TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Date: Feb. 3, 2026 - Lesson 22-2026. Title: Wait for the Lord: Justice Belongs to God

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

Proverbs 20:22 calls God’s people away from personal vengeance and toward patient trust. Instead of repaying evil with evil, wisdom commands restraint and confidence in the Lord’s justice. God alone sees fully, judges rightly, and delivers at the proper time. In today’s Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart explore why retaliation corrupts the heart, how waiting on the Lord protects the soul, and why true victory belongs to those who entrust justice to God rather than taking it into their own hands. Lesson 21-2026 Teachers: Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart You can partner with us by visiting MannaNation.com, calling 1-888-519-4935, or by mail at PO Box 399 Vero Beach, FL 32961. MEGA FIRE reveals the ancient recurring cycles of war and economic collapse that have shaped history for 600 years. These patterns predict America is now entering its most dangerous period since World War II. Get your copy today! www.megafire.world Get high-quality emergency preparedness food today from American Reserves! www.AmericanReserves.com It’s the Final Day! The day Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. Now available in eBook and audio formats! Order Final Day from Amazon today! www.Amazon.com/Final-Day Apple users, you can download the audio version on Apple Books! www.books.apple.com/final-day Purchase the 4-part DVD set or start streaming Sacrificing Liberty today. www.Sacrificingliberty.com

Welcome to Morning Manor. Welcome to Morning Mirate your nourishment. Your teachers, Rackwiles and Dr. Burkla, get your body before. Well, good morning, everybody. Welcome to Morning Manna. We're delighted that you're here with us today. We're going to study the Word of God. Our home on the Internet is manna nation.

Manana Nation.com. That's where souls are nourished. And we encourage you to go to Manana, You can find the archives of these lessons at manonation.com. If you're watching on Faith TV, we're only on for 28 minutes each day, and so the lessons usually are about 60 minutes. So if you go over to manonation.com, you can find the rest of the lesson. Okay, so today we're continuing our study in the book of Proverbs.

We're in chapter 20. we're looking at verses 22 through 24. Let's invite the Holy Spirit to lead this class, and Dr. Raymond Burkhart is going to read the word. Almighty God, Father in heaven, Father, we come to you in the name of your son and our Savior, King Jesus Christ. Father, we ask humbly for the presence of the Holy Spirit

to lead this class. Anoint us to teach and anoint us to hear, anoint us to receive, Father. Send us grace, Father, that we would become stronger, brighter disciples for Jesus Christ in a very dark world. This we ask in the name of our Savior, Jesus. Amen. And welcome to morning, man. I'm so glad to have you with us today.

Let's get right into the word. We've got a lot of information to share with you today. We are in Proverbs chapter 20, verses 22 through 24. Proverbs chapter 20, verses 22 through 24. Get your Bibles, open them up, read along with me. I'm reading from the King James this morning. Verse 22, say thou not, I will recompense evil, but wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee. Divers'wights are an abomination unto the Lord, and a false balance is not good. That verse may sound familiar to many of you.

And then verse 24, man's goings are of the Lord. How can a man then understand his own way? Like I said, we're covering a lot of territory today. Buckle up, we're in for a ride. Absolutely. It's a good lesson. We'll start with verse 22. King James says, say not thou, I will recompense evil. But wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee.

The English translation of the Greek Septuagint says, Say not, I will avenge myself on my enemy, but wait on the Lord that he may help thee. So we'll begin with the first segment of this proverb. Say not, I will avenge on my enemy. The natural reaction to any type of injury is the desire to get even. Yes.

So let's start with the, let's just start with the basics. That's not, to have that thought, his self is not sinful. It's a natural reaction that that person deserves, deserves to get what they just did.

But the Lord says, don't say it. Yes. Okay. Don't meditate on it. Get that thought out of your head. It is a natural reaction. The Hebrew word means to repay, to make complete.

Our carnal natural flesh wants to personally balance the scales of justice. We want to get into this matter and say, we'll take care of it. When I was a young man, that's the way I was, Doc. That's the way I dealt with problems. you do something like that, okay, I'm going to retaliate. Thank God they got saved. Okay, and, you know, the Lord began to change my reaction to things that people did. Solomon warns against even saying these words.

He says, don't say I will pay him back. That's making a vow of revenge. using your mouth to speak a commitment that you're going to carry out an act of revenge. Yes. What it does is when you say it, when you speak those words, it solidifies the anger that you feel and now becomes a plan. Right. It turns a momentary hurt into a premeditated sin.

To seek revenge. to usurp the authority of God. The scripture is very clear. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. It's in Romans 12, verse 19. When we take the sort of justice into our hands, we are sitting in God's chair.

We said to the Lord, you move over, get off your throne. I'm going to sit there. I'm the one who's going to make sure that justice is done. So, recompensing evil rarely ends the conflict. It usually escalates it, an eye for an eye, or tooth for tooth. And it leaves the whole world blind. The Christian ethic requires breaking the cycle, not continuing it. But, Doc, we see this.

We see this in the world, especially between nations, an eye for an eye. And sadly, like in the Middle East, the conflict that we've seen between the Jews and the Arabs, they've been fighting and hating each other for so long.

Nobody knows who hit first. Right? Well, we're retaliating for what you just did. And the other side said, well, what we did was retaliation for what you did. And back and forth, back and forth, between the Jews and the Arabs, because they're each trying to bring about revenge.

And so the fighting just continues and continues. You know, many years ago, there was a famous family feud in America, Hatfields and McCorries. It's a real fight between two families. They fought for decades. Right. I mean, it got down to the grandchildren,

great-grandchildren. were fighting. Nobody knew what the fight was about. That's what happens when you, when you try to get revenge, it just keeps the fight going. So if you return evil for evil, you become the very thing that you hate. Amen. You start to become like the person who attacked you. So you cannot fight the devil with his own weapons without becoming devilish yourself. Amen. And as we dive into this verse here, Rick, I'll start off with that say thou not phrase. It's not just a casual phrase there. It's a command, a command to our hearts.

Don't speak about it. Really, don't think about it. Don't harbor the intention of personal revenge. And that second part there, I'll recompense evil. And like you said, there's a natural impulse to repay wrong with wrong. actually that's something that we get from the Lord, from God. God will repay. But sometimes we think we can take it upon ourselves to do that.

But this for us is just the voice of the flesh. It includes wounded pride, things like anger, that desire to get even. And you know what, Rick, what's so deceiving about this is that it feels righteous, doesn't it? You're avenging a wrong. But Proverbs here is saying it's sinful and it's rebellion against God's authority itself. So that impulse to repay evil reveals that there's a heart there that still trusts itself more than it trusts in God's justice.

God's law forbids personal vengeance. It lays it out. Leviticus 1918. The believer, as you mentioned, is called to love their enemies and leave justice to the Lord. So what should disciples of Christ do when they're wronged? Well, their challenge to silence that inner voice to say, I'm not going to listen to you, crying out for revenge. We're not allowed to speak it even silently in our heart.

And ultimately, say thou not, I will recompense evil, is Christ-likeness. Our Lord prayed for his crucifers. Think about that. Father, forgive them. Forgive them. and left vengeance to the father. But someone may ask, you brought this up, Rick, what about an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth? You know, that appears three times in the Mosaic law.

Exodus 21-24, Leviticus 2420, Deuteronomy 1921, three times in the law. But this is judicial law, not personal ethics. There's a difference there. This phrase is meant in a judicial sense. is meant to measure justice. It's meant to limit punishment to the damage done. The idea here is to restrain vengeance,

not to license it, not give it carte blanche. That phrase, really, when you get right down to it, it was merciful, that eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, because like you said, in these feuds like the Hatfields and McCoys that you were mentioning, it kept escalating. The whole purpose of eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, was to de-escalate. But human hearts get involved.

It never authorized personal revenge. Never. It never authorizes personal revenge. And when it's used, and a lot of people do it today, when it's used to justify retaliation, it's being used against its purpose. Doc, as you were talking, I was thinking of two things that I believe many,

many modern-day Christians have a misconception, a misunderstanding. We, as Christians, we are not allowed to have thoughts of revenge. We're not allowed to speak it, to think about it, meditate on it. Certainly, we're not allowed to carry out plans for revenge. And most Christians will say, sure, that's the Lord's work. But I don't think a lot of Christians seriously believe that the Lord does carry out the revenge. Yeah, I think you're right, Rick. I don't think that they would say, well, that wouldn't be Christ-like.

No, it would be very Christ-like. It's just that you and I are not allowed to do what only he is allowed to do. Yes. This doesn't say God will never carry out revenge. it absolutely says he will. He will repay, say it the Lord. He will repay in the way that he thinks is best. The second thing, Doc, I was thinking about as you were speaking,

is you mentioned Jesus on the cross, okay, and that he prayed for his enemies. Okay, and he said, Father, forgive them. Yes, he was giving us the example. He forgave his enemies. Who did he forgive? He forgave the Jews who demanded that the Romans nail him on a cross. Okay, so the Lord did what was right.

But did the father bring revenge? Yes, in the year 70 AD. It was Almighty God who led the Roman army to Jerusalem and utterly destroyed the city in the temple. And all the, I mean, there was like one and a half million Jews who were slaughtered. The few that survived were, you know, fled. That was the revenge. That was the father's revenge for nailing his son on the cross.

And right now I can see people going, oh, I can't believe he just said that. I did. I just said it. Yes. All right? You know why? Because it's true. Because it's true.

And it's what the, it's what the church taught for about. 1950 years. Right. It's only been the last 40, 50 years that the Westernized church has stopped teaching it. Yes. And those events of 7080 are just a foretaste of what's going to happen on the final day. When God has his ultimate repayment, the ultimate response for revenge. For rejecting his son.

That's right. What do you think his wrath being poured out? is for, it's for rejecting his son. God's wrath is going to be poured out on this unbelieving world for rejecting the grace and the salvation that his son offered them. Amen. It's going to be revengeful, it's wrathful. He's going to get, he's going to pour out wrath upon the unbelieving people of this planet.

So the message here is, let God do it. And the reason is, he can do it without getting the poison inside of him. That's right. He's telling us, don't you get revenge, you'll get poison in your soul. You're not capable of keeping the poison out of your soul. There you go. Yes, that's right. So Solomon's emphasis is on the inner vow of retaliation. He's obviously against outward action, but the emphasis in this proverb is don't even say it to yourself. Don't think about it. Don't say it.

Don't murmur it. Don't walk around silently saying, I'm going to get even. Do not say I will return evil for evil. Don't say it in your kitchen. Don't say it in your car. Don't say it to anybody. don't write it in your journal. He's not talking about

only an audible declaration of revenge. The word to say includes resolving in your heart, rehearsing the revenge, justifying retaliation. You know, Doc, some very, there are people in prison because

they were wronged. Something was done against them. A crime was done against them. And then they kept thinking about what was done against them and how the perpetrator got away with it. You know, maybe the jury didn't find them guilty. Maybe the police didn't even arrest them. And then they took the law in their own hands?

And they took the law under their own hand. And they started in their mind, rehearsing, this is what I'm going to do to him. If I ever meet that guy on a street, this is what I'm going to do to him. And then that day came and emotions exploded, mixing you know, somebody pulls a gun or a knife and somebody's dead. And the guy that originally was hurt is now the one in prison. That's why you don't meditate on this. You don't rehearse it. You don't say it even silently. Solomon is saying, just don't let this poison get inside of you.

Right. So here in the U.S., we have a phrase called crimes and passion, which I always thought was a peculiar phrase. But, I mean, it best describes someone reacting to maybe finding out about an infidelity of a maid or finding out that they've been wronged and then doing their own thing, taking the law into their own hands, exacting their own revenge, sometimes even to the point of murder. but that's solid and speaking about that kind of thing too here isn't he yes he is so doc recompensing evil

recompensing getting even okay paying them what is due it reflects the fallen instinct in us to become the prosecutor the judge the jury and the executioner and i've met people I've met people in life who have that attitude. They get so angry. I mean, they're just angry and they're mad at something. And you can just see in them. The way that they talk or the way that they act in their mind, they're prosecuting, they're judging,

they're deciding as a jury, and they're ready to execute. Now, not maybe physically, but I'm talking about really inflicting harm on somebody. So at the end of this thing, Doc, Revenge is actually a form of unbelief. You got it. You seek revenge because you don't trust God to do what is right and necessary. You don't believe? That's unbelief.

So in the natural retaliation feels, it feels righteous. I have a right to retaliate. That's the way people think. But the reason God tells you not to do it is because it corrods and corrupts your soul. God is seeking to protect your heart from bitterness and escalation. He's not trying to protect the wrong door. Amen.

He's not getting between you and the wrong door and saying, just leave this person alone. What they did to you wasn't that bad, just forget about. That's not what he's saying. He's saying, don't let this bitterness get inside of you. Don't let this ugly mentality take root inside of you. So God forbids vengeance not to excuse evil, but to restrain you from committing greater evil.

Evil repaid does not heal injustice. It only multiplies it. So what began as one wrong becomes a chain of retaliations, what we were talking about earlier, with each party feeling justified. So to repay evil is to imitate the offender rather than overcoming the offender. Yes.

And so in personal relationships, this spirit of revenge shows up in things like silent treatment. I'm just not going to talk to you. That's a form of revenge. Right. Cutting off kindness, you know, refuse. to do anything kind. Also gossip and sabotage.

Yes. Forgive me, but I see in this verse shades of narcissistic revenge. Yes. At the heart of narcissists, at the heart of the cruelty,

narcissists are cruel. Narcissus are cruel. They deliberately inflicts, inflict pain on another person, their victim, and it's usually somebody very close to them. They deliberately inflict pain on another person, and the reason that they inflict pain is it's an act of revenge. And the victim oftentimes doesn't even know what he or she did wrong. Yes.

But in the narcissist's mind, you offended me. You hurt me. You made me mad. You said something I didn't like. You looked at me a way I didn't. I'm going to get even with you. Yes. I'm going to make you pay every penny.

And so there can be just a small, a small disagreement, a small, just a minor moment between the two people. Somebody says something. The narcissist doesn't like it, is offended. Because usually narcissists live on the edge. They're always looking for a reason to be offended. And the moment that they're offended, inside, they go, I'm going to get even. And what narcissists will do, Doc, they will take their time at it.

If it takes them weeks or months to carry out their revenge, they'll do it. They will not forget the offense. and they will plot and scheme to carry out an act of revenge. And the victim is like, I don't even know what's wrong. I don't know what's going on. This person has been mad at me for two months. I don't know what it is because you did some minor offense. And that narcissist says, I'm going to get even with you.

Right. And that's how deceptive revenge is, Rick. I mean, that's truly how deceptive it is because in the narcissist's fine, they're thinking they're balancing the books, right? That's why Solomon says, say thou not. Don't even let it enter your heart. Don't even talk it to yourself. Don't say it to yourself.

Don't even whisper it to yourself. Don't say it under your breath. I don't even think it. You've got to come ahead of it before it becomes action. So God is speaking here about the secret counsel of the heart where that revenge is first nursed. first brought to life. And that recompense evil is more than just physical retaliation.

It could be psychological. It could be emotional. It includes cutting words. It includes scheming. Oh, man, narcissists love to scheme. It could mean a coldness meant to hurt someone that's wrongness. So, you know, this is a very deceptive kind of sin that enters in. Matthew Henry said,

we must not promise ourselves that we were right ourselves. This is taking God's work out of God's hand. Revenge is a job only God is allowed to do, Rick. Yes. I have a feeling, Doc.

We're interrupting some people's mornings because they had a whole day of revenge plan, Rick. You got it. And so when we quoted the scripture, they automatically thought about revenge. Oh, that's breaking the windows out of their car. I would never do something like that. True.

But would you go two weeks without talking to your spouse? Would you deliberately lie about a friend who made you mad and tell people things that that friend really didn't do or say? Would you do those kind of things? Think about it. These are acts of revenge. To go ice cold and not talk to somebody for days and weeks or even months, that's revenge. You're saying, I'm going to get revenge on you. You made me mad.

You hurt me. You offended me. And I'm going to make you pay for it. To go after somebody's friendships, to damage their reputation, to sabotage relationships, to sabotage relationships to wreck projects, to deliberately, this is what narcissists do, they'll actually wreck somebody's projects. They'll sabotage their projects. They'll wreck friendships, relationships, for what purpose?

To get revenge. Nobody ever tells the narcissist what you're doing is sinful, and if you keep doing it, you're going to end up in hell. You get to stop it. It is absolutely contrary to the word of God. God. So right now, if you're watching me and you're not talking to somebody because you're angry at them, you need to get over it. You need to fix it. Right. Because what you're doing is sinful. You're inflicting pain on somebody because you're angry. And you're taking on the rule of God

in the relationship. Yes. That's right. So second part of this verse is, but wait on the Lord. and He shall save you. So now the focus shifts from the offended to the sovereign almighty God, the God of justice. Waiting here is not passivity. It's disciplined trust. The Bible presents waiting as a, moral act, not an emotional delay. You can be very busy while you're waiting on the Lord. Waiting on the Lord doesn't mean sitting in a corner, staring at ceiling. I mean, that's not waiting.

You can be very active, very busy while you're waiting. It's a patience inside your spirit. You're waiting on the Lord to do what he has promised. The one who waits acknowledges that God, governs the outcomes. Amen. Your waiting is an act of faith. People might be saying, you might actually have people goading you to get even.

Are you going to let that guy get away with it? Are you going to put her in her place? See, they're goading you. And your faith has to be strong to say, no, I'm waiting on the Lord. I'm waiting on the Lord. Okay. I learned a long time ago, Doc,

that when Satan attacked me through people, that instead of fighting with them, I would just tell the devil, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to tell my father. I'll just take on the attitude of a 10-year-old boy. I'm going to tell my father what you did. Okay.

Wait until my daddy hears about this. You just wait. You wait until my daddy hears what you. you did. Okay? And then I'm going to go to my father and tell them what you did, what you said, and then say, Daddy, you take care of it. I'm not going to, I'm not going to fight with them. I know you're going to take care of it. See, be like a child. Be like a child. Let the father take care of the problems, okay? To wait on the Lord is to suspend retaliation and to submit yourself to the judgment of God. Let God be the judge.

rest in him. Waiting requires faith. It requires faith in God. It requires faith in his justice, in his wisdom, in his timing. Sometimes the justice doesn't come for years. There will be a day. It's like, there it is.

There it is. You just see it. It appears. And you were, oh, that was God dealing with that person. The command assumes that God sees. I'm talking about this proverb. This proverb is telling us that God sees the wrong more clearly than we do. He sees it.

He's aware of it. And the waiting seems costly because it leaves the vindication unresolved for a season. And you have to go about your work. You have to go about your life, waiting, waiting on the Lord. that doesn't mean you drive by your enemy's house every day to see if the house burned down no you don't know how god is going to how how god is going to deal with the offense okay seldom does the lord take that kind of an extreme measure and that's the other thing dog you have to trust that god knows the right revenge yes you may not like the revenge he carries out

And then, you know what? There's another thing, Doc. What if the person who hurts you feels remorseful and repents to God and God forgives him or her? Do you still want to repay? Do you still want to seek revenge? That's a great question. And I have seen people who get angry at God for forgiving them. How dare you forgive them, God?

They hurt me. And the Lord's like, yes, but they repent it. See? I forgive them. You should too. Yeah. It's dealing with people's hearts. Yes. Okay.

Now, I will say this, Doc. If that person repented to God, they owe it to come to you and repent. Okay. And when they do, when they ask for forgiveness, you are obligated to forgive them. Yes. And Jesus said if they do it 70 times, you've got to do it every time. Okay. That's a requirement.

That's another teaching. So, Doc, what else can we learn from this phrase, wait upon the Lord? Well, that phrase their weight upon the Lord in the Hebrew implies a confident expectation. It's not like I'm waiting on the bus or I'm waiting on the plane. No, this is a waiting that's guaranteed. You know what's going to happen. It's not passive, it's not helpless, but it's an active trust that God not only sees the injustice, but he's preparing the verdict.

So it takes more strength to wait than does to strike, doesn't it? Hold your hand back. Now, there's a great example of this in scripture, and it's not preached on enough here. And it's David. David had the opportunity to, if you will, recompense evil, to get his revenge on King Saul. in the cave.

This story is found in 1st Samuel chapter 24. So Saul and some of his top leaders were resting in a cave away from the rest of the army. David was able to sneak up on him. And David's men urged him to kill Saul. I mean, think about it. This whole thing would have been over in a moment. All David had to do was strike the king dead and he would have been king. Instead, David waited on the Lord saying,

The Lord, judge between me and the. In the end, God saved David and removed Saul, and David's hand remained clean in that instance. So if you defend yourself, if you defend yourself, the Lord may just go ahead and let you fight your own battle. But if you commit your cause to him, he becomes your advocate. If you say to, Lord, I'm getting. now this fight. You do all the fighting. You do all there. You handle it, Lord. He knows how

we settle the score perfectly. He'll make sure the books are balanced. So if you can picture a man laying down his sword, he has the opportunity to strike, but he lays down his sword and then looks up to heaven here. He waits with full expectation that God is going to fight for it. And so as believers, disciples of Jesus Christ, were challenged in this. When evil is done to us, what does the word say here? Wait on the Lord. You need to trust his deliverance more than your own hand. Charles Bridges had this to say about this portion of the passage, Rick.

He said, patience commits the cause to God and leaves him to vindicate the right. After you wait on the Lord, the third part of this verse, and he, meaning the Lord, and he shall save thee. But wait a minute. I thought the purpose of waiting on the Lord was for the Lord to carry out revenge on your opponent. Isn't that what this means? Right. No, that's not what it says.

wait on the Lord and he shall save thee. Right. Save thee for what? No, I see, he's in, no, no, no, Lord. How would you to get even with that person? No, I'm trying to save you. What kind of theology we're teaching here, Doc? So the promise isn't revenge but salvation, right?

The promise is not to carry out revenge, but the promise is to give you salvation. Amen. Oh, how does that work? God is saving you from bitterness and hatred, which could send you to hell, and He shall save you. People are going, this doesn't make sense to me. It's not about getting revenge on your enemy.

It's about keeping you from becoming like your enemy. God doesn't want you to become like the person who's hurting you. So salvation includes deliverance, vindication and inward peace. So God's rescue is often deeper than the justice that we would have him execute on somebody. His plan is much bigger, much deeper. The Lord saves the one who refuses to sin while suffering. I'll say that again.

The Lord saves the person who refuses to sin while suffering. Yes. sometimes God allows us to suffer so that we get closer to him so that we allow Christ to be in us in a stronger, more beautiful way. Wow. Sometimes he allows people to attack us,

to teach us the right way to respond, to respond in faith and not react in hatred. Wow. He's saving us. He's saving us. He's preparing us for the resurrection. He's preparing us for the resurrection. Praise God.

God's intervention preserves the soul. Even if the circumstances of the offense linger, he saves us. See, I think most people were thinking, this verse said, don't say in your heart, don't say with your mouth that you're going to get revenge, but wait upon the Lord, and then they finished the sentence for the Lord, and he will smack your enemy and knock him into tomorrow.

And it doesn't say that. It says, and he'll save you. What do you think of say about that, Dr. Burckhardt? Well, it's Bible. That's what I say. And I'm just sitting here just, you know, basking how good God is, that he's saving us. even in the midst of these situations, circumstances, we find ourselves in revenge. He wants the safest.

We want God to say, I will avenge you, you know, flaming sword and everything else. We want that. But God says, I'll take care of it. I'll save you. Yes. And he shall save thee. God himself will deliver, vindicate. He's the perfect judge and savior, never, ever fails.

And God's solution is superior to our solution, by the way. We think we've got the solution. But the promise here is very specific. He shall save thee. And notice that it doesn't say, He shall destroy your enemy, or I'm going to get revenge on that bad person. God's salvation is superior to our revenge.

You know, how may he save you? He may save you by changing the enemy's heart. Don't you want that? Do you want that or do you want to continue to hate your energy? He may save you by removing you from the situation. Or do you really want that? Do you want to stay in the situation so you can stay angry? He may save you by removing the enemy, or do you not want that?

Do you want to stay engaged with the enemy because of the way you feel? He may save you by publicly vindicating your reputation. Oh, but do you? Do you want that or do you want to destroy their reputation? And another way he may save you is by rewarding you with inward peace, that freedom, sweet, freedom from bitterness and the grace to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord. Don't you want that? Or do you want to continue to wallow in your pain and your bitterness and your hate?

Trade it in. Trade all that in for the peace that passes all understanding. where the root of bitterness is removed and that you are swimming in grace before the Lord. John Gill said, the Lord will save such a one from the evil he fears and from the sin of revenge. Revenge is a sin.

Yes. Doc, I will tell you, and everybody who's watching and listening, the progression that's been in me and it's taken over 20 years, because I'm thinking about something that happened 20 years ago. I was under attack.

Our ministry was under attack. There were three men who were using a lot of unscrupulous legal means to force our ministry out of our ministry out of our property, and they were after our property. That was the bottom line. They were coveting our property, okay? And I had to deal with this stuff.

And it was painful, and I was like, what are these people doing to us? Why can't they just go away, all right? And one day in prayer, I remember this thitherly dog. The Lord told me to forgive these men. Now, this was 20 years ago. I was in ministry. I was in ministry.

And the Lord said, forgive them. And I remember saying, Lord, I don't have it in me to forgive them. I'm just being honest with you, Lord. They're doing some nasty evil things to me. And you're asking me to forgive them? And I said, he said, you need to forgive like I forgive. And I said, I don't know how to forgive like you. I remember saying this, talk.

I said, Lord, I don't know how to forgive. forgive like you. And what I heard him say to me was, Rick, if you don't forgive like me, you cannot live with me. Wow. Okay. That shocked me. Wait a minute. Wait a minute, Lord. What are you saying here? What are you saying was, I can't have anybody in my home that doesn't forgive like me. If you, if you're planning to come here and live here, you've got to forgive like me. And so, Doc, it wasn't easy. It took effort. I did it.

I forgave them not because I desired to, but because the Lord said I had to. Okay, so it was an act of obedience. Where I'm at today, 20 years later, you know, when Jesus was saying, pray for your enemies, you know, bless your enemies, bless your enemies. I used to say, Lord, I can't bless them. How am I going to bless? Why would I ask you to bless that scoundrel? Okay?

Look, I talk to the Lord plainly. I'm me. I'm just being me. I talk to the Lord. He already knows what you think. Why are you trying to hide it from him? Why are you trying to be religious when you pray? Just tell him what you think.

He already knows what's in your heart. Just say, hey, this is. puts him in my heart. I don't want a blessing. I don't want, the last thing I want you to do is bless that guy. Okay. But where I'm at now, Doc, is not only can't, it's easy. I'm like, I'm like in my prayer time now, laughing. I'm laughing.

Lord bless him. Oh, my bless him, Lord bless him. You know, what's happened? I understand his principles now. Right. This is like the best thing I can do is ask the Lord to bless them. Bless my enemies. Go ahead, Lord, do it.

Go ahead and do it. Bless them. Okay. Just. And you know what blessing I pray for them? Lord, bring them into your presence. I can't think of a greater blessing. bring them into your presence

because if they're in your presence they're not going to be my enemy anymore bring them into your presence they'll be saved they'll be redeemed bring them into your presence because when they're in your presence and I'm in your presence we can't be enemies

so listen wherever you're at spiritually there's people in this audience right now who are different stages of spiritual growth. And this stuff doesn't come quickly, doesn't come easy.

There's stuff that we've got to work through. We've got to get it out of us. But wait on the Lord and he shall save you. That's what it says. The word but is the pivot. It's the pivot where Solomon is now turning from the forbidden self-vengeance and is turning us to a godly alternative.

Wait on the Lord. Trust your Heavenly Father. How do we wait? Patience, prayer, refusal to rush ahead of God. Let the Lord vindicate. Let the Lord deal with the situation. This promise, He shall save thee. It promises God's intervention.

not necessarily by changing the offender, but by protecting you and eventually changing you. So this promise, it resonates with many of the Psalms where the righteous are attacked, where they are told to wait on the Lord. I'll give you one example, Psalm 37, verse 34, wait on the Lord and keep his way. and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, thou shall see it. You'll see the wicked cut off. You will inherit the land.

Now that may not be physical land, but it may be some kind of spiritual territory. You will inherit. And often these attacks, you know, you've worked for me for 12 years now. There are people that will just rise up and say, Rick, I'm not going to let your ministry expand into that territory. Yeah.

Well, you've seen it. And I have to deal with it. Okay. But I'll eventually inherit the land. And one of those places, Doc, was National Christian Television. Well, I had very strong enemies. They said, We're not going to let you on TV, Rick.

Over words. Over words. But where are we right now, Doc? We're on international TV. We're now on international TV with Faith TV in North America, UK, Europe, and Africa. Miraculously there. That's, we'll be able to tell us the whole story someday. Yes.

By grace. Totally by grace. Okay. So I had to wait a long time. and you know what the Lord was doing with old Rick Wiles? He was waiting on me to get to a place where I can get shake. Do it, Lord. Just bless him.

Save me. Save me, Lord. Save me. Save me for myself, okay? My greatest enemy is me. Lord, save me from being me. Don't let me be me. I pray that often.

Lord, don't let me be me today. Right? you is what needs to be saved I need to be saved there's nothing good in us okay what's good in us is Christ yes so when you take

revenge you make yourself the judge the prosecutor the jury the executioner but when you wait you allow God to be God so a battle that's fought in the

by our flesh, it leaves scars. But a battle that's fought by faith leaves a testimony. And that's the message here, Doc. Yes. You know, Charles Spurgeon said that the heart that plots revenge not yet fully surrendered. I agree with that sentiment there.

You know, by waiting on God rather than avenging ourselves, what's happening is we're becoming like Christ. Remember, with the same. scripture says, when he was reviled, he reviled not again. When he was reviled, he reviled not again. And so the next time that you feel angry, you hurt towards somebody who did you wrong, don't even let the words form in your heart. I'm going to make you pay for what you've done. Instead, pray to your Heavenly Father. Lord, I choose to wait on you. Save me. Deal with this. and guard my heart. Amen. Praise God. Amen. Amen. William or not had this quote related to this

verse. He said, the wrong demand who waits on God escapes two eels, the injury of his enemy and the injury of his own wrath. Great observation. Alexander McLaurin, he shall save thee, which is better than he shall avenge thee. The promise is not that the enemy shall be crushed, but that the trusting soul shall be delivered. Yes. G. Campbell Morgan said, the reason for waiting is that God is the God of justice. You will deal with the evil man in the best possible way. To take the matter out of his hands is to spoil his work, meaning God's work.

Another quote from William or not, if you take the case into your own hands, the great judge will dismiss it from his court. Leave it to him, and he will bring forth thy righteousness as the light. Yes, and Charlesburg, another quote from him, wait on the Lord, keep the door of thy lips. If you're right, God will bring it out.

If you're wrong, the blow will fall on you. Doc, right now, I'm, I'm, hearing the Holy Spirit say that this is all we should talk about today to end this lesson here at this point. We've gone almost one hour and one verse. One verse. If we did this entire lesson, we'll be here two hours, two more hours, okay? And I'm sensing the Holy Spirit saying, just stop at this point, let everybody meditate on what they've heard today and don't Don't go deeper into the other verses. So at this point, we're just going to conclude today's Morning Manna lesson,

and we'll pick this up tomorrow with verses 23 and 24. Thank you so much for watching. God bless. God bless you. We love you. Thank you for watching Morning Manner. We hope your soul has been nourished today. We welcome and appreciate your prayers and financial support for our international Bible

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