The Comforting Wrath of God
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
-Romans 12:19-21
When we are wronged, our natural tendency is to seek vengeance. Since Scripture forbids that, our faith in God’s wrath helps us expel any thoughts of vengeance, giving us comfort amidst affliction. When we consider God’s wrath, comfort is probably the last thing that comes to mind, so my aim is to show how God’s wrath is a place of hope for the saints that can satisfy our desire for justice infinitely better than vengeance ever could.
The Problem of Human Vengeance
The sinful desire for vengeance comes from the natural and good desire for justice. When we perceive injustice, the response is anger which can manifest in appropriate or sinful ways.[1] When we or those close to us are wronged, we want to right that wrong, so vengeance is to return the wrong by responding in kind. If we were able to return that wrong in a perfectly just manner, vengeance would be appropriate, but since only God has perfect knowledge of and power over everything, only God’s vengeance is infallible. We finite humans are incapable of dispensing vengeance in a perfectly just manner, so it is forbidden: “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD” (Leviticus 19:18). The first time we see vengeance in Scripture is when self-righteous Lamech, the epitome of the evil line of Cain, brags about killing a man who merely wounded him (Genesis 4:23-24). Had it not been for Abigail’s skillful intercept, David would have wiped out Nabal’s household for his insult (1 Samuel 25:32-35). Even when God raised up nations to judge other nations, they either failed to fully carry out that judgment or went too far. The latter has often triggered endless cycles of violence. In short, our propensity to self-righteousness and unrighteous anger means that we cannot be trusted to seek vengeance appropriately, so we must avoid it. Vengeance enacted by fallen humans can never balance the scales of justice, so it will never accomplish its intended goal.
The Christian must reject vengeance, and since sin begins with our thoughts and motives, we must reject even the desire for vengeance. A common form of this in our day is critical theory, which advocates an oppressed group oppressing their former oppressors as a way to get even for past wrongs. We have previously examined how this is unjust because it mistakes shared responsibility for individual responsibility. Plus, it does nothing but foster self-righteousness and division when Scripture calls us to humility and unity. Like all desires for vengeance, it directly violates the command of Jesus:
You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
-Matthew 5:38-45, ESV
This command from the Sermon on the Mount clearly excludes any possibility of seeking vengeance, so we cannot obey Jesus and support critical theory. Instead, Jesus is saying that when we are wronged we should lean into the wrong and do good instead. It is important to note that this passage does not require us to overlook evil, tolerate injustice, or refrain from all forms of defending ourselves or others. Scripture is full of commands not to overlook evil, as we saw when discussing abortion. None of the examples Jesus gives are life-threatening—a slap not a murder, a small lawsuit not an attempt to ruin, and a compulsion to walk a reasonable distance not a kidnapping. Instead, Jesus is exhorting us to a new strategy that reflects the nature of God, who graciously withholds His vengeance from all of us who incessantly sin against Him. It is also not being a pushover but is in fact being strategic. We are called to do all we can to live in peace, but even that command comes with caveats (Romans 12:18). So to obey Jesus’s command here is to wisely look at the situation. If there is a reasonable chance that “turning the other cheek” will result in peace or turn a life around as in Les Misérables, we should pursue it: “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you” (Proverbs 25:21-22, cf. Romans 12:20). Such unexpected generosity stands a very real chance of disarming an enemy.
When the Syrians discovered that their plans against Israel were being thwarted by Elisha’s prophecies, they sent an army against him. After God struck them with blindness, he led them into Samaria—right into the hands of Israel’s king who excitedly asked if he should kill them. Elisha responded: “You shall not strike them down. Would you strike down those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master” (2 Kings 6:22). Arguably, the greatest show of power is restraint. Power restrained is meekness, and Jesus said the meek will inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5). One of the greatest power plays then is to do good when you have the power to do harm. When faced with a threat, the weak have no choice but to fight or flee while the strong have the ability to calmly respond with kindness while still maintain the ability to fight if necessary. All normal strategies for conflict revolve around answering power with power, so the unexpected answer of kindness is likely to leave the enemy surprised and lacking any strategy to respond. That is certainly what happened with the Syrian soldiers. Imagine their surprise and trepidation as they feasted. They knew the Israelites could have killed them at any point, so their restraint made a strong statement. When they returned to Damascus and told their harrowing tale, it made the Syrians afraid to fight against Israel, resulting in a period of peace (2 Kings 6:23). We make that same strong statement when we do not succumb to evil but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).
Hope in God’s Vengeance
We can make this power play because God has that power: “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord”” (Romans 12:19). The power that allows us to respond to any wrong with kindness is our hope in the wrath of God. Scripture repeatedly states that God will avenge all wrongs committed against His people. Here are a few examples:
Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly. For the LORD will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone and there is none remaining, bond or free. Then he will say, Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge, who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you; let them be your protection! See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven and swear, As I live forever, if I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand takes hold on judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and will repay those who hate me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh—with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the long-haired heads of the enemy.’ “Rejoice with him, O heavens; bow down to him, all gods, for he avenges the blood of his children and takes vengeance on his adversaries. He repays those who hate him and cleanses his people’s land.”
-Deuteronomy 32:35-43, ESV
But the LORD has become my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge. He will bring back on them their iniquity and wipe them out for their wickedness; the LORD our God will wipe them out.
-Psalms 94:22-23, ESV
The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
-Nahum 1:2-3, ESV
Not only do we see that God’s promised vengeance is a common theme but that it is sure and absolute. He taunts false gods in Deuteronomy, pointing out that when He takes vengeance there is nothing anyone can do to thwart Him. The annihilation of the wicked is equally sure in Psalm 94, and God’s vengeance is mingled with His justice and patience as part of His unchanging nature in Nahum 1. Throughout Scripture we see the saints responding to their affliction by resting on the promise that God’s wrath is coming despite all of the often-graphic depictions of that wrath. The wrath of God is fearsome, and its sure coming should strike fear into everyone (Amos 5:18-20), but the nature of that fear is vastly different between God’s enemies and His people. Since God is for us, all of His attributes are in our favor—including His wrath. The unstoppable power of a mighty military is dreadful for the enemy about to be crushed but great comfort for those about to be rescued. This leads God’s people to plead with God to hasten the day in which His wrath rescues them and rights all wrongs, as we see in imprecatory psalms like this one:
O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD! Let them vanish like water that runs away; when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted. Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime, like the stillborn child who never sees the sun. Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns, whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away! The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked. Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth.”
-Psalms 58:6-11, ESVnone
You have likely never sung Psalm 58 in church. Some commonly sung psalms like Psalm 139 contain short imprecatory statements, but the descriptions here are vivid enough to make most people in effeminate modern churches squirm. It sounds like military cadences featuring blood and gore, putting warheads on foreheads reducing the enemy to hair, teeth, and eyeballs. When I was deployed, our Monday meeting always ended with an intel brief. It was encouraging to see the reward for our hard work: the territory held by the so-called Islamic State steadily shrinking. The briefing ended with aerial footage from some of the week’s airstrikes. I must admit that I had a certain level of satisfaction watching this footage, especially when I considered the atrocities that these “targets” were committing against my brothers and sisters in Christ. While I had to be careful that this did not descend into a sinful desire for vengeance, in many ways it mirrors what we see in Psalm 58 with the righteous rejoicing when they see vengeance inflicted on the wicked. But is this God’s vengeance? We have previously seen how all authority ultimately comes from God but is given by Him to specific people for the purpose of obeying Him. He has established various governments and given them specific responsibilitiesand related authority. These institutions are heads of households, church leaders, civil leaders, and employers. The civil authority is explicitly given the responsibility to punish evil as an avenger on God’s behalf. It should be unsurprising then that most of the wrath of God we see in Scripture comes at the hand of nations. God promised to destroy anyone who destroys His Church (1 Corinthians 3:17), and He often uses human means to do that. Therefore, it is appropriate to praise God and feel some satisfaction when the wicked face justice.
Wait for God’s Wrath
Throughout Scripture and Church history, we see generation after generation of evil before God pours our His wrath. Many saints lived and died in much affliction without seeing God’s justice done. They too could take comfort in the wrath of God, because God’s earthly wrath is infinitesimal in comparison to His eternal wrath. For all who are in Christ, that wrath was already poured out on Christ at the cross. We will spend eternity together so it is pointless to seek vengeance against each other: “To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!” (1 Corinthians 6:7-8). But all who die apart from Christ must be consumed by the wrath of God in order for His justice and righteousness to be satisfied. They will face unimaginable torment and agony forever. No act of vengeance we can ever imagine could even be a drop in the bucket compared to the massive ocean of God’s wrath. We cannot add anything to God’s wrath, so we should instead wait patiently for that wrath to make things right rather than longing to take vengeance ourselves: “Do not say, “I will repay evil”; wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you” (Proverbs 20:22). Finally, it is important to remember that our ultimate desire for our enemies should not be that they face that wrath but that they repent. God does not delight in the death of the wicked but in their repentance (Ezekiel 18:23). We must remember that we were all enemies of Christ before He saved us, so we should pray that God grants them the same faith and repentance He has given us. I was satisfied that the evildoers of the so-called Islamic State faced God’s wrath, but I would have preferred that they repent and believe the Gospel that saves the worst of sinners and makes them brethren.
In the end, any personal vengeance we could pursue or desire is pitiful and useless in comparison to the wrath of God that awaits anyone who remains unrepentant. If that desire is against our fellow saints, it is a great affront to Christ who has born that wrath already. Still, it is appropriate to cry out to God asking how long until His wrath rights all wrongs (Revelation 6:10-11). But when we ask that, we must remember that the answer is “one more saint”. God’s ultimate wrath will come when all of the saints are brought in—and not a nanosecond before (Matthew 13:24-30,36-43). So let us wait patiently for God’s perfect justice and rest in the promise of His perfect wrath with great thanksgiving that Jesus has saved us from that wrath that we deserved, and then let us overcome evil with good.
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
-2 Peter 3:8-10, ESV
[1] David Powlison, Good & Angry: Redeeming Anger, Irritation, Complaining, and Bitterness, Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press: 2016: 45.
