This morning my daily Bible reading took me to Numbers 31. Numbers 31 is essentially an account of the Israelites exterminating the Midianites at God’s command.

In verse 2 God instructs Moses to, “Avenge the people of Israelites on the MIdianites.” Then again in verse 3- “Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian to execute the LORD’s vengeance on Midian.”

This got me thinking about the concept of vengeance and particular God’s vengeance. Think about the Midianites. Because they had led God’s people into idolatry and immorality they were objects of God’s fierce and irresistible vengeance. What a terrifying place to be!

In instructing believers not to take vengeance Paul, in Romans 12:19 states the following. “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.’”

God’s vengeance will come- every evil deed will be repaid. This is really what vengeance is about- the payment of wrath and judgment for wrong done. God’s vengeance is perfect, irresistible, and inevitable.

As those who are sinners by both nature and deed we deserve God’s vengeance no less than the Midianites.   What a terrifying place to be!

O the beauty of the work of Christ! If we are in Christ, He has taken the vengeance- the payment for our wrongdoing on Himself. He received the fury of God’s wrath for our evil deeds. He drank the cup of God’s vengeance.

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation [wrath absorbing substitute] for our sins.” (I John 4:10).

That is amazing love! This is a love that makes knowing and enjoying God for eternity supremely sweet!

This entry was posted by Tim Pickard on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.