Revenge

Now there’s an interesting word …

People of faith tend to poo-poo the notion of revenge.

You know what the Scriptures say: Revenge is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

That is very true, however … there’s more to it.

5 Now you know what Zeruiah’s son Joab did to me. You know what he did to the two captains of the armies of Israel. He killed Abner the son of Ner, and Amasa the son of Jether in the time of peace as if it were in the time of war. He put the blood of war on his belt and on the shoes of his feet. 6 So act with wisdom. Do not let his gray hair go down to the grave in peace. 7 But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite. Let them be among those who eat at your table. For they helped me when I ran from your brother Absalom. 8 See, there is with you Shimei the son of Gera the Benjamite, of Bahurim. It was he who spoke bad words against me on the day I went to Mahanaim. But when he came down to me at the Jordan, I promised him by the Lord, saying, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’ 9 So do not let him go without being punished. For you are a wise man. You will know what you should do to him. Bring his gray hair down to the grave with blood.”

1 Kings 2: 5-9 (NLV)

Here’s a great example: David, one of God’s most beloved (so much so that his family is described as sitting on the throne forever because Jesus was born of the Davidic family line), talks revenge twice in his last words to his son Solomon.

What else do you call it? He tells Solomon to make sure these two fellows have no peace for what they did to his dad during his life, that Solomon should pay them back.

Yet through his life, David didn’t do anything to these two men. He told the second dude that he, David, wouldn’t kill him — but that didn’t mean David didn’t want him dead.

Now, I’m not advocating revenge. I’m just sayin’ it’s something we need to talk about more circumspectly.

Revenge isn’t something we don’t think about.

Revenge isn’t something that the Scriptures simply indicate we should toss to God and leave go.

There’s some stuff we have to work out with revenge.

I realized that my innards were gnawing on themselves because of how I felt about some things in my past. I didn’t initially want revenge and don’t think I really went there, full on. But I had to work it out, you know? I figured out how to do that through my writing. I’ve written ‘what if’ stories and I’m working on a short screenplay to (hopefully) put to bed a thing I’ve had in my gut for a while.

I’m doing it because like the meme above suggests, I’m too old to be chasing nonsense.