Sweet Revenge!

I was thinking about how many times I have seen people misuse others in order to get their way. Whether it was a selfish, childish act, or a manipulation of events that brings someone to their ultimate demise, being used is no fun and being the user is abominable. Being raised in a basically public forum gave me the opportunity to have seen a little bit of it all it through my lifetime, and it is never a pretty sight. I guess that like most humans, there have been times I have desired to have my own sweet revenge! Whether something had happened to me or someone I cared about I wanted to see judgment come and that swiftly. I am only being honest about this because I feel it is something that we have all dealt with at some time or other.

This brings me to the story found in the book of Esther about how Haman was out to get Mordecai and had devised a way to do it! He had a giant gallows built in his own courtyard and intended to have Mordecai hung on it. By hung I mean that this pole was shoved up through the person’s rectal area until it emerged somewhere from their upper body. They were left on the pole to be ridiculed by on-lookers until they died. Haman had already informed his close friends that this was to take place. On the night he went to tell the King of this plan (if you want to know the reasons why, read the short book of Esther), the King couldn’t sleep and had the records book brought to him to be read, maybe he wanted to be bored to sleep! That turned out to be a good thing for Mordecai because in it was an account written about how Mordecai had saved the King’s life by informing on two men who had planned to kill him! As the King was walking the floor, Haman came in with his plan ready to un-fold to the King but the King spoke first asking him how he would honor a man that the King delighted in. Haman assumed the King was talking about himself and so he came up with an elaborate reward. When he had finished, the King informed him that it was Mordecai whom he intended to honor which made Haman furious but he had to keep a straight face! Mordecai was paraded all over town wearing the King’s garments while riding the King’s own horse with Haman following telling everyone what a hero Mordecai had been! The end of that story is that Haman himself was hanged on the very gallows that he had built for Mordecai, along with his ten sons. Mordecai was then assigned a place of honor with the King!

Probably no one has ever planned to have you or me hung on a pole, but I’m sure that things have happened that you didn’t understand but the point is that God is faithful, to us all. My dad told me once, when I was so angry over something a woman had done to me, that God loved her as much as he loved me and I could hardly believe that! I didn’t WANT to believe that! As I have gotten older and know my Father God better, I know this is true, and thankfully He forgives because I have needed that forgiveness myself. However, I also know that when someone wrongs you and you are innocent they will not get by with it forever, there will be a reckoning day. Humanity needs to see revenge taken on the One that brought sin to us, Satan himself! It is not because of God’s lack of love that wars are fought and people are suffering, it is the presence of the devil in this world who brought about the sin in the Garden, that has created all the hate and crime and ruination of character all around.

Revelation 20:3 I saw an Angel descending out of Heaven. He carried the key to the Abyss and a chain—a huge chain. He grabbed the Dragon, that old Snake—the very Devil, Satan himself! — chained him up for a thousand years, dumped him into the Abyss, slammed it shut and sealed it tight. No more trouble out of him, deceiving the nations—God doesn’t get mad, with Satan, He gets even! Just let go and let God be your protector!