Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Want to Get Revenge? | Torah | Deuteronomy 19

Episode Date: October 19, 2022

Are you seeking revenge on someone? Do you want to right a wrong? Is there an injustice that you want to get justice for? Trying to get even with someone? We live in a culture obsessed with revenge. Jensen shares what God thinks about revenge in Deuteronomy 19. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Deuteronomy 19

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. There's a new movie on Netflix. It's called Do Revenge. And the movie follows these two teenage girls as they do each other's revenge on the people who have hurt them the most. It's a dark comedy with over-the-top antics and tons of people loved it. It topped Netflix's charts and it was watched for 42.5 million hours in a week. I'm sure people loved it for many reasons, but if you're going to settle in and watch a film titled Do Revenge, you're probably in it because you like watching movies about revenge. And if you do, you're in luck because Hollywood is full of them. Taken, Gone Girl, Gladiator, Princess Bride, John Tucker Must Die, Mean Girls, they're all movies about revenge. The last season of a popular show called The Handmaid's Tale ended with a group of women, and brutally murdering a man who they felt was responsible for their past trauma. They didn't trust the system to enact justice, so they took revenge on him themselves. We love revenge stories.

I think parts of us love it because we wish we could take revenge on people who have wronged us. We feel slighted, overlooked, or hurt without the other person ever acknowledging the pain they've caused, and we want them to pay. But we wouldn't ever do anything about it, right? So we just watch movies about other people who do crazy things to feed our need for revenge. And so maybe we can't totally relate to the extravagant forms of revenge we see on TV. But I do think we all seek out our own revenge in small ways every day. Saying a biting comment to your spouse because they hurt your feelings and you want them to know how it felt.

or not texting a friend back because they forgot to invite you to a hangout and you want them to experience the loneliness and rejection that you felt. We take justice into our hands all the time. We exact our own small forms of revenge even if it isn't as explosive as the movies. And unlike the movies, it often leaves us feeling more lonely and sad than before. Did you know that the Bible is very anti-revenge? I mean, maybe you guessed it probably was, but when we look at Scripture, we see clearly that God is a God of justice, not revenge. Deuteronomy 19 lays out how a courtroom should handle the case of someone bearing false

witness against their neighbor. And it ends with saying that if a person is found guilty of lying about their neighbor and attempting to cause them harm through deceit, you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Now this might seem revenge-ish, but it isn't. God is actually setting up laws that keep people from taking revenge. He's putting boundaries on what can be done when someone is wronged another person. The punishment is made proportionate to the crime. And it is to be taken out of the hands of the people and put into the hands of the judicial system.

The Bible's pretty clear about revenge. We see men like Lamek and Genesis. Maybe you remember him. He's a bad guy. And he boasts about taking revenge on a man who wounded him. He takes justice into his own hands, perverts it, and kills the man. Romans 1219 says, do not repay evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written, it is mine to avenge. I will repay, says the Lord. We see a similar pattern here as we do in Deuteronomy. We are not to take revenge into our own hands, but to leave punishment and justice to the hands of another.

To God. See, Paul is referencing a passage in Deuteronomy 32, where the Lord tells his people that he sees the evil of their enemies. He sees the wrong that has been done, and he will avenge. If there is one thing in common in all of the Hollywood movies about revenge, it is that the people who are seeking it out and taking it into their own hands go a little crazy. They are all burdened by this desire for revenge and it drives them into the state of intense focus. It's all they can think about. They ruminate on it day and night. It overtakes their

life. It honestly doesn't look pleasant. And that's what is freeing about these passages. See, God is not telling us to forget about wrongdoing or to let evil slide because it doesn't matter. No, he's asking us to lay down our swords because we're not. we do not have the right to take revenge. He is the arbiter of justice, and he calls us to trust him rather than grasp for control. In the New Testament, Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek. You've probably heard that one before. But did you know that he's referencing this chapter in Deuteronomy when he says that? Jesus says in Matthew 5, you have heard that it was said, eye for eye and tooth for tooth. But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. See, Jesus is saying, in the Old Testament, Moses told you to take an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, to leave it up to the justice system, to not take revenge into your own hands.

And that's true, but Jesus is taking it one step even further. Do not take revenge, but turn the other cheek. Give them your coat along with the shirt they unfairly take from you. See, Jesus isn't telling us to roll over and let everyone take advantage of us, but he is calling us to lay down our need to defend ourselves, to get revenge, to take out our feelings on someone else, and to replace those deep emotions with love, with generosity, with gentleness. When a Christian is wronged, they should look completely different than what the world might expect.

No Twitter wars, no name-calling, no slander, no anger, no hate, no malice, no gossip, but love, forgiveness, gentleness. Not because we don't care or we think it's okay, but because we are secure, in our knowledge that God is in control, and it is his to avenge if true injustice has been done. And let me be the first to say that this is hard. It involves humility in the face of humiliation. It involves laying aside my instinct to protect myself and replacing it with generosity and care for someone else's life and feelings above my own. And not just anyone else, but the person who has hurt me or wronged me. That is a difficult ask.

Trust me, I am someone who loves a grudge. I love to hold on to the bitterness and resentment and desire for revenge when someone has hurt me. I'm the first to throw past wrongs in the face of those who have hurt me. I'm the last to forget. I'm certainly not inclined to show love or kindness to people who I think have hurt me. Why? Why? Because I'm a prideful human who thinks she's right almost all of the time, and I'd like other people to acknowledge that fact. And you know what? That is so unattractive. Just saying that has me feeling really gross, but it is the honest truth about what is deep down in my heart.

I would love nothing more than to have revenge on people who have hurt me, to prove them wrong, to show them what they deserve. and that desire is completely antithetical to the gospel. It goes completely against what Jesus calls me to, what Yahweh commands. I have to repent daily of my hardened heart. I have to pray for the faith to trust that God is in control, and that is good. I have to ask God for the wisdom to understand that I am not always right, for the humility to admit that I'm not good. enough or wise enough or worthy enough to enact justice. It is hard and painful work,

but it is necessary. And the fruit that comes from living like Jesus calls us is beautiful. I'll wrap up with this. There was a story on NPR about a man named Julio Diaz, who was robbed one night in a New York subway station. As the man who was attempting to rob him held up a knife, Diaz handed him his wallet. And before his robber walked away, he offered him his coat saying, if you're going to be robbing people all night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm. And the robber, a little stunned, asked him why. Why would you do that? And Diaz answered that if this kid was willing to risk his freedom for a few dollars from his wallet, then he must really need the money. He then invited him to eat at a diner with him and spent the night building a relationship

with this young boy. It ended in Diaz getting his wallet back, along with the knife that the boy had been using to rob people. Now, robbing people is wrong. There's no doubt. But this one man, for whatever reason, decided to take an interest in the person standing across from him, rather than jumping to defend or avenge himself. He saw the humanity and the young, man who was trying to harm him, and he showed kindness, love, and generosity to him. And it made a difference. What if all Christians were like this? What if we stopped taking matters into our own hands and laid down our lives, our need to defend ourselves? What if we trusted that God has control and started seeing the people we think are our enemies as complex human

beings with dignity who are in need of love, kindness, and generosity. I don't know who you're tempted to exact revenge on, who you're holding a grudge against, who you feel like has wronged you. But today, can you pray that the Lord would give you the strength to trust that he will enact true justice when he brings restoration to this world? Pray that you would have the humility and wisdom to lay. down your sword, your anger, your bitterness, and instead pick up instruments of peace, love, kindness, and generosity. May we be a people who sow peace in a world obsessed with revenge, and may we trust that as we do, we are partnering with a just God in building his kingdom

of love, justice, and mercy. Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help encourage you in the middle of the work week and bring you deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.