Romans 12:19, "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord."
There are few things that are more painful to me than to find out that I was betrayed by someone who I thought I could trust. Or to find out that someone who I thought was my friend was saying slanderous things about me behind my back. Or that they were falsely accusing me of something. When it happens, my knee jerk reaction is to either lash out in revenge or set the record straight in a way that I will put them in their place.
Of course, the greatest example of someone who was wrongfully accused was our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The accusations brought against him were completely false and yet he allowed himself to be punished wrongfully in order to save us. But there's another great example of a man who was wrongfully accused, Joseph.
You may remember the story of Joseph, how he was sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt. He was bought by Potiphar. His wife had a crush on him and tried to seduce him. When he refused, she accused him of trying to sexually assault her. It was bad enough that she falsely accused him, but she accused him of the very thing that SHE was guilty of.
Sometime later, Joseph has the miraculous day where he wakes up in the prison, but goes to bed in the palace. In one day he went from being a prisoner to the prime minister of Egypt. He was the second most powerful man in the world at that time.
One thing I find interesting about the story of Joseph is that there is no indication that he ever attempted to set things straight. He certainly could have. Nothing is said about whether he went back and dealt with Potiphar and his wife. But we do know how he dealt with his brothers who had done such a hateful thing to him. Genesis 50:19-20 must have sounded like beautiful music to his brothers:
"But Joseph said to them, 'Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving many lives."
God had actually used the evil actions of his brothers to save the lives of the people of the near east; which ironically, included them, and possibly Potiphar and his wife (assuming they were still alive).
But you may ask: Is God really using the injustice done to me for good? Romans 8:28 says that God works in ALL THINGS (my caps) for the good to those who are called according to his purpose. So the answer is, yes. He is using everything to mold and shape us into the image of his son, who:
"when they hurled insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly."(1 Peter2:23).
Sometimes when these things happen, and we are slandered and unjustly accused, God may be orchestrating events in order to position us to be used in a mighty way for his glory. It was certainly the case in Joseph's case. And he could see that the sovereign hand of God had been moving in order to put him in the place where he would become the ruler of Egypt. It does happen, and it's not uncommon. But if we allow ourselves to be eaten up by bitterness, unforgiveness, and a desire for revenge, we will completely miss out on what God may be doing. I recently heard someone say that we must be in a position that God is able to work in our lives. And that means having our hearts and minds in tune with him.
I don't believe that it means pretending that it doesn't hurt. Some things hurt! And they hurt bad! But it does mean that when it hurts really bad, that we cry out to our heavenly Father and give it to him in surrendered trust. Don't focus on trying to get justice through your own efforts. Let God, "who judges justly", do what he is going to do and let him implement his own plan.
The most important thing is if we do allow God to handle the situation in the way he wants to, we will come out on the other side looking more like Jesus. And if we look more like Jesus, we become much more useful servants to our Lord and Master, and God may implement a greater plan than what he had us doing before.
Go with God and may you be richly blessed.
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