Rejoice over her, thou Heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her. Revelation 18:20
Dan and Marilyn struggled for many years to keep their little Christian bookstore open, despite heavy opposition from another business in town. Their opponent operated a large secular bookstore, and viewed the little Christian store as a target for contempt and destruction. He was a prominent man in town, and convinced the town council, of which he was a member, to deny Dan and Marilyn permission to promote their business. He even pushed through zoning changes that forced the little store to be moved to a less desirable location. He spread lies and slander against the Christian couple, doing everything he could to tarnish their reputation. Despite this opposition, Dan and Marilyn worked faithfully, and persisted, and eventually established a solid business. They Never retaliated against their opponent, but committed the situation to the Lord. One night, they were awakened by a fire siren, and they watched as the flames destroyed their opponent’s store and warehouse. The man was so shocked by the loss of his business that he suffered a stroke. Dan and Marilyn must have felt as the apostles and prophets must over the fall of Babylon.
Even in our favoured and free land, there is opposition to the Lord Jesus and His Gospel. The devil is a fierce and hateful opponent, and he uses all the tools at his disposal to make life miserable for those who seek to bring glory to God. He has been doing this for millennia. He oversaw the slaughter of the early martyrs in Jerusalem and Rome, and down through the centuries. He has raised up spiteful and destructive organizations to lead the charge against God’s faithful. Today, he uses communist and Mohammedan systems to exterminate Christians and Gospel efforts, and uses such tools as apathy, the cults, and humanism to wreak folly on the spread of the Gospel in free lands. Our opponent has had great success and has worked tremendous damage and suffering on the Lord’s people. But he and all of his henchmen are about to face the perfect vengeance of a holy and omnipotent God.
God never leaves it up to us to retaliate against our enemies. We are to withstand the devil, but we are not to concern ourselves about vengeance on our enemies. That is God’s department. Faithful Christians who have lost property, health, family, reputation, and their very lives have not lost anything, as far as God is concerned. His perfect accounting means that losses here for Christ are gains for Glory. We can rest in the knowledge that our opponents may win an occasional battle, but they have already lost the war.
Today we are to pray for our enemies, that God might yet reach and save them. Tomorrow we rejoice at their everlasting defeat. -Jim MacIntosh