ways to see to it that people receive their just vengeance.
GOD’S PART
Romans 12:19, “”Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay saith the Lord.”
You are not to get back at anyone! “avenge not yourselves” is in the same Bible that promises you Heaven if you trust Christ 1as your personal Saviour! The same God wrote this too. You are not to attempt to get back at anybody.
God is not saying here that he does not want those who have wronged you to get away with it and not receive their just punishment.
He is just saying you will not do the best job of vengeance. You want to scrap while God wants to salvage them! God does want them to receive their just dues, but it is not your job or my job to “… give place to wrath…”
God’s children are to transfer vengeance to someone else. Defer to someone else who can do a much better job than you can! God wants people to get their come uppins! God wants people to pay for their wrong.
Ezekiel 18:4, “Behold all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
However, God’s children are not the judge, jury, and executioner. If someone does you wrong then “give place to wrath” or defer to someone else who can do the job properly. God said, “…I will repay…”
GOD’S CHILDREN ARE NOT TO GET BACK AT ANYONE
I wish all of us would stop and think about this before we react. In my 49 years of ministry I spent more time refereeing stupid disagreements between church members.
The Scripture says, “Bless those that curse you” and “Pray for those that despitefully use you” and “Do good to those who do evil to you.”
GOD IS AVENGING WRONG
It is not that God does not want the guilty to be punished. It is just that God wants it done right. We want to kill em’ while God wants to salvage em’! God will do it right and we will always do it wrong! God is the God of the “second chance.” He and He alone can remake the fallen.
GOD SAYS AVENGING IS HIS JOB
If God is in charge of the storms, the whirlwind, and the tornadoes I would suspect God could get back at them far better than you and I could.
You and I cannot send lightening, a hurricane, a tornado, or thunder. God has the entire universe at his disposal and God is saying stay out of my business and let me take care of this thing.
I’ll take care of it for you and I’ll do it right, because you will blow it and mess of the job. You will hurt more than you will help because you cannot do it right!
Please do not misunderstand me, God does not want them punished for it is just that God wants it done right and he is the best one to do it. God wants to use them for the furtherance of the gospel.
God is not saying here let the sinner go free for he is saying back out of it and I will take care of it. The truth is if you really want your enemy to get what he deserves then step out of the way and let God do it!
GOD WILL AVENGE
In verse 19 God said simply, “…I will repay…”! God will get vengeance on those that do wrong. God will see to it because he is a God of justice.
GOD CAN DO A BETTER JOB
God admonishes his children to “…give place to wrath…” or in other words step back and let God do his work!
Please understand, personally I do not want any bad thing to happen to any of my enemies. There was a time when I wanted them to suffer, but after 75 years of life and 49 years of ministry I do not wish anything bad on anyone. Life is tough enough as it is!
I have learned that God can do a much better job of taking care of my enemies than I can. I suffer maybe because of lies but truth always prevails. I do not have to defend myself I only have to stand and fight for the truth of God’s word!
I have never in my 75 years of living ever sued anyone let alone a church. Yet, for some strange reason my enemies lie and seemingly get away with the telling of that lie. They want to hurt me and my ministry. That is just one of many arrows coming my way.
GOD IS TELLING US HE WILL TAKE CARE OF OUR ENEMIES FOR US
When I was 13 my dad took me one summer to work with him loading gravel for a road construction job. I was to operate a front end loader and daddy was driving the truck to the road construction area. He would pull the truck up and I would load it with gravel. He then would deliver the gravel.
While he was gone I took the front end loader and went into the mound of gravel to have a load ready to load the truck when he returned. When I took the front end loader and pushed into the mound I hit a water line I did not know was there.
A man came running out of the worker’s shed screaming and cussing me. He pulled me off of the tractor and threw me into the mound of gravel.
He was on top of me and I was no match for him, but here came dad pulling up in his dump truck. He jumped out of the cab and grabbed the man on top of me pulling him off of me and beat the snot out of him! I was never so happy in my life to see my dad!
Hey, I was no match for my enemy but my father was. Could it be that we are no match for our enemies, but our Heavenly Father is?