Read
22Don't try to get even.
Trust the Lord,
and he will help you.
10Evil people want to do wrong,
even to their friends.
12God is always fair!
He knows what the wicked do
and will punish them.
Reflect
To take on retribution is to take on God’s role of judge. Paul spoke about this in Romans (12:19). There we’re told to love our enemies, feed them, and give drink to the thirsty. (Rom.12:20-21) Our temptation is to repay in kind. It is the role of wisdom to call us to restraint. Once we restrain our natural instincts we open the way for a redemptive response and leave judgment to the One who judges righteously.
The prophet Jeremiah tells us that the human heart is deceitful and wicked (Jer. 17:9). In Proverbs 21:10 the proverb alerts us to the nature of the “souls of the wicked” whose desire is for evil. This is the sort of person whose actions are a destructive force and who chooses to diminish and oppress others. The self–centredness and destructive impulse runs so deeply that “their neighbours find no mercy in their eyes.” The news media speak daily of people who seem oblivious to the evil they do. Their presence is unsettling, their actions deeply disruptive. They are clearly those who live and act counter to the laws of Yahweh.
However this is not the end of the story. Verse 12 assures us that “the Righteous One” (NIV) is well aware of the wicked and will bring them to ruin. Here the reference is to Yahweh – but we think of the work of Christ as the Righteous One who takes on the powers of this world and in his death defeats them. This is a good reminder that it is not ultimately our job to defeat evil.Though we work to restrain its influence in the world it is ultimately God who will overthrow the wicked and bring them to ruin.
Respond
Righteous God, it is you alone who can deliver us from evil. I pray you will protect me from the evil impulses of my own heart. Give me the wisdom to name the darkness wherever it may appear and yet to respond with grace, patience and love. Thank you for the transforming presence of your Holy Spirit. I pray that you will do a transforming work in me and in our world today. For thine is the kingdom the power and the glory – Amen.
John Franklin
John Franklin has served as Executive Director of Imago since 1998, a Toronto based initiative in support of Christians in the arts in Canada. He is linked with a large network of Christian artists across Canada and internationally through Lausanne and the World Evangelical Alliance Mission Commission. Prior to Imago he was a professor of philosophy at Tyndale College and has taught courses in theology and the arts at Toronto School of Theology. He publishes Imago's quarterly newsletter and an occasional online IMAGO Reflection.