Bible Observations: Vengeance or Forgiveness

It’s May and I am in 2nd Chronicles on my bi-annual trek through the Bible. I will confess that sometimes the stories of these various kings of Judah and Israel in the Old Testament make me want to go back in time and knock their heads together. Not to mention that there was just a whole lot of killing going on, generation after generation.

O Lord, how I long for peace to reign in this world.

Anyway, in this morning’s scheduled reading, I came to the place where “Joash the king did not remember the kindness” which Jehoiada had shown to him. And so Joash murdered Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada. As Zechariah died he said, “May the Lord see and avenge!” (2 Chron 24:22)

I immediately thought of a New Testament follower of Christ who was murdered and the contrast of his dying words with those of Zechariah:

But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse. When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:57–60, NASB95)

“May the Lord see and avenge!” versus “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!”

I believe God sees and avenges. I believe He metes out justice and that there is more justice to come. Still, I want my personal response to injustice against me to always be, Lord, forgive them, instead of, Lord, make them pay.

Something to think about anyway.

~robin