Justice

Revelation 8 - 11     Kathy Carlson

Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. 4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. 5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake. Revelation 8:3-5

I was taken aback during our weekly reading by the fact that the prayers of believers reflect an agreement with God to exact vengeance on those who have hardened their hearts to the message of the Gospel.  When I consider the cry of the Psalmist’s heart time and time again for justice and vengeance, I am reminded that Christ followers have a right to pray for vengeance, for a day of reckoning for the enemies of God. 

Have you ever prayed for justice?  Have you ever cried out to God, mingling your prayers with the prayers of other believers in faith that a bitterly unfair situation would be somehow set right?  Have you ever prayed for the proper punishment would fall on a person who would bring harm to an innocent child?  

As long as I remember I have been concerned with justice.  I am a champion for the underdog, for the mistreated and the downtrodden.  As a missionary in Costa Rica I witnessed the terrible realities of sin in the lives of the girls I served. My heart broke time and time again to see a young woman held captive by a proclivity to sin as a direct result of sin visited upon her by an adult in her life.  There were times I wept with frustration, other times I burned with a fury I struggled to contain.

Our reading for this week marks the beginning of a period of set aside time when the fury (wrath) of God can no longer be contained.  One of the most basic questions a person who is struggling with issues of faith asks is, “If God is truly God, then why would He allow so many bad things to happen?”  

Beloved, Our God is perfect in all His ways.  His fury is righteous and just.  There will come a day of reckoning for every person who has chosen evil and turned God away. The shocking reality that among the survivors of the plagues there was not one who repented (9: 20-21) reveals a level of evil and hardness of heart that is hard to comprehend.  Our God cannot allow such blatant evil to prevail.  He has the final word and a plan to eradicate evil altogether with a perfect punishment that fits the crime.

Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord.  Romans 12:19 (NLT).