Hurt People Hurt People

Judges 15:1-8

"Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, "I'm going to my wife's room." But her father would not let him go in. "I was so sure you thoroughly hated her," he said, "that I gave her to your friend. Isn't her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead." Samson said to them, "This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them." So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves. When the Philistines asked, "Who did this?" they were told, "Samson, the Timnite's son-in-law, because his wife was given to his friend." So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death. Samson said to them, "Since you've acted like this, I won't stop until I get my revenge on you." He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam."

Hurt people hurt people. It is a vicious cycle of violating each other in many ways and varying degrees. Such are relationships in a fallen world. The norm in this lifetime is retaliation, an eye for an eye. Although from an eternal perspective, God once again uses the situation to bring about his overall will and purposes, Samson here becomes the epitome of humanity's rage and thirst for worldly vengeance to take justice in his own hands as he, in his mortal eyes, sees fit. This escalates into further violence involving more and more people, tribes, to nations and to international coalitions. Ravi Zacharias recounts his meeting with a leader of the anti-Israel group, Hamas, Sheik Talal: "Sheik, you and I may never see each other again, so I want you to hear me. A little distance from here is a mountain upon which Abraham went 5,000 years ago to offer his son. You may say the son was one; I may say it's another. Let's not argue about that. He took his son up there. And as the axe was about to fall, God said, 'Stop.'", "Do you know what God said after that?" Sheik shook his head. Ravi continued, "God said, 'I Myself will provide.' Sheik nodded. Then Ravi said, "Very close to where you and I are sitting, Sheik, is a hill. Two thousand years ago, God kept that promise and brought his own Son and the axe did not stop this time. He sacrificed his own Son.", "Sheik, I just want you to hear this. Until you and I receive what the Son of God has provided, we’ll be offering our own sons and daughters on the battlefields of this world for many of the wrong reasons."

The cycle of hurt has to stop somewhere, otherwise, there will be no end in sight for pain and suffering. Mahatma Gandhi said "an eye for an eye will only make the world go blind". The buck stops here in our hearts and ultimately, all the violence in the world and all the hurt in our hearts stop at the Cross of Jesus Christ. Take all these to the Cross. He can take it. He took it. He is taking it.

Genesis 22:12-14

"Do not lay a hand on the boy," He said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from Me your son, your only son." Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided."

~06.10.2013