October 8, 2006 Jeremiah 11:18-20 - Let Me See Your Vengeance?

18 Because the LORD revealed their plot to me, I knew it, for at that time he showed me what they were doing. 19 I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me, saying, "Let us destroy the tree and its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more." 20 But, O LORD Almighty, you who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.

The Westboro Baptist Church once again made headlines this week as it declared that it was going to picket the funerals of the five little Amish girls who were murdered this past week in their schoolhouse. Their messages of "God hates fags" and "God hates America" paint God as a God of hatred. Whereas we would agree that homosexuality is a sin that God does indeed hate - along with all sin - we also point out that God wants all sinners to repent and be forgiven.

1 Timothy 2:4 God wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem in their rejection of the prophets. He didn't rejoice over it. He also prayed for those who were persecuting Him - even on the cross. John 3:16 states that God loved the world - all of the world - with a gracious and merciful love. In light of these verses, the picketers seem to give an inaccurate view of God as they seem to rejoice over the death of almost anyone.

As a counter point to the Phelps' message, the other side of the spectrum seems to paint God as indifferent to sin - that since God loves the world everything and anything goes - that He doesn't get angry about anything. This is wrong too. Just because God is patient, forgiving, and kind doesn't make him a pacifist. A pacifist is someone who believes that all violence is unjustified and who refuses to take part in making war and usually actively advocates efforts to maintain peace by supporting disarmament. There are times that God has been both a very angry and violent God - where He in fact declares war and shows all sorts of violence.

Think of the flood. Those little pictures of the cute little elephants and giraffes on your infants wallpaper fail to show the millions of people that were left behind - looking for any last piece of real estate to escape from the waters. Imagine the mothers with their infant children being swept away with tons and tons of flood waters. Think again of the angel of death coming through the homes of the Egyptians and slaughtering the first born boys in each household on the night of the Exodus from Egypt. The angel of the Lord also went out one night from Jerusalem and slaughtered 186,000 men of Sennacherib's army. God can be a warrior when He wants to. If someone wants to wage war with Him, He can lay the wood down and absolutely wipe thousands of people out. If someone angers Him, He can come firing back with an unbelievable retribution. Nahum 1:2 says, "The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies."

If you think about it, the Bible actually revolves around and points to two main days of vengeance. One was on the cross. The other will be on Judgment Day. You may not think of the cross as a day of vengeance, yet that is how the Scriptures foretold it -

Isaiah 59:17 He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.

Isaiah 61:1-2 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God.

When God paints Himself as a God who actually hates sin and demands perfection and threatens hell - He is not kidding. God is absolutely serious when He says that He is angry over sin. Sin is called REBELLION against God. The entire human race is by it's very nature an object of God's wrath. (Ephesians 2:3) Romans 5:18 says "as the result of one trespass was CONDEMNATION for ALL MEN." God was so angry over Adam and Eve's fall into sin that He said we all needed to pay by burning for an eternity in hell.

That is why Jesus came to this earth and went to the cross. Jesus went to the cross to take care of His own demand for vengeance. Paul describes this in multiple passages.

Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."

Romans 3:25-26 God presented (Jesus) as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-- he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Notice how Paul emphasizes that payment had to made - and how Jesus went through a curse for us. The cross - in our eyes of faith - was God's great day of vengeance - on us - through Christ. It was Jesus stepping in front of the lightning bolt of God's wrath - taking it in the heart - so we wouldn't have to. Here we see God's anger come down full force on Christ - especially as we hear Christ call out, "my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

The second day of vengeance will be on Judgment Day. Listen to how Zephaniah describes it in Zephaniah 1:14-18 -

"The great day of the LORD is near-- near and coming quickly. Listen! The cry on the day of the LORD will be bitter, the shouting of the warrior there. That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the corner towers. I will bring distress on the people and they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their entrails like filth. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the LORD's wrath. In the fire of his jealousy the whole world will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live in the earth."

Revelation 6 also picks a picture of the saints who were martyred crying out for vengeance.

Revelation 6:10-17 They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed. I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"

Hear the response of the righteous at this judgment in Psalm 58:10. "The righteous will be glad when they are avenged, when they bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked." This is also what Jeremiah prays for in today's text. O LORD Almighty, you who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.

These verses seem to be completely contradictory to the Jesus who once preached in His sermon on the Mount -

Matthew 5:39 Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Matthew 5:44 Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

So how do we rectify the two? Was this just a moment of weakness on Jeremiah's part? Did he just lose it for a moment? Or was he in fact praying a God pleasing prayer?

Let's start out by looking at the background of the text - the history behind Jeremiah - and try to go from there. Because the LORD revealed their plot to me, I knew it, for at that time he showed me what they were doing. I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me. Jeremiah's fellow priests from Anathoth - who were supposed to be on his side - had hatched a plot against Jeremiah - to put him to death. He compared himself to a "gentle lamb" - a tame animal that had no idea it's master is going to slaughter it. Had the LORD not revealed this plot against him, he would have surely died. The thing that may have really angered Jeremiah was that these men were acting like his friends - when in reality they were his enemies. This is clear from what the potential assassins said. "Let us destroy the tree and its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more." Notice what their motivation was - to destroy the tree AND IT'S FRUIT. It wasn't only Jeremiah - but mainly his MESSAGE - the message to repent - the message of judgment - that they hated and despised. So they wanted him dead.

It was as Jesus said it would be when he said in John 15:18-20 "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. There is not supposed to be a middle ground - no neutral parties in this world - and indeed there are not. When you were baptized, like it or not, you became an object of Satan's hatred. You are standing at the precipice of heaven and hell - with angels and demons - God and Satan battling for your soul. You, like Jeremiah - may not be aware of it - but Satan is plotting to take you down. If God's protection were lifted for one second Satan would be killing your family and torturing you to death. You may not be aware of it - but Satan may be trying to influence one of your own family members to try and take your soul down to hell.

Jeremiah was hated because he was proclaiming repentance - showing people their sins. He was being offensive. That's the way life should be for Christians. Jesus said in Matthew 12:30 "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters." We should be offending people. We should be at war. If your grandchildren are being disrespectful then call them on it. If your classmates are unbelievers and on the way to hell, shouldn't you warn them? Maybe our classmates and neighbors should hate us more than they do. The fact of the matter is that we are trying to be too neutral - too friendly. We're too afraid of causing a rift.

Even though Jeremiah didn't realize it, he was so offensive that his own townsmen plotted to put him to death. When God revealed this to him, Jeremiah was put in a position where it became very clear - it was either HIM or THEM. God had also already told Jeremiah not to bother praying for the Israelites because they were beyond the point of any return. (Jeremiah 11:14) So Jeremiah prayed, O LORD Almighty, you who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.

Although this prayer seems foreign and wrong to most of us, I imagine that in the nearer than hoped for future it will make more sense. Think about what it is like living now - with sexual predators becoming more and more prevalent - crazed maniacs running into school rooms and killing innocent children - liberalism demanding that we accept homosexuality and Evolution - and the Islamo-fascists growing more and more violent in the middle east and Europe - determined to come here and kill us - imagine what will the dangers be like in the not so far future? It seems that this evil is growing more and more every day. Gone are the days when we can just mind our own business and practice our own religion assuming that that is enough to keep evil from entering our doors. Society is getting so bad that we may be reduced to guarding our own property and living behind bars in our own homes. The internet is dragging thousands to millions of people away to pornography, gambling, and many other vices. Evil is coming - not to coddle us, to tease us, or to play with us - but to destroy us. Satan doesn't care how young your children are. Evil doesn't care how faithful you are to God's Word. If there is one opening, one weakness, the Devil will be glad to step in.

So what can you do? There comes a time in life - when evil has overtaken people - that this prayer needs to be made. We would like the pedophiles to come to repentance and faith. We would like the violence to end. We pray the Islamo-fascists would quit murdering innocent people. We ask that those who portray God as not carrying about sin would stop spreading these lies. But no matter how patient, loving, and kind we try to be - many of them are not backing down. They have made it clear that they will not live with us - they will not tolerate our teachings - without attacking us and plotting our destruction. They have dug their heels in and demanded that we accept them and their lifestyle. If we want to have the freedom to keep teaching our children God's Word - we need vengeance to happen - better sooner than later.

This sounds bad, and it almost sounds like the same line of thinking as what the Islamic militants are using on us. Yet here is the difference - in HOW we respond. Jeremiah didn't take matters into his own hands. We don't strap bombs to our chests and try to get vengeance. We don't carry guns into schools or bomb abortion clinics. God says, "vengeance is mine." God promises us that He knows what He is doing - and that He is still in charge - even though it may not seem so. So all Jeremiah did, and all we do - in the face of such plots - is to pray. This is also what Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane. This is what faith and trust are all about. We leave all things - all things - in God's hands. That may be the most difficult test of faith - to only pray to God to get vengeance - especially when we have the power to get revenge - to leave all things in God's hands. If the terrorists want to kill us - and they do manage to do so - then we still end up in heaven. If tolerance of evil is demanded in our society to the point that I am locked up for preaching against open sin - then so be it. God can still work it out for good. If God wants to protect us - then He will. If the forces of evil are dead set on destroying us - all we do is pray and trust that God will take care of the situation. This is what faith is about.

In faith, Jeremiah prayed. What happened? Jeremiah 11:22-23 says, "therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says: 'I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine. Not even a remnant will be left to them, because I will bring disaster on the men of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.'" What happened with Jesus? After he prayed in the Garden, the Father told Him that he had to go to the cross. On the way, Jesus was whipped, mocked, and beaten. On that cross Jesus had his hands and feet nailed down. Worse yet, His own Father forsook Him. Yet from the cross Jesus said, "father into your hands I commit my spirit" Jesus trusted God the Father to deliver Him from death - and God answered this prayer positively. Jesus ended up reigning forever into eternity. In the end, even though evil crucified Jesus - God also in the process delivered us from evil - by paying for our sins. God worked it out. God answered His prayer in His own unique vengeance.

About five years ago I heard some tragic news. One of my good friends - who is a pastor - had one of his own daughters molested by a teenage boy. They had trusted this boy - brought him into their house - and let him hang out with their children. What was worse, was that that boy was a member of their congregation. The devil used this trust to assault one of the pastor's most prized gifts. Things went from bad to worse. The pastor decided to inform the authorities were informed as to what the boy did - so as to hopefully help prevent this from happening again. As a result, when he drove by the troubled youth at a later date - the boy made an obscene gesture towards him. If that were me, I don't know that I would have been able to maintain my composure. Not only did the boy sexually expose his daughter, but then he had the gall to be aggressively angry towards the pastor. This was still a young kid - maybe not hardened yet - but man - "vengeance is mine" would be hard to accept - yet at least sound somewhat consoling about that time.

When we think about praying this prayer for vengeance, we need to be careful. Jesus prayed FOR people who were making fun of him and crucifying him. He died for us - people who sin against him EVERY DAY - and continues to intercede for us every day. The Westboro Baptist church is proclaiming that God is wreaking vengeance on these young little Amish kids - as if they had done something so monstrous as to deserve to be gunned down in cold blood. They celebrate the deaths of any soldier that has died in duty to our country - making it seem as if God is thrilled and happy for their deaths - and assuming that they are all unbelievers. That is not right. These were not people who were trying to kill God's prophets in open unbelief. God is not a God who rejoices at the death of these children or soldiers. Far from being trigger happy, God is a very patient God. He is a very loving God. He wants all people to come to repentance no matter what they've done. Yet some people not only reject His love and forgiveness - like Satan, all they want to do is abuse God's time of grace to destroy and kill us. Even as they hear of God's forgiveness - they still only intend to do as much damage to God's people as possible. For these people, we have no choice but to pray with Jeremiah - "let me see your vengeance." We say with the saints in Revelation, "Come Lord Jesus. Amen."