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Leaving Room for God or Bumping Him Out of Vengence

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Romans 12:19-21 NET

19 Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head. 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

If we repay, or take justice into our own hands, we risk becoming the oppressor. We risk beating the evil of our enemy by being more severe or untrue or unjust than they were. When that happens, we take away the room for God's justice, because He always takes the side of the persecuted or oppressed underdog.

1 Corinthians 6:7

To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?

He is saying that it would be better to be defeated than to risk man-made justice that threw dirt on God's face.

How many times do you get in a fight (maybe this just happens between husbands and wives?) and afterwards you see that it was an argument over less than $10? After the fact, don't you ever think "Man, I would totally pay $20 for peace and reconciliation right now!"

Romans 12:19-21 NET

19 Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head. 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Jesus Finishes His Time with Pilate

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John 19:6

I think Pilate thought the Jews would see what he had done to Jesus and be appeased, but instead they just saw that they had gained momentum toward getting Jesus executed.

[11]?Jesus answered him, ?You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.?

(John 19:11 ESV)

Pilate is finally starting to worry about bigger consequences of his actions, beyond this Jewish troublemaker. He?s not concerned enough to change deep down, but he is showing some concern. Pilate is a squeamish pawn in this trial. He may be able to stand up to the Jewish leaders and turn the events, but we?ll never know.

I think there is some grace & response showing through here because it?s AFTER Jesus lessens the guilt of Pilate that Pilate actually seeks to free Jesus. Jesus doesn?t say Pilate is innocent, but He does say that somebody is guilty of a greater sin.

Rather than threatening Pilate with what will happen to him, Jesus is revving up to ask the Father to forgive the men with the hammers and nails in their hands. Jesus is not only on a destination to His death, but He is on a destination to die a death that will be the sacrifice for the sins of the world. There is no reason to expect that the storehouse of sins should lessen as He nears the cross, they will all hurt Him the same as He is victorious over them.

Get Your Dead Body Off My Property!

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Jer. 20:1 ¬? When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, the chief officer in the temple of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things,
Jer. 20:2 he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin at the LORD’s temple.
Jer. 20:3 The next day, when Pashhur released him from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD’s name for you is not Pashhur, but Magor-missabib.
Jer. 20:4 For this is what the LORD says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; with your own eyes you will see them fall by the sword of their enemies. I will hand all Judah over to the king of Babylon, who will carry them away to Babylon or put them to the sword.
Jer. 20:5 I will hand over to their enemies all the wealth of this city—all its products, all its valuables and all the treasures of the kings of Judah. They will take it away as plunder and carry it off to Babylon.
Jer. 20:6 And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into exile to Babylon. There you will die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.’”

Wow.

The priest “had” the prophet beaten. Like it was a decree or a hit. And then he’s imprisoned which means he would have just sat w/ his wounds for the night and not received any care or help or food, and then released.

The Jews took where their bodies were buried very very seriously, so for him to not have his body buried in Israel would be a real disgrace. It’s like God doesn’t even want their dead bodies in His land.

Moths are Slowly Eating their Souls

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Is. 51:7 “Hear me, you who know what is right, you people who have my law in your hearts: Do not fear the reproach of men or be terrified by their insults.
Is. 51:8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment; the worm will devour them like wool. But my righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations.”

There are two main themes (I am thinking about today) through Isaiah 49-53

God is my avenger and He holds my payment in His hand. There are numerous places in here where he talks about moths eating things up. My wife pulled a shirt out of the closet just 2 days ago that had moth holes in it. The wild and amazing thing about moth holes is that most of the time you never see the moths.

David had the nickname “mothbane” when we lived in Asia, because any time he saw a moth he would kill it. Even if he was eating dinner. Even if we told him not to. The thing is, it wasn’t the moths that we could see that were tearing up our clothes. The moths we could see were safely locked OUT of our closets. It’s the moths IN our closets that were destroying our clothes.

I read all this stuff about evil men, and I can’t help but think how unseen their destruction is. It’s not obvious that God is fighting for the oppressed. It’s not blatant to the world, or media especially, that moths are eating holes through the insulting, evil powers of this age.

Moth and Rust. They both destroy slowly, from the inside out, and both destroy because of poor maintenance. If people would give attention to their insides, to the hidden areas inside the locked closets of their souls, there would be fewer holes, and less hidden destruction.