"Dear God, please take revenge"

There's a television show that I've never seen but somehow seems to hold an odd attraction to the human nature. It's simply called, "Revenge". It's not exactly what I want to spend an hour each week pouring into my brain. I have wondered, though, why is it that we're so drawn to TV shows, books, blogs and Facebook statuses that "get back" at those who oppress us? I suggest that it's a desire for justice. Something is wrong. It has to be fixed.

I read the same passage this morning in my devotions that I did yesterday. (I do that now and then if I'm not sure I got it the first time.) I read the martyred saints' plea, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" The thing that especially caught my attention this time was the next seal. Immediately after the record of their agonizing cry, God reveals an aspect of His nature that we, at least in North America, tend not to like. He takes "revenge"; He judges the world for its evil and the collective rejection of the Lamb of God (Jesus Christ).

I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their[g] wrath has come, and who can withstand it?"
Revelation 6:12-17

Have you ever prayed for God to "get back" at those who have hurt you? It's a natural response, possibly even a reflection of the image of God that calls for justice. Revenge is God's and He will repay (Romans 12;19). Interestingly, our call is to forgive.