The Strong Fool's Folly | Sunday, September 22, 2024

If you would take out your Bibles this morning, if you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and an usher will bring you one. If you don't own a Bible, you can take that; it wouldn't be stealing. We offer it to you as a gift, so you're welcome to have it.

We are in the Old Testament, about two-thirds of the way through the Bible, in the Book of Judges, which is the seventh book, chapter 15. We have been talking for the last two weeks leading up to this about this strong man who had a weak character. His name was Samson, and we're going to continue talking about him today and next week.

History and pop culture are filled with examples of individuals who did the right thing in the wrong way. Thinking about pop culture, I do not at all recommend the show called "Breaking Bad." I watched the first episode years ago and realized this is not the show for me. Walter White, the main character, received a terminal diagnosis of cancer and wanted to secure his family's financial future. That was a good thing; he wanted to take care of his family. However, he used his expertise as a chemist and a chemistry teacher to manufacture meth and become a drug kingpin. It was a right thing done the wrong way.

Consider the classic story of Robin Hood. He was dealing with economic inequality and trying to take care of the poor, but he was robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Again, it's a right thing done the wrong way.

In history, some of our presidents have faced similar dilemmas. If you ask people who was the greatest president in American history, a lot of people would first think of Abraham Lincoln. In seeking to maintain the strength of the Union and preserve it, he suspended habeas corpus. It was a right thing, maybe done in the wrong way. Franklin Roosevelt, in seeking to maintain national security, ordered the internment of the Japanese during World War II. He wanted to do the right thing, but it was done in the wrong way.

We have all kinds of examples like this in history, in pop culture, and in the Bible. Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar tried to help God out; it was a right thing, maybe done the wrong way. You can see Moses killing the Egyptian; again, a right thing done the wrong way. I think of Ananias and Sapphira in the Book of Acts. It was nice that they wanted to give a gift to God, but they did it in the wrong way. There are all kinds of these situations.

We are confronted with circumstances and situations in pop culture, history, the Bible, and our lives on a regular basis. We often want to accomplish the right thing, but there is a temptation to do it in our own strength, by our own power, and perhaps through unrighteous means. The challenge with each of these examples is that the outcome may seem so good that we make excuses for the method. This reflects the old idea of the ends justifying the means, and we are faced with the ethical dilemma: do the ends justify the means?

These are the kinds of moral and ethical situations that we all encounter regularly. There are many different approaches and ways that people try to ethically navigate through these dilemmas. Various moral theories answer the questions of what is right or wrong in different ways. How you answer the question of whether it is okay to do X to get Y, even if X might be in a gray area, reveals a lot about what you value and believe.

As Christians, we have a specific value system given to us by the Scriptures, which creates an ethical framework that we ought to live according to. This is especially important since, in the New Testament, it is made very clear that we are representatives and ambassadors of Christ. It is strikingly true that there are more than a few people you know at work, in your family, or in your neighborhood whose only representation of Jesus is you.

Think about that: what do your actions or inactions say about your Lord and Master? It is a challenging thing to consider, and we are confronted with these issues in the life of Samson, particularly in Judges chapter 15.

Before we delve into the text of Judges chapter 15, I want to remind you, as I have mentioned over the last several weeks, that Samson, the man we were introduced to in chapter 13, has been the focus of our consideration for the past couple of weeks. We will continue his story next week. Samson's name is mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11, which is identified by many Christians as the Hall of Faith. We all have the idea of the Hall of Fame, and Samson was inducted into the Hall of Faith. He is a man who...

The author of Hebrews represents a champion of faith, inspired by the Spirit of God. When we read the story of Samson in Judges 13-16, it can be surprising to find that he is included in the Hall of Faith. As I reflect on some of the questionable actions that Samson takes, I remind myself that he is indeed in the Hall of Faith, which is fascinating. Samson does some very questionable things, and we will see that in the passage today.

If, as you read about Samson's actions this morning, you find yourself thinking that there is no problem with what he did, you may want to question your ethical positions. This story, along with the entire narrative of Judges that we have been exploring this year, is important for many reasons. Even though these events occurred more than 3,000 years ago, they remain applicable to us today for several reasons.

One key reason is this: just as God had a purpose, plan, and call for Samson's life even before he was conceived, I am thoroughly convinced that God has a purpose, plan, and call for your life as well. He has desires for you that He wants to fulfill in and through you. However, like Samson, you will face situations in your life where you are challenged to consider whether God may want to use you in a particular direction. You might wonder if you are doing the right thing ultimately but in the wrong way.

We must ask ourselves if we are justifying wrong actions or deeds based on the wrong actions or deeds of culture, society, or someone else. Are we giving ourselves license to act in a certain way because others have done so? These are crucial considerations that we confront more regularly than we realize. I have observed this recently in a fascinating way, and you may have had similar conversations as well.

I've had some conversations in the last several months and have heard some people talking about this in various interviews. They say something like this: the lawfare that is being brought against Donald Trump is so bad. If Donald Trump wins in November, then he and the Republican Party need to do the same thing to the other side. They need to bring the same lawfare against them—tit for tat. You have to fight fire with fire, and you have to bring it home to them to put an end to this. That is something we really need to think through.

This is not a new mindset. The Scriptures confront this. Jesus confronted this. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "You have heard that it has been said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'" Now, I'll be honest with you; there are times when I wish that is the way to apply the teaching of Scripture: love your neighbor and hate your enemy. However, Jesus gives a different teaching. The teaching of Jesus, quite frankly, apart from the power, strength, guiding, and directing of the Holy Spirit, is all but impossible for me and for you. Yet, Jesus still calls us to a different way of life, which is hard.

There is a certain part of thinking, like what is being expressed in our culture as it relates to lawfare or all kinds of different things, that makes so much sense to us. When we hear someone say, "You have to do the same thing to them that they did to you," it resonates. The Scriptures say, "An eye for an eye." This is the teaching or the idea, the concept, principle of what is called Lex Talionis in Latin, which is the law of retaliation. Christians have thought about this and written about it for centuries. There is so much written on Lex Talionis, the law of retribution.

Retaliation goes all the way back to the Old Testament and the teaching of "an eye for an eye." We are confronted with questions like this on a regular basis: Is it okay for me to respond in this situation? Do the ends justify the means? Does one person's wrong action give me license to respond, maybe in a gray area sort of way? We are going to see that in this passage. These are important things to wrestle with during the time of the judges in which Samson lived. Over the next six weeks or so, as we close out this book, this concept will be repeated four times.

At the end of the book of Judges, it states that in those days there was no king in Israel. Fundamentally, this means that during the time that Samson lived and throughout the period of the judges, there was no superordinate governing principle for the people. Yes, they had the Law of Moses, but there was no one truly governing that for them. As a result, we read twice in Judges that there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

I suggest to you that we are increasingly living in a culture like that. There has been a shift in American culture over the last two decades, where people have moved away from primarily identifying with one political party or the other. Many no longer identify as Republican or Democrat; instead, there is an increasing group of people who identify as libertarian. Perhaps you are among those who think of yourself as libertarian.

This notion of everyone doing what is right in their own eyes can be described as libertinism. The challenge with libertinism is that, as it scales and grows larger, society begins to lose its ordering structures. Eventually, this can quickly spiral down into the chaos of moral relativism, and the end result is what we call anarchy. I believe we are somewhere along this path, and we see evidence of this moral relativism when someone in 2024 says, "Well, my truth is..." This statement indicates that we are living in a place of libertinism, moving through moral relativism towards anarchy, where you have your truth and I have my truth.

In this environment, we might observe actions that we deem not entirely wrong, leading us to make acquiescences for things that are unrighteous. There is a real danger in this, because if you study history—as I have been doing for a very long time—you will notice that cultures that move through libertinism into moral relativism and down towards anarchy generally lose the order of society. Psychologically speaking, there is a part of us that truly seeks order in the midst of chaos.

In those situations, what typically has happened in history is that people seek a king to rule over them, to order everything and fix it. There's a populist movement that generally seeks the wrong kind of king. The desire for this king to rule over us is actually a God-oriented desire because ultimately, what we're looking for is a king who rules righteously. Who wouldn't want that? That's what I want.

Now, there is only one king; He is called the King of Kings, who will ultimately rule righteously. The problem is, He is not here yet. So when we seek a king, we are always going to get a substandard king. In history, a lot of times when there is social chaos and disorder, people seek a king because they want someone to bring order and fix everything. What has frequently happened is the rise of dictatorship and tyranny. There is a real danger in this, and we will see it when we get out of Judges and into Samuel.

What happens with the judges? I think everybody would agree that if they did polling of the culture, say, 3,200 years ago in Israel, the people would have said that the judges were not really getting high marks in the polling. There came a point where the people said, "Yeah, we're done with the judges," because they had judges like Samson. They thought, "Yeah, he's strong, but he's not really the kind of guy we want leading us."

Eventually, they come to the point in First Samuel where they say, "We want a king to rule over us." That is the inclination of human psychology. Ultimately, we are seeking the King of Kings, though we may not necessarily recognize it.

With all of that in mind, let’s finally look at Judges 15. In verse one, after a while, we need to stop there in chapter 14 to bring you up to date. If you weren't with us last week, or just to remind you if you were, in chapter 14, Samson, who in chapter 13 was ordained by God to begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines, went down to one of the cities of the Philistines. He found a Philistine girl who was quite a looker, and he liked her. He wanted her, so he said to his dad, "I want her as my wife."

His dad was like, "Well, we really would rather you marry a good, fine Jewish girl." His mother agreed, saying, "Yes, that's exactly what we want; please do that." But he insisted, "No, I want her. She's pretty; I want her." So they set up the whole thing, and they entered the betrothal period. Eventually, they came to the wedding feast, which lasted seven days. At the end of the feast, when everything was done, the marriage was consummated.

They're married. Well, if you remember the story during that whole seven-day feast, Samson got into a little match with these Philistine guys. They tried to figure out his riddle, and they figured it out in some unethical ways. He became angry and left. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. He left his wife-to-be at the altar.

After a while, in chapter 15, verse 1, during the time of the wheat harvest, some time had passed. It happened that Samson visited his wife with a young goat. He thought to himself, "She's really pretty; I kind of miss her. I think I'm going to go down there and have a barbecue with her." So, he brought the young goat and said to her father, "Let me go into my wife, into her room."

Now, he never consummated the marriage at the end of the wedding feast. What he intended to do here, as the scripture is very clear, was to go into his wife in her room and consummate the marriage. What he did not realize, according to the custom of the day, was that he had left her at the altar. She was already ready to get married, and they decided to have a wedding anyway. So, she married the best man.

You might think that's strange, but it was customary for them. Her father said, "Well, we're going to have a wedding one way or another, so you marry him." Samson didn't know this. When he showed up, her father would not allow him to go in to her. He said, "I really thought that you thoroughly hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Take her instead."

Samson responded, "This time, I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them." If you don't have a hard time with that, that might be an issue. What's happening here isn't just an eye for an eye thinking. The idea of the law of retaliation, and what the eye for an eye teaching of the scriptures conveys, is not a prescription. It's not saying that if someone punches you in the face and now you're blind in one eye, you are required to punch them in the face and blind them in one eye. It's not a prescription that you must do it; it's a limitation.

Punishment must fit the crime, so it is a limiting factor here. An eye for an eye is not what is happening in this situation. Instead, it is more like, "You stepped on my toe, you wounded my pride, so I kill you." That's what's happening here. It's as if I'm not happy; I didn't get what I wanted, and now I think I have a license to do whatever I want.

If you don't have a problem with this, there's a challenge. I don't think there is any way that you can ethically justify Samson's thinking here. However, it is the way that we tend to think. It is this standard tit-for-tat escalation and retaliation. I now have the allowance, if you will, because you did something that I have decided is wrong; therefore, I can respond in this way.

What you typically have in situations like this is the spiraling up or the spiraling out of control, resembling more of a blood feud than anything else. The amazing thing is that God permits this to take place. Why? Well, God's endgame is judgment upon the Philistines. Ultimately, that is what He is going to do: bring judgment upon the Philistines. So, He permits this to take place, but I don't think you could argue that this was God's perfect will.

This brings us into the discussion of the will of God. There are passages of Scripture; I mentioned one last week from Job, that nothing will thwart His will. In the discussion of the will of God, there is the idea of the perfect will of God and the permissive will of God. According to the perfect will of God, what Samson is doing here in this passage, I don't think is right. Does God allow it? Yes, clearly He allows it, and it gets into the whole discussion of the will of God.

I'll be very candid: I don't always understand why God does what He does or allows what He does. I don't fully comprehend His will, but I do recognize that God is working, even in the midst of things that are not always exactly the way that I would think He might work.

Keep this in mind: Point number one, God's permission does not imply His approval or blessing. He is not blessing what Samson is doing here, although He will use what Samson is doing. What we find in the Scriptures is that God can use man's actions for His purposes.

Unrighteous wrath can accomplish God's ultimate plan, and you may wonder how that is even possible. The best example of this is the crucifixion of Jesus. The crucifixion of Jesus was unrighteous on many levels; He was crucified based on false witnesses in a situation that could not be justly supported as ethical. Yet, God worked the most important thing—our redemption—through the unrighteous means of the crucifixion of Christ.

There is a verse in the Psalms that speaks to this concept. In Psalm 76:10, it says, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise you." This means that God is able to use man's unrighteous actions to bring about His glory, which is hard for me to wrap my brain around. However, we see this in history and in the Scriptures.

That does not mean, and this is really key, especially for guys like me, that our unrighteousness accomplishes the righteousness of God. James, in the New Testament, states that the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Said another way, in The New International Version, human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

The Bible calls us to be angry, and every guy might think, "Yes, I was hoping for that!" In Ephesians 4:26, it says, "Be angry." You might feel excited, thinking, "Oh yes, I'm finally fulfilling the Scriptures!" But it doesn't stop there; it continues, "And do not sin."

How do I be angry and not sin? I think it means being angry for the right reasons. There are things that we should be angry about, but we need to respond in the right way. This is challenging because it requires me to be thoughtful, prayerful, and careful in how I respond. That is not my nature. I can be stirred to act quickly, often in ways that are not in keeping with the righteousness of God.

It is right that the Philistines were supposed to be judged because of their wickedness.

But even though that's right, is this the right way to look at it?

In verse 4 of Judges 15, Samson went and caught 300 foxes. This took some time, organization, and strategy. Samson took torches and turned the foxes tail to tail, putting a torch between each pair. Now he had 150 pairs of foxes that were not happy, tied together tail to tail. They were really not happy, and then he put a flaming torch in between them. When he set the torches on fire, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines because it was the wheat harvest. He burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and the olive groves. You've got to give Samson some creativity points here.

However, point number two: if you burn others, expect to get burned. The Philistines, in verse 6, asked, "Who has done this?" They were told it was Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife and given her to his companion. So, the Philistines came up and burned his wife and her father with fire. This means they killed his wife-to-be and her father. Samson said, "Since you would do a thing like this, I surely will take revenge upon you." Here we go, spiraling out of control in this blood feud, tit for tat. Afterward, he vowed to cease.

He attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter, then went down and dwelt in the cliff of the rock in a cave. Samson burned them, so they burned him, and now he felt justified to take whatever level of vengeance he wanted. One of the most memorable scenes for me in a movie is the film adaptation of "The Count of Monte Cristo." If you've never seen it, it's great. In this adaptation, there is a powerful scene where Edmond Dantès, the main character, is in prison, wrongfully accused and serving a sentence he ought not to be serving. In the process, he meets a man who has been in prison longer than he has, an old man who...

Edmund became a very religious man, and the religious man was teaching him and training him for the day he would be released. Right before the religious man died, he revealed to Edmund the existence of a great treasure and gave him the map to find it. He said, "This is going to make you unbelievably wealthy when you get out of here, but you must use it for good."

Edmund replied, "No, I will use it for my vengeance." The religious man then imparted his final lesson: "Do not commit the crime for which you now serve the sentence. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord." Every time I think about it, I feel that tingly sensation. I have had those words go through my mind on more occasions than I can count, especially when I feel the stirring within me to work out my vengeance because someone has slighted me or done something wrong. I hear it ringing in my ears: "Do not commit the crime for which you now serve the sentence. God said vengeance is mine." That is what the Scriptures teach: "Vengeance is mine; I will repay," says the Lord.

God's plan and purpose was to begin delivering the people of Israel through Samson. But do you really think this was God's perfect way, His perfect will, by which He was going to bring about judgment upon the Philistines? I don't really think it was. David Guak on this says it is fair to suppose that if Samson had been obedient, God would have furthered His plan in a way that blessed Samson. However, as I mentioned last week, Samson, as you look at the Scriptures, was a fool.

The Scriptures say of fools a couple of times in Proverbs: "There is a way that seems right to a fool." The fool's way is right in his own eyes, and you can be certain that Samson thought this was exactly how it ought to happen. In that same passage in Proverbs 12, where it says the way of the fool is right in his own eyes, it also states, "A fool's wrath is known at once." This describes a person who is angry and immediately responds. I don't think you can be angry and not sin by responding immediately. His foolishness is evident in his quick wrath.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end is the way of death. Samson continued to leave behind a path of death and innocence. A fool's wrath is known at once, and Samson attacked them viciously, slaughtering many of them. Now, the Philistines, as described in Judges chapter 15, verse 9...

The men of Judah went up and encamped at Judah. In response to this, Samson viciously slaughtered a whole bunch of Philistines and then took off. The Philistines, instead of going against Samson, decided to go against the people of Israel. They encamped against one of the cities in Judah, specifically in Lehi. The men of Judah asked, "Why have you come up against us?" The Philistines answered, "We have come to arrest Samson, to do to him as he has done to us."

This situation reflects a cycle of retaliation: you hit me, I hit you; back and forth, it spirals out of control. Samson's aggression invites the aggression of the Philistines upon all of Israel, and this conflict inevitably spreads.

In response, three thousand men of Judah went down to the cliff of the rock, the cave where Samson was in Etam. They said to Samson, "Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Is this news to you? What is this that you have done to us?" Samson replied, "Well, as they did to me, so I have done to them." This reflects the immature, infantile wisdom of a fool.

Do you really suppose this is God's perfect will? Wisdom is justified by her children, as Jesus said in Luke, chapter 12, or maybe it was chapter 7. What that means is that outcomes are important. You can see the wisdom of a decision or action by what it produces. Here, we see the outcomes in this situation. The folly of Samson is evidenced by his constant foolishness. He is a strong man, but he is also a foolish man.

Israel was under the oppression of the Philistines, and it was God's will from before Samson's birth that He would begin to deliver the children of Israel from the Philistines through Samson. However, Samson does not recognize God's call; he does not acknowledge God's desire to deliver Israel. He is primarily upset about how he has been wronged.

A good rule of thumb for us in our lives is this: God's perfect plan never involves personal revenge. The men of Judah came to Samson and said, "Don't you know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this that you have done?" They continued, "We have come down, verse 12, Judges 15, to arrest you so that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines." Then Samson said to them...

Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves. So they spoke to him and said, "No, but we will securely deliver you into their hand. We shall not kill you." They bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from The Rock.

Samson's self-absorption here is an indication that he was a bit of a narcissist, and probably not just a bit—he was a major narcissist. His narcissism caused his own people in Israel to turn against him. Yet, this is what is so striking: God is not finished with Samson. The reason that God is not finished with Samson, and the reason that Samson's name is mentioned in the Hall of Faith, is because God is gracious. I am frequently surprised by the graciousness of God despite our manifold failures. God is gracious.

When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against Samson. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax, like thread that is burned with fire. If you have ever seen thread and fire, it basically dissolves. The binding that was upon him just dissolved, and his bonds broke loose from his hands. He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand, took it, and killed a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey.

When he was done, Samson said, "With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps! With the jawbone of a donkey, I have slain a thousand men." So it was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand and called the place Ramath Lehi, which means "Jawbone Hill." With a jawbone of a donkey, he killed a thousand Philistines.

Now, this either says a lot about how bad the Philistines were in fighting, or it says a lot about the strength of Samson, which came about by the power of God. I think it's more representative of the power of God. It's a good reminder for me that God doesn't need the perfect plan, the perfect strategy, the perfect weapon, or the perfect man to accomplish His task. This is a good reminder because so many times I think that we need to have the perfect plan, the perfect strategy, and the perfect method and tools. Then God says, "I can do what I want with whomever I want, whenever I want. I have the power to accomplish these things." So God can use the jawbone of a donkey.

A donkey can be used by God, just like He used Samson. I would love to use another word than "donkey," the King James word, but I won't. God can use the jawbone of a donkey, and He can use a donkey like Samson to accomplish His plan. God did a lot with this stubborn mule, and I find myself thinking, as I shared a couple of weeks ago while reading through the story of Samson, that if Samson had been fully obedient and submitted to God in the right way, God could have done far better through his life.

However, God will use what He can from Samson to accomplish His ends. Could He have done so much better, so much more fully through Samson? When 3,000 men of Judah came to arrest Samson, his own people delivered him to the Philistines. In reality, I think what God would have liked to have done was to use Samson to lead those same 3,000 men and others to stand against the Philistines and deliver the children of Israel. But that was not the way Samson won this awesome victory through the mighty power of Almighty God.

Later, his self-absorption shines through. Look at verse 18: "Then he became very thirsty." He had just killed a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey, yet he became very thirsty. So he cried out to the Lord and said, "You've given me this great deliverance by the hand of your servant, and now shall I die of thirst and fall by the hand of the uncircumcised?" His self-absorption is evident.

Yet, God is still gracious. Point number four: God's grace is surprisingly abundant. So God split the hollow place that was in Lehi, and water came out. Samson drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore, he called the name of it En Haakor, which is in Lehi to this day. He judged Israel for 20 years in the days of the Philistines.

It is certain that God uses imperfect people for His purposes because He is perfectly gracious. I am grateful for His grace, and I am thankful that He chooses to use you and me. He chooses to use us despite our manifold imperfections, and I am so grateful that He doesn't walk away and leave us high and dry because of our manifold inconsistencies. Yet, there is a point at which...

One can go too far by their foolish self-absorption, which is what we're going to see next week in chapter 16 when Samson meets Delilah. He comes to a point where he thinks, "I will go out as I have before." The King James Version says, "He wist not that God had departed from him." What a frightening place to be in, to not realize the Lord has left.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "You have heard that it has been said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' the law of retaliation, Lex Talionis. But I tell you, do not resist an evil person." Oh, that is so hard for me! "Whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. If anyone wants to sue you to take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and from him who wants to borrow, do not turn away."

"You have heard that it has been said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use and persecute you." Why? That you may be sons of your Father in Heaven. I am a child of God, and He has called me as His child to live after the pattern and example of Christ, which is one of the most difficult things to do, I think, in all of life. Apart from His enabling power and His grace by His Holy Spirit, it is totally impossible for me.

It's very evident the fool's method; all you have to do is read Samson's life. But God calls us to walk in wisdom and to walk circumspectly, understanding that the days are evil. Oh God, help us, because we are living in a time where there is no ruling order, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. God, help us to walk after a pattern that honors You as Your ambassadors. Amen.

Let's stand together and pray. Father God, we do come...

Before we close today, I ask for you to give us your strength and your spirit. Holy Spirit, would you help us to have your power, your meekness, and your self-control in the situations that we face? When we are tempted by our own flesh and emboldened by the culture we live in, which says we have the right and justification, God, help us to give those things into your hands and say, "Vengeance is yours."

Help us to trust you that you will bring about ultimate justice. Additionally, help us to shine brightly with your grace and truth in this world. God, do a work in me, I pray, as I need your grace in abundance. We ask this today in Jesus' name. And all those that agreed said, "Amen."