VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord.
Romans 12 19

It is indeed extreme, the urge and tendency to defend one self and apply hurt, injury, or harm back to the person or persons that cause the pain.  So strong can this urge be and so damaging to one self can be the results, that God has to explicitly declare that we should not take that vengeance.  Rather He claims that as His.

We, as humans, would rather take that “privilege” and apply revengage immediately.  After all, someone causing you personal harm, character assassination, spreading lies, willfully causing you, your business, your ministry great pain and harm, “SHOULD” be stopped and “taught” a lesson.  The world would indeed say, “you should defend your boundaries.”  The modern day christian culture would say, “turn the other cheek” but make sure you put up your walls and boundaries.  Passive aggressiveness is no longer viewed as such but rather it is justified and relabeled as having “safe boundaries" and "standing up for yourself."

Jesus did not do that.  Rather, he called Judas in the midst of Judah’s betrayal, “friend.”  Instead of putting up a million tests to prove your loyalty and love, God does not put up boundaries, rather He just opens up his arms.  His embrace, just loves you and does not bring up your past.  Jesus knew Peter would deny him and betray him, yet he told Peter he had prayed for him, interceded for him and prayed for his triumph over the denial and the betrayal he would do.

To claim the character, culture, and ways of the Kingdom, means to Love as Jesus does.  It means to surrender our “right” to demand restitution and take vengeance of injury and hurt done to us.  This reads far easier than it actually is to do.  In fact, It can only be achieved by letting the Holy Spirit bring understanding to the authority, power, and repercussions one has in one’s own words and deeds as a representative of the Kingdom.

You see the covenant made with man, through Abraham and God was one that legally binded the mutual parties to defend the other.  The enemies of one party became the enemies of the other.  If one party was in danger, the other was obligated to come and fight in defense.

Here God steps in, and says, Don’t claim that right.  This one task of the covenant is Mine, God says.  Why would God do as such?  Because He and He alone has the perfect perspective and pure heart to be both judge and executioner to properly take vengeance on the harm done.  However if, as a covenant party, you decided to take “vengeance” on the situation, to “correct and defend yourself” from lies told, to “justly” attack in defensive ways the harming party, then that is where the vengeance, the recompense will end.  You have taken the legal right from your covenant party, God, to act in defense of you.  More than likely, in your anger and reaction for self protection from the pain and the deep hurt, sin will occur, and thus there will be severe consequences due to your own vengeance being applied.

God claims vengeance as His.  He wants to protect us from those self-inflicted consequences of our own hotheadedness impulse to see our own version of justice take place.  For it is written, “judge not, lest you be judged.”    Immature children react in impulse and let their feelings control them.  That’s why Paul said, “WHEN I was a child.”  WHEN, that is a willful recognition that one is now mature and thus needs to step into maturity and not let childish impulse of self protection and vengeance rule actions and words.

It is not an easy thing to do, nor even a pleasant thing to walk through.  However, the consequences of giving into impulse, feelings and childish ways can be severe, especially when one knows better and knows one should act better.  Moses even though he was called a friend by God himself, still lost the right to enter into the promised land.  Moses’ unconquered impulse let his childish way rule him.  Moses never let go of this childish way and grabbed maturity in this area of his life.  Rather he let his hotheadedness and his feelings rule him.  The consequence was that he NEVER entered into the promise.

One could only guess at the mysteries that God was wanting to unlock when Jesus asked Peter twice, “Peter do you AGAPE (unconditionally unhindered love) me?”  and Peter replied twice, yeah I Phileo (friendship) you Jesus?  And Jesus in his mercy stated a third time “do you phileo me? Then feed my sheep.”  What would have been the mystery revealed and the commission given, if Peter had NOT let his feelings and self protection boundaries rule his first two replies?

The great scholar of the scriptures, Paul, understood the dangers of letting our feelings lead our own way. That is why he wrote to the Romans the very clear guidelines:

Never take your own revenge, beloved,
but leave room for the wrath of God,
for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord. “BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM,
AND IF HE IS THIRSTY,

GIVE HIM A DRINK;
FOR IN SO DOING

YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.”

Do not be overcome by evil,
but overcome evil with good.

LEAVE room for God’s revenge.  That is a very hard thing to do, especially when accusations come from the very person you call a friend.  The closer a relationship is, the harder it is to resist our own right to self-protect and return the hurt, the harm, the reputation assaination, and “set right” the lies being spread.  It becomes especially hard when it involves physical harms including financial, ministry, and relationship that is being inflicted.

Here is where identity comes to a real test.  Stephen was being stoned. Rather than calling for a rescue and the removal of the pain being inflicted and vengeance from his covenant partner, Stephen chose a different path.  Stephen knew he had the right as a child of God, to demand the kingdom come and take vengeance for this wrong being done.  However, instead of cursing, letting his feelings and literal flesh pain lead him, he chose to intercede for those causing him pain and harm.  He asked they be forgiven and that this wrong would not be held against them.  He lost his fleshly/earthly life, but gained a martyr crown and there was one in the crowd that God would use to change the world, that was Saul.

You see our actions have ripples.  Where those ripples go and who they affect, their consequences, reverberate throughout time and space.  Not only can we choose to bless, but we can also choose different consequences that not only will affect us, but will affect others as well.  And at the end, EVERY idle word is going to be judged.

This is why God says, vengeance is MINE.  He knows we do not have the capacity to take proper actions and righteous responses if we let our feelings and flesh dictate our reaction and needs.  He created us afterall.  And He knows us.

Even though as a covenant partner to the King, there is a “right” to demand of the King’s vengeance, maturity demands more from an individual. Maturity, that which manifested Sons of God walk in, choose to surrender this “right” unto the feet of the King.  That is why Paul writes down, “I CHOOSE to put AWAY (immature, infantile, unsubmitted desires) childish things.”

Isaiah wrote down how God deals with vengeance and injustice

Isaiah 59:16-

The Lord looked and was displeased

    that there was no justice.

He saw that there was no one,

    he was appalled that there was no one to intervene;

so his own arm achieved salvation for him,

    and his own righteousness sustained him.

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.

According to what they have done,

    so will he repay

wrath to his enemies

    and retribution to his foes;

    he will repay the islands their due.

From the west,

people will fear the name of the Lord,

    and from the rising of the sun,

they will revere his glory.

For he will come

like a pent-up flood that 

the breath of the Lord drives along

Due to the covenant, something done to us is done to God.  If we take revenge by legal protocol, God can’t.  However, if you don’t, the partner of the covenant has a legal obligation to take vengeance.  This surrender of a kingdom right unto the King himself, is a reason why Leaving Room for God’s Revenge is a kingdom protocol. 

For in the surrender to claim a “right”, we declare dependency on God.  In the surrender to make room for His perspective, timing, and heart, we surrender our will and heart to be shown HIS will and Heart.

Isaiah 59:20-21

The Redeemer will come to Zion,

to those in Jacob

who repent of their sins,”

declares the Lord.

“As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord. 

“My Spirit, who is on you,

will not depart from you,

and my words that I have put in your mouth

will always be on your lips,

on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants

—from this time on and forever,”

says the Lord.