Vengeance

Jeremiah 9:8-9 (ESV)

Their tongue is a deadly arrow;

it speaks deceitfully;

with his mouth each speaks peace to his neighbor,

but in his heart he plans an ambush for him.

[9] Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the Lord,

and shall I not avenge myself

on a nation such as this?

The sins that are being referred to in this section of Jeremiah, that the people of Judah have committed, relate to their deceit and lying to each other. There is no honesty. Integrity is gone and non one can be trusted. They use one another for their own purposes. Yet God, in the final phrase of verse 9 says that He will avenge Himself. God is the offended party. A lie to one’s neighbour is a sin against God.

This is the hard lesson that David had to learn when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered Uriah and lied to Nathan and abused his position and did not fulfil his duties as king for the people and abused Bathsheba. He practically sinned against everyone in the Kingdom. Yet in his repentance he truthfully said to the LORD, “Against you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.”

This is true. Our sin, no matter how offensive it is to others, and no matter how much it hurts and abuses others, is first and foremost against God. He is the offended party and He is the one with whom we first have to deal and He is the One who will hold us accountable. God will avenge Himself against sinners because God has been offended. He will deal with sin.

And oh how God has dealt with sin. Do you see that your sin has demanded vengeance from God? Have you seen that that vengeance must be satisfied? Have you seen that you deserve the wrath of God for your sins against Him? Have you seen that Jesus Christ came and bore the wrath of God that was for you to bear? God will deal with sin.

If you are a child of God then you should get up every morning thanking God that He took out His vengeance for your sin against Jesus Christ. Jesus took the blows for you and that is why you woke up this morning and that is why you are able to pray and serve and worship. It is why you have a relationship with God that gives you the right to call Him “Father”. It is the reason for every blessing that you can name. What a thing a just and righteous God has done for us! It is simply stunning!

You do not know Him? It is a frightening thing to fall into the hands of the living God and you will. And if you fall there without Christ as the One who took the blows for you then you will face God’s vengeance for sin all by yourself. And that will be too much for you to bear but you will bear it for eternity with no possibility of escape. But Jesus is here and if you do not know Christ, then know this. For whatever reason you stumbled upon this blog God got you here to hear this: turn to Christ. God has given you this opportunity to know great love, great mercy, great hope and real life. It is not what you should get but it is what you can have. God will have vengeance. He invites you to escape it at His expense. Know real peace with a real great and loving and righteous God.