One of the sad features of our broken lives on a broken planet is that justice is often murky and delayed and sometimes seems absent altogether. It’s bad enough to suffer injury from another, but it’s worse when no one is apprehended, or someone is apprehended but not punished.

Even believers may fear that God isn’t watching, or if he is that he doesn’t care anymore. Ah, but he does. As Longfellow once wrote, “The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small.” An example: “After Abimelek had governed Israel three years, God stirred up animosity between Abimelek and the citizens of Shechem so that they acted treacherously against Abimelek. God did this in order that the crime against Jerub-Baal’s seventy sons, the shedding of their blood, might be avenged on their brother Abimelek and on the citizens of Shechem, who had helped him murder his brothers” (Judges 9:22-24).

The Lord says that vengeance belongs to him; thus you and I can leave the judging and punishing to him. After all, we can be grateful that the punishment for our own evil words and deeds was put on Christ instead of us. In the meantime, we can expect injustices everywhere. Satan’s lie to Eve that there would be no consequences for her disobedience is still persuasive to many, and they think they will get away with it all.

Give it to God and wait for him.