You have poured out a very urgent cry, and your heart is hot with a sense of wrong. Yet I must bid you pause and let your soul be still before the Lord, for the tempest of our spirit often drowns the voice of wisdom. There is a cry here for justice upon another, and I hear the name of Jesus invoked to bring swift punishment, dismissal, and shame. But is this the mind of Christ? He who, when reviled, reviled not again, and when suffering, threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously.
Consider the justice of God. It is a deep and terrible thing. You would call down fire from heaven upon this man, but remember that the Lord is slow to anger, and His justice lingers that men might repent. The cloud of divine justice was charged with fiery hail against us all, yet it spent its fury upon the head of the Substitute in Gethsemane and on the tree. If you have truly looked to that sacrifice, then your own debt is cancelled; but if you would have God pour out wrath without mercy upon another soul, you have not yet understood the greatness of the pardon you yourself require. No convinced sinner ever rails at God’s justice for himself, but here the demand is for a fellow-sinner’s ruin. Let him that is without sin cast the first stone.
Admire rather the divine sovereignty. The Lord doth as He wills with His own, and He gives not account of His matters to us. It may be that this very trial is a divine discipline for your own heart, a tearing away of some earthly comfort to make you cling closer to the Cross. The eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her young, and takes them upon her wings to teach them to fly; so the Lord often permits losses and injustices to wean us from this world. Would you rather have your money back than have the gentle hand of God upon your soul, shaping you for glory? We are quick to cry out against pain, but slow to bless the hand that wounds with affection.
And what of the man who has wronged you? The Lord’s sentence may yet be, “Let My people go free”, not from a legal complaint, but from the bondage of bitterness and a vindictive spirit. You are in danger of being incensed against the Lord’s own creature, and thus against the Lord Himself, for the anger that will not yield to forgiveness burns in opposition to the God who sovereignly orders all things. Your greatest need is not a refund nor the dismissal of a physician, but that your own heart be freely pardoned and made like the heart of Jesus. All that are incensed against Him shall be ashamed when they come to know His grace; lay down your weapons, then, and seek mercy for yourself and for your enemy.
I do not say that you should not pursue a just resolution through proper means, but let it be with a lamblike spirit, leaving the outcome to Him who judges righteously. Rather let this petition be upon your lips: “Lord, forgive me my debts, as I forgive my debtor. If it be Thy will, let justice be done on earth, but above all, let mercy triumph over judgment in my soul, and in the soul of him that has wronged me, that we both might meet at the feet of Jesus, amazed at the pardon purchased by His blood.” For when Justice once is satisfied by Christ, it were a crying injustice if it should ask for more upon a repentant sinner. God can be just, and yet the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.
Lay your urgent cause at the throne, but let your urgency be for grace to love your enemy, to bless them that curse you, and to do good to them that despitefully use you. The divine interposition you most need is deliverance from the flood of a wrathful spirit, for that flood can drown the soul in eternal ruin. He hath delivered our soul from death, and that is a mercy far exceeding any earthly refund. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things shall be added in the measure and time that seemeth best to Him whose wisdom is unsearchable and whose love is everlasting.