Vengeance is mine!
0 comments | Posted by Steven Layson on 08 May 2011 in From Steve's Study ::
It’s been an interesting week in public life hasn’t it? After the warm glow of the Royal Wedding last week, things took a decidedly more sinister turn with the news that Osama Bin Laden, the leader of the terrorist group Al Queda, had been killed.
All the major new services went into great detail of the nature of the operation to try to capture this wanted man… computer graphics people seemed to have had great fun producing recreations of the helicopters & Special Forces personnel moving through the compound where Bin Laden was living and describing his last moments.
One of the most interesting things for me, however, has been the world’s reactions. There has been dancing in the streets in New York and Washington, our own Prime Minister declaring how happy she was that this man was dead & even some preachers yelling into the cameras, Welcome to Hell Osama!
All this has been rather disturbing I think. No one would want to say that the things Bin Laden has done are not terrible, he should have been brought to justice for what he had done. However, we need to be very careful when seeking to take vengeance on our own. There has been more than just a hint of hypocrisy about the way people have been rejoicing about the death of one who seemed to rejoice in the deaths of others.
The verse that came to mind in all of this is Ezekiel 18:23, Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? The Bible is clear that sin is real and has very real and drastic consequences, bringing eternal judgement. But this is never a cause of rejoicing. And if this is the attitude of God, against whom Osama Bin Laden (as well as many others) has ultimately rebelled, how can we do anything different. It is good for the victims of the various terrorist attacks to experience closure and a sense that justice is being done, but it should never, especially for Christians, become a vicarious rejoicing at the suffering of others.
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