“Revenge is my domain, so is punishment-in-kind,
    at the exact moment their step slips up,
    because the day of their destruction is just around the corner;
    their final destiny is speeding on its way!”  Deuteronomy 32:35 (CEB)

     ^“Don’t pay back anyone for their evil actions with evil actions, but show respect for what everyone else believes is good. If possible, to the best of your ability, live at peace with all people.¹⁹ Don’t try to get revenge for yourselves, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath. It is written, ‘Revenge belongs to me; I will pay it back, says the Lord.’”   Romans 12:17-19 (CEB)

                Revenge. Getting even. Making someone pay for a perceived or actual act against us. Avenge. Getting even. Making someone pay for a perceived or actual act against someone other than us. These are two very strong human emotions. You hurt me, so I’m going to hurt you – worse. This drive for vengeance is rooted in the cultural perspective of honor and shame. In this country today, we call it “winners” and “losers”. Sports teams particularly evidence this thinking. Rival schools, rival towns, rival teams. From the youngest player/fan to the most seasoned, we are constantly against one team and for our own. Some folks never actually leave high school or even college, because they continue to keep these rivalries alive.

                We give a great deal of honor and praise to violence. Movies, TV shows, video gaming, are all examples of the glorifying of violence. Characters are either evil or good. Evil must be destroyed and so the heroes go forth to conquer. We like these violent displays because they give us a sense of power over those things we cannot otherwise control. Of course, the good guys always win, generally because they have more power and might. The collateral damage is shrugged off as a cost of doing battle. If a good guy dies, well, he had an honorable death. If a bad guy dies, well, he had it coming, didn’t he? Beside all that twisted logic, the USA always wins. Just look at movies, or TV shows, or even video gaming and you will see that the USA always seems to emerge with the heroes.

                Acting upon a desire for revenge fuels war. Acting upon a desire to avenge someone else’s pain will also fuel war. The only way that doesn’t happen is when one side, although angry and desiring to “get even”, chooses not to show up and act on those feelings. Revenge is also about “saving face”. We don’t like it when someone chooses to mock us for our perceived cowardice in the face of violent actions. We have a primal need to prove ourselves more powerful than the originator, so that we are not seen as a “laughing stock” or weak.

                 The death, destruction, and damage to humans that comes with a war is devastating to the world. Truly in a war no one wins. Ever. One side may claim victory, yes, but the aftermath is expensive and heart-rending. The losing side? Well, Jefferson Davis, who served as the Confederate President in the Civil War, expressed the fervent hope that “the South will rise again”. That’s what happens in war. That’s what happens with violence. That’s what happens when conflict escalates, anger boils over, and the only acceptable outcome is winning. One side celebrates and the other takes their anger underground and plots revenge.

                  It is clear from Biblical teachings that God does not intend for us to seek revenge. We read in Deuteronomy 32.35, and the words are reinforced by Paul in Romans 12.19, that revenge is the sole privilege of God, not us.  If not revenge, then what are we to do when anger grips our hearts and the desire to avenge is so strong?

                 Micah 6.8 says the Lord requires of us that we “do justice, practice loving-kindness, and walk humbly with God”. This is the starting place for our lives as children of God. Justice, “mishpat”, is a complex concept, yet we are told that justice is caring for the poor and tending to those who are oppressed. It is standing up and advocating for those who are suffering and those who are accused. Seeing a need and filling it. Looking for ways to make life better and more equal for others, and helping to bring us together into a right relationship with one another . Loving-kindness, “chesed”, is a difficult word to translate, yet its sense is that of going the extra mile. Practicing “chesed” means seeing others’ needs, not just our own, and working to see those needs are filled. Caring for one another, being sincere, authentic, kind to one another – not just nice – and always extending a hand of help and encouragement even in the face of anger and evil.  Walking humbly with God, should be the easiest of the three and yet it isn't. Humbly walking with God requires us to understand and accept that we are never finished learning from God, that God is still speaking today. It requires us to understand and accept that we are NOT God, nor are we like God. Fearlessly, we place ourselves under the teaching of something much greater than we are and listen for that teaching in all its expressions. We don’t get “puffed up”, believing we have the only access to the ear and heart of God. We don’t believe that we worship a stagnant God, one who spoke once and then never spoke again. We take seriously Jesus’ admonishments that if it isn’t about love, then it isn’t God’s teaching but human sinful reasoning. (Matt. 22.34-40)

Now if all of this sounds like Jesus’ Beatitudes, that’s because it is. Jesus was a course correction for those who believed in YHWH, and for us today as well. We get lost along the way in our faith education. We turn to our own way and away from God’s love. We make those choices and because God loves us, God calls us to turn back.When we don’t? God allows us to experience the consequences of our choices.

“Be angry, but do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” (Eph. 4.26) If we are heeding that warning, we will turn over to God our anger, our pain, and our desire for revenge. We will practice humbleness in our walk with God. We will practice loving-kindness. We will act in an just manner all the time, thus limiting the moments we might cry out for revenge. We will become Beatitudes people, not those who like the satan can quote selected Scripture yet never practice the teachings of Jesus, who resisted that satan. We would leave the sorting and the revenging to God and focus on loving others as we have been unconditionally loved. Bullying would cease. Power and greed would no longer be our motivators.  All would have enough and none would be found with nothing. Tribal thinking would no more reign supreme and God, as we each understand and love God, would be our measuring rod for life.

That would be the Kingdom of God made real in this world. What are we afraid of and why aren’t we eagerly doing this?