Why Will a Loving God Exact Vengeance?

1. What will help us to understand an apparent contradiction in our theme?

VENGEANCE?

Is God’s Day of Vengeance Near?

“Jehovah has a day of vengeance.”​—Isa. 34:8.

God’s Day of Vengeance

AS WE saw in the previous article, there are several reasons why it is wrong for us to seek vengeance.

Because according to the unmistakable proofs from God’s Word the Bible we have reached the time in human history identified in the Scriptures as the “last days,” the time “to proclaim the year of goodwill on the part of Jehovah and the day of vengeance on the part of our God.”​—2 Tim. 3:1-5; Isa. 61:2.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to those taken captive and the wide opening of the eyes even to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of goodwill on the part of Jehovah and the day of vengeance on the part of our God.”

This calls for us to share courageously with the Jeremiah class in warning of Jehovah’s coming “day of vengeance.”

¹⁹ So Jehovah’s “day of vengeance” was not over when he used the king of Babylon as his instrument to overthrow the kingdom of Judah.

“He has sent me . . . to proclaim the year of goodwill on the part of Jehovah and the day of vengeance on the part of our God; to comfort all the mourning ones.”​—Isa. 61:1, 2.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to those taken captive and the wide opening of the eyes even to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of goodwill on the part of Jehovah and the day of vengeance on the part of our God; to comfort all the mourning ones; to assign to those mourning over Zion, to give them a headdress instead of ashes, the oil of exultation instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of the downhearted spirit; and they must be called big trees of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, for him to be beautified.

Is Vengeance Wrong?

Today, love of neighbor is at a low ebb, and the spirit of vengeance is on the rise.​—Matthew 24:12.

The good news includes the information about the vengeance of God the Creator, and those who are commissioned by God to preach are under orders to proclaim His vengeance.

So during those years at least the Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar was used as Jehovah’s instrument to deal out His vengeance to the disloyal kingdom of Judah and the neighboring nations.

There is the sound of those fleeing and those escaping from the land of Babylon to tell out in Zion the vengeance of Jehovah our God, the vengeance for his temple.’”​—Jer. 50:4, 5, 28.

That means the arrival of “the day of vengeance on the part of our God.” (Isa. 61:1, 2)

16. What is accomplished by the “watchman” class in sounding the warning?

¹⁶ This makes it urgent for the “watchman” class to sound the warning that the “year” of Jehovah’s goodwill is about to end and his “day of vengeance” is about to break.

This is plainly so, inasmuch as, when this Kingdom preaching is finished, “then the end will come,” and that end of the present system of things means the “day of vengeance on the part of our God.”

After all this time of Kingdom preaching, that “year” must be running out, and we should take advantage of the “year of goodwill” before there breaks upon this whole system of things “the day of vengeance.”

That preaching of the good news of God’s kingdom has included the declaring of the “day of vengeance on the part of our God,” the divine vengeance with which the end comes upon the enemies of the good news. (Isa. 61:1, 2)

JEHOVAH’S “DAY OF VENGEANCE”

This will be Jehovah’s “day of vengeance.” (Isa. 61:2)

For it is the time of vengeance belonging to Jehovah.

So just as God executed vengeance in ancient times against Babylon for his temple in Jerusalem and vengeance for his city Zion, so he does in our day.​—Jer. 50:28; 51:11, 35, 36.

That is the day of Jehovah God for executing his vengeance upon all who have not called upon His name and who have not escaped from the worldly system of bondage to the side of God’s kingdom, which reigns since 1914 in the “heavenly Jerusalem” on the heavenly Mount Zion.

16. (a) In what “year” are we still living, and why does it now behoove us to continue preaching a release? (b) Who is taking the lead in this work today?

¹⁶ According to Isaiah’s prophecy (Isa 61:1, 2) we are still living in the “year of good will on the part of Jehovah,” but this symbolic “year” is bound to reach its end, giving way to the “day of vengeance on the part of our God.”

Appropriately, then, “their teeth were as those of lions,” that could devour solid food, flesh, like the strong judgment message of God’s vengeance against Christendom. (Heb. 5:12; 1 Cor. 3:1, 2)

Likewise the heat of Jehovah’s anger against his professed people in Christendom precedes the invasion of his symbolic locust swarm who proclaim the “day of vengeance on the part of our God.” (Isa. 61:2)