Day 108/365- 1 Samuel 25:39; Romans 12:19

"Revenge is not so sweet!"

When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Praise the Lord , who has avenged the insult I received from Nabal and has kept me from doing it myself. Nabal has received the punishment for his sin." Then David sent messengers to Abigail to ask her to become his wife. (1 Samuel 25:39 NLT)
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)

Beth Moore says that for every New Testament principle there is an Old Testament illustration. Here is an example of this in 1 Samuel. David shows kindness to a man & he is repaid with evil. This leads David to a logical reaction: wipe the man out! Fortunately, for Nabal, & ultimately David, Abigail intercedes for her husband. David sees the wisdoms of letting the Lord worry about vengeance. And bring vengeance is exactly what the Lord does! Not even two weeks later & God strikes him dead. A fitting end for a worthless man.

Restraining from taking vengeance is an unknown attribute in our culture. When someone wrongs us, we react like David did. Our initial reaction is to take matters into our own hands. We have been wronged & someone must pay!

As we see in this account of David & Nabal, however, he leaves vengeance with the Lord. He realized it was not his prerogative to take the life of another person in spite of being wronged.

We often forget how this is the attitude of Jesus. Jesus was abused, mocked, hated, confronted, & some of his final words were, "God forgive them." Even the Son of God did not take vengeance into his own hands. He is our true example in all of this. If anyone had a right to take revenge it would be him & yet he refrains.

No matter how bad someone has wronged us, the Christlike response is to let God handle things. His response is always better in the long run. No matter how wronged we have been, it can't compare with how we have wronged him. This is why we must forgive & leave vengeance to him!