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Why God’s Justice May Be Delayed but Never Forgotten

There are moments in life when injustice feels overwhelming. You see wrong happening in the world, or you may be personally carrying the weight of something that was done to you.

And the question rises in the heart of many believers:

If God is just, why does it sometimes feel like nothing is happening?

Scripture reminds us of a powerful truth that can bring both peace and clarity: God has not forgotten what happened.

The Bible shows us again and again that while God’s justice may appear delayed, it is never forgotten and never misplaced.

When God’s Justice Feels Delayed

One of the most difficult parts of faith is trusting God’s timing.

We often want immediate justice when someone has done wrong. Yet throughout Scripture, we see that God sometimes allows time to pass before judgment comes.

This delay is not because God is unaware or indifferent. In many cases, it is because God is extending mercy, patience, and opportunity for repentance.

In Romans 12:19, believers are given a clear instruction:

“Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: ‘Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,’ says the Lord.”

This verse reminds us that justice ultimately belongs to God.

When we attempt to take vengeance into our own hands, we step outside of God’s design for justice.

But when we trust Him, we can release that burden knowing that He sees everything and will act in perfect righteousness.

The Biblical Story That Shows God Never Forgets

A powerful example of this principle is found in the story of Ahab and Jezebel in the books of 1 Kings and 2 Kings.

King Ahab and his wife Jezebel committed a terrible injustice when they arranged the death of Naboth in order to steal his vineyard.

Through the prophet Elijah, God pronounced judgment on Ahab’s house. However, something interesting happened: when Ahab humbled himself before the Lord, God delayed the full judgment.

The consequence was not canceled—but it was postponed.

Years later, during the reign of Ahab’s son, the prophecy was fulfilled exactly as God had spoken. Through the rise of Jehu, the house of Ahab was brought to justice and Jezebel’s fate unfolded precisely as foretold.

This story reveals something important about God’s character:

God does not forget injustice.

Even when time passes and circumstances change, God remains faithful to His word.

Why God Sometimes Shows Mercy Before Judgment

One of the most beautiful truths in Scripture is that God is both perfectly just and deeply merciful.

In Exodus 33:19, God declares:

“I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

God alone determines how and when mercy is shown.

Sometimes justice is delayed because God is giving people an opportunity to repent. Other times, God is working through a much larger plan that we cannot yet see.

While we may struggle to understand His timing, we can trust that God always acts with perfect righteousness.

Releasing Vengeance and Finding Peace

When we carry anger or a desire for revenge, it can steal our peace.

The enemy often uses injustice to trap believers in bitterness, frustration, and emotional exhaustion.

But when we surrender our anger to God, something powerful happens: we are freed from the burden of carrying it ourselves.

Trusting God’s justice allows us to move forward in peace, knowing that the situation is now in His hands.

God’s promise remains true:

Justice will come.

And when it does, it will be executed perfectly—without error, without corruption, and without partiality.

God’s Mercy Through Jesus Christ

While the Bible speaks clearly about justice, it also reveals the greatest act of mercy ever given.

Through Jesus Christ, God provided a way for humanity to be forgiven and restored.

At the cross, justice and mercy met.

The penalty for sin was paid through the blood of Christ so that those who believe in Him could receive forgiveness and new life.

But Scripture also reminds us that there will one day be a final moment when justice is fully executed.

Until that day, we live in a season of opportunity—where people can receive God’s mercy and choose life.

A Prayer for Those Waiting on God’s Justice

If you are carrying the pain of injustice, this prayer offers a way to release that burden to God.

Prayer

Father, we come today with a righteous anger.

We have been done wrong. Things have been done that we did not deserve by the hands of man. Wickedness has been done. Possibly vile evil has been done. Misfortune has come because of others.

Whatever the circumstance is, if I have friends today reading who have suffered at the hands of others and there has been no repentance, Father we come today and we rightfully take our anger, our wrath, and the vengeance we want, and we lay it at Your feet.

We release it into Your perfect, just, righteous hands.

And we trust You.

We know that You will give justice. You see us. You know what has been done. And You will protect us. You will provide for us. You will deliver us. You will help us. You will strengthen us. And You will bring justice.

I pray, Father, for every person now to receive a supernatural gift of peace. Help them know they can trust You and Your timing. Help them know that You are faithful.

Pass before them now with Your goodness. Declare Your mighty name over them and let them rejoice in the gift of salvation and relationship with You.

It is in Your Son’s name, Jesus, that we pray.

Amen.

Encouragement

If you are waiting for God to make something right, remember this:

God has not forgotten what happened.

He sees every detail. He knows every injustice. And in His perfect timing, He will bring about what is right.

Until that day, we can walk in peace, trusting the character of a God who is both perfectly just and endlessly merciful.

Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

Jaime Luce (00:00.834)
Welcome to the Jaime Luce podcast. Hi everybody. I’m really happy to spend some time with you today. If you were with us last week, we were talking about the timing of waiting on God and how it can just feel like God is late and, and we’re, this is taking too long. And, and that whole, the whole process of, of needing God to move and not understanding why something is delayed, why

hasn’t it happened yet? Is God angry with me? Have I done something that makes him wait? And we have an interesting kind of part B, part two to last week’s topic. Scripture wise, our main text is going to be 2 Kings chapter eight and chapter nine. And last week was.

chapter eight versus one through six, but now this is the rest of the chapter plus chapter nine. And there’s a lot of information in this that I’m going to try and condense and bring summary to, but it really is the second part, I think, at least right now that I am seeing the same

beautiful fullness of God in his ways, in his waiting, in his time frames, because we get so frustrated with the time frames and yet we don’t always see the big picture. I gave you some examples last week why God does what he does. There are reasons

He has many reasons why he does what he does. And they are all for great purpose and for his wonderful glory. But there is another aspect of time that I want us to talk about today. That is kind of the second piece to this. And honestly, you can be on either one side of this fence

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or the other side and feel just as strongly about the side that you’re on. What I’m talking about is you are either on the side of needing mercy and you want time because you don’t want judgment, you want mercy, or you can be on the other side of the fence and you’re thinking, God, I need justice.

I need you to come in and bring a judgment. need an end to this thing and you’re not looking for mercy. You’re looking for judgment and both sides have their place. Both are necessary and thank God we serve the judge of all the earth and the same judge shows mercy and grace. Now he is just.

So this is the balance. This is what holds these things in balance. God is perfectly just, which means if he shows mercy, it was just to show mercy. And if he shows judgment and gives no mercy, then he was just in doing that because in his character, he is completely just.

Now, whether I understand everything is a completely different set of circumstances and it has no bearing. What I think, what I feel, what I want have no bearing on whether God will do just or not. And if what he does and what he judges or what he shows mercy to that he is completely right. He is completely right. So I’m the one who has to seek to understand.

if I don’t understand, okay? I don’t know if you were ever, I used to do this when we were kids. So we could be out with our parents somewhere and there was three of us siblings and we could have done something we weren’t supposed to or kept bothering our brother or sister, you know, and our mom and dad is just tired of saying, stop that, stop that or whatever it is. And at some point,

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you hear the, because you’re driving, can’t be dealt with, or you’re in the middle of a grocery store and you’re not sure what to do, or in the checkout line, or you’re somewhere and you feel like you can’t deal with it at the moment. So you say, the parent says, when we get home, that’s when you’re going to get punished. I’m gonna deal with this when we get home. Or when you get home, back in my growing up days, we spanked, we got spanked, and I’m the better for it.

So I am not standing against banking though this is not an argument for or against. I’m not talking about beating. I’m not talking about abuse. Please hear me. Those are two different things but the Bible’s clear and I stand by the word. It’s not my word, it’s the Bible’s word. So anyway, forget I said it. Anyway, we would get home and justice awaited at home. Now whether that was a talking to, whether you were sent to your room,

you know, you didn’t get to have your whatever you wanted. You didn’t get to go wherever you were grounded, whatever your punishment was. You were hoping that this thing that happened happened early enough so that by the time you made it home, your parents would forget about it. I hoped this many times and I’m sure some of you can relate.

You were just hoping against hope that they would forget about it so that you wouldn’t be in trouble. You were hoping that even if they did, by the time they got home, they weren’t so angry and mercy would rule instead of judgment. But then there were times when things happened and it was bad. What happened happened to you, happened against you, or you did something that you should not have done. And it needed to be dealt with right then it needed justice right then.

or it needed dealing with when the time came to deal with it. So I’m sure this is very easy for us on a very natural level to relate to. Even in a government, just, well, a trial is government, it’s our form of government, our justice system and the judicial system. So when you go through a trial, you have your trial phase, but then there is a time where there is sentencing, where,

Jaime Luce (07:10.048)
You’ve gotten through all the evidence, all the discovery, all the witnesses, everything that needs to take place. And then there comes a sentencing. And so really what we see today, what we’re going to look at is I wanted to encourage you with this, this on the heels of what we spoke about last week. If you are waiting for God,

bring you justice, I can promise you that justice is coming.

Jaime Luce (07:48.866)
And on the same token, we will also see that there were times when justice was necessary, but it was delayed and it was delayed and mercy shown for a time because of a right heart, right repentance. And this was literally

I’m not kidding you. went through so many scriptures. I felt like I was off-roading to it. This is so all through scripture and it was fun in that respect. And it was also, my goodness, what about this? What about that? And so I’m going to give you many scripture references. We’re going to read, several of them, but I wanted you to know that God will deal with it. I mean, right now,

If I’m just talking about our world around us in general, I don’t know about you, but I am really frustrated. I’m really frustrated with our natural judicial system. I’m really disappointed and I am angry and I think rightly so that we can see such depravity and vile

wickedness happening all over. And it is rampant from every, every kind of crime you could possibly think of, of every kind of murder. And every, I saw just this morning how two men hurried up and jumped over one of those little clicking things you go through to get onto the subway and you have to push the bars, you know, to get to the other side.

And two men jumped over the bars and saw a man. He was a random man standing waiting for the train to arrive. It was coming. And they literally pushed him in front of the train just in time for the train to hit that man. And then jumped off the thing and left. A random.

Jaime Luce (10:04.12)
Horrible Despicable I can’t there aren’t even words for the evil of that an innocent man And that’s something I can say without sending off all of this the The warriors that are looking to take every website down that talks about or every channel down that talks about other things I’m not gonna say names. I’m not gonna say all the stuff today though. Sometimes I do

We just have to know, and I have to take consolation in this. When I read our portion of scripture and began to study this today, I wanted you to see and be reminded that God is just. And he says in two scriptures, the first one is Romans 12, 19. Now this is not our main text, but I want to read this to you. Romans 12, 19.

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says.

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Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. Now what that give place unto wrath means, it doesn’t mean, you know, make a place for wrath so that you can have your wrath. That’s not what it means. It means put your wrath in the right place, but rather give place unto wrath for it is written.

Vengeance is mine. I will repay says the Lord. And then in Deuteronomy 32 and this is verse 35 it says to me this is God speaking belongs vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due time for the day of their calamity

is at hand and the things that shall come upon them make haste.” And I took great comfort in reading those scriptures and then going through our text today to see how faithful God is to his character and he says what he means, he means what he says. And if God has determined that something is bringing judgment,

It will come to pass. Now I know like we talked about last week, we can think why is it taking so long and we get so frustrated. We just have to remember that God does all things well. That’s a scripture. He does all things well. You can stand on that. He is kind in all his ways. I’m sorry. He is kind in all his doings. I’m forgetting that scripture. Anyway, he’s good.

He’s good. And he makes sure that what he does, he does it right. And he does it with a completely right, just spirit that, sometimes we can do something and we can be so full of wrath and anger. And then we regret and we look back on things and we, and we actually reassess them and think that didn’t deserve what I gave it. Have you ever had to make an apology to somebody because you just unleashed?

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all this anger and wrath at them. And then later you recognize a lot of what you were upset about had to do with you, not even them. You had had a hard day. Someone cut you off. You didn’t get enough sleep that night. You hadn’t gotten a chance to eat yet. You were hungry. It can be ridiculous things, just life junk. You know, just things you have to deal with in life. And you can just…

Be in a place where you think, okay, I’m at my end. I’m at my end with this. And then someone happens to cross your path at the wrong moment. And we unleash anything and everything that was about everyone else and everything else on them. That’s not just. That’s not righteous. That’s not a perfect spirit. That’s not a Christ-like spirit. But when justice is served,

for something that is evil and wrong, we rejoice when it’s time for justice. We rejoice in that. People wrongly think we have allowed our culture define to the church. Now I’m not saying everyone has done this, but this has happened across a giant scale and it happens through the media.

as gaslighting to anyone who stands rightly, firmly on whatever God says in his word. And we are told that in order to be Christ-like, you have to always be gentle and that every single time you’re supposed to turn the other cheek and every single time you’re supposed to show mercy, that you’re never supposed to have

borders that you live within and not cross and that if people cross them, are consequences. We have in scripture the blueprint through God’s law, which shows us our error, but that same law shows us justice and shows us mercy and shows us how to live.

Jaime Luce (16:00.426)
in a way that brings blessing on our life and not a curse. I don’t want to live under the curse of sin. I want to live under the blessing and freedom of salvation from the law. But it’s not from the morality of the law. It is from the consequence of breaking the law. We don’t, we don’t try to gain freedom from laws.

We simply don’t want to be… We have been saved from our guilt. The law is not flawed. We break the law and now we are guilty and have to pay a consequence for breaking that law. But God is just and merciful. So salvation was offered to us so that we could be shown mercy instead of the justice that we deserved.

The problem is he offers it to us and if we choose to reject it, then we have no other choice but to live the consequences of the guilt that is truly ours for breaking those laws. So I want to show you this in scripture by God’s character. Okay, so if you’ll remember, now I’m not sure how many…

weeks ago this was, but we were, when we were in First Kings, I’ll bounce around a little bit right here, but I just want you to know where we’re gonna go first. Now our text is Second Kings, but this is all tied together. So I don’t know if you’ve ever seen one of those charts where it looks like a rainbow of a million strands in different colors.

on a sheet of paper and it is all the cross references of how the Bible speaks about itself and ties together and it’s just, it’s a beautiful picture. But the Bible doesn’t really say, like it’s not that it says so much, this is my mother used to always say, it’s not that the Bible says so much, it’s just what it says, it says over and over and over again.

Jaime Luce (18:28.844)
And so we can plainly see God in scripture. We can plainly see his character. We can plainly see Jesus. Old Testament, New Testament. You can see the goodness of God. You can see his ways. You can see how he deals with things. You can see what he approves of and what he disapproves of. It’s very simple to see it literally from start to finish. Okay. So we’re going to look at first Kings and this is when King Ahab, if you’ll remember King Ahab was married to Jezebel.

and he wanted a vineyard and in wanting that vineyard he went to Naboth who owned the vineyard which happened to be adjacent to his garden to Ahab’s garden and he was going about it in a way that was not the way God wanted him to go about it he was using the ways of the people groups around him on ways to negotiate and

and try to go and gain property. But he goes to Naboth and he says, I would like to have your property. And he thinks he’s doing well because he says, I’m willing to pay you for it and actually give you more than it’s worth. Or if that doesn’t make you happy, I’ll go get you a better vineyard somewhere else and you can pick which one you want and I’ll give it to you. I mean, he really thinks, you he’s gonna make a good trade here and it’s gonna be in your benefit. He’s trying to convince him it’ll be in your benefit to let me do this.

I’ll make it good. I’ll make it good. I’ll make it worth your while. But Naboth knows God’s ways and that land belongs to him and his family as inheritance. And not only does it belong to him, God has ordained it to be that way that they pass that on. And not only would God want him to do that, but he certainly wouldn’t want to turn over his land. A man who believes in God in his ways and is walking according to God’s ways.

but turn it over to a king who’s not walking in God’s ways. I mean, there were just multiple layers of why this is wrong and why Naboth said no. And Elijah, and I’m sorry, Ahab goes home and sulks about it, won’t eat, is throwing a fit, just a pity party with his face up against the wall, curled up on the couch and upset about it. And Jezebel’s like, what is wrong with you? Why don’t you just go take it? You’re the king.

Jaime Luce (20:53.878)
So she literally sets up a plan using certain laws that they were supposed to do things by, but then hiring scoundrels to come and bring false witness against Naboth so that he would be killed and they would just go take his land. And that’s exactly what happened. It’s exactly what they did. And Jezebel used the key, was in cohorts with her, cahoots with her, he knew.

what she was doing and agreed to it gave her his signet ring so that she could write letters and put all this in motion and she could stamp it and say this is what the king is saying. So it was very deceptive, very manipulative and evil. Okay, just to take something that didn’t belong to him. Now, we immediately saw that Elijah comes into the picture and confronts Ahab. He was always confronting Ahab and

when he confronts him, there is a judgment that God brings on Ahab and on Jezebel and Ahab’s entire lineage. Okay? So this is a curse he’s bringing about to literally wipe off his descendants, to wipe them out, to end him completely. That what he has been doing up until now, what he just did,

deserves justice. It needs to be judged. And Naboth’s family has a right to be angry and want vengeance. But God’s way is to say, don’t take vengeance yourself. It’s a form of taking matters into your own hands and then you get what only you can produce.

And many times we end up in sin if we join them in the activities of wrong. We now have a murder in our hearts. We now have evil thoughts in our heart. We don’t want bitterness to come in and take root in our life. And so that’s why we read the scripture that said you have to give place to the wrath. It has to be put in the right place, which means you take your wrath to God.

Jaime Luce (23:16.524)
You take your anger to God and you say, this is something that I need to see justice on God.

And we know that the scripture tells us that will not the judge of the whole earth do right. We also know scripture says that we should look at the, what the unjust judge has to say. A judge who doesn’t fear God and does not care about man and doesn’t care about this widow who keeps coming to him incessantly asking for justice. And the unjust judge says,

She keeps coming. She’s driving me crazy and I’m going to give her justice, not because it’s right, not because I fear God, but because I want her to leave me alone. That even in a natural circumstance that the, the proper place to put the wrath is to bring it before the judge. Now for us, the judge is Jesus Christ. Bring it before God. And if we bring that

before him and give it place. He will give justice if even a wicked judge could bring a right justice. How much more our God who we serve, who loves us, who cares about everything about your life. Now again, I don’t want to go over everything we went over last week, but if you missed last week, please go back and listen to it. Cause this is truly a hand in glove.

You don’t want to miss it. God loves you. He knows everything about you. He cares about the details. He’s in the details and he will make sure that righteousness, his righteousness prevails, his righteousness and for his glory. Now I want us to look at if you’re writing down scriptures and taking notes here, go to Exodus and this is chapter 33.

Jaime Luce (25:23.822)
I’m going to read to you verse 19 and I want you to see how God judges himself what God says about himself to Moses. Now this is when Moses is asking God I want to see your glory I want to see your glory

about what you care about. I want to see you. I want to know you. Scripture says that, I think it was David, one of them knew God’s laws, but Moses knew his ways. And this is Moses’s heart to know God, to truly know God.

And so God says, okay. And he tells him where to go. And he puts them in a cleft of a rock and he’s going to cover him up because if he sees him too much of him, he won’t be able to take it physically. He just won’t be able to take it and he’ll die. So it says, then he said to him, I will make all my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you is I’m going to, I’m going to tell you who I am.

I’m going to be proclaiming who I am while my goodness passes before you. He knows what Moses wants and he’s going to give it to him. And he says, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. Now this is very important. He is saying I and I alone am the one who judges

Righteously. And I am the only one who can determine what I will and will not do. Nothing moves me. I am not moved by man’s opinions. I’m not moved by man’s ideologies or culture. I’m God. I determine. I’m the highest it goes. I’m God.

Jaime Luce (27:49.768)
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. Moses had killed a man. Moses had run away from his position in Pharaoh’s house. He had run away for 40 years, lived on the backside of the desert. He may have felt that he didn’t deserve, even though he desperately wanted to know God in such an intimate way. But according to man’s standards, he may have been disqualified.

And yet God says, I’m going to do this for you, Moses. I’m going to pass by you. I’m going to show you all of my goodness. I’m going to declare my name as I walk by so you can know me.

and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I’m the one who says.

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and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. I determine that, I, God, determine that. And I will show mercy and compassion. Now, why was that important? Because Israel had sinned greatly. The calf was, the golden calf was right after seeing the hand of God. Show mercy to them.

bring them out of slavery, heard their cries, answered their prayers, showed great signs and wonders among them, brought the 10 plagues, opened the Red Sea, fed the manna every day, taking care of them, and here they are complaining, not at all wanting to know their God. When Moses presents to them, come to the mountain, prepare yourselves, clean yourselves, you’re gonna get to talk to God. You get to talk to God.

And they said, no, no, no, no, we’re scared of God. We don’t want to hear God for ourselves. You go up, you hear him, you come down, you tell us what he said. They passed on the opportunity for great intimacy and closeness to see God for themselves, to know God themselves.

Jaime Luce (30:12.898)
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And not only did they pass on the opportunity, they make a golden calf and say, that’s God. He’s the one who brought us out. This thing that can’t talk or hear or walk that we made with our own hands and our own stuff, this is the God who brought us out. Bow and do whatever you want before this, God. Go ahead, have your party, do whatever you’re gonna do. Keep living a raunchy life. Do all the stuff you were doing before.

and call that God.

And God is going to show mercy and have compassion on a stiff-necked group of people and thank God because you know what? So are we. So are we. How many times have we known the little touch of God to do something, to not do something. We felt that little check. He said, don’t say that. Don’t go there.

Jaime Luce (32:04.13)
Don’t touch that. And we did it anyway. And then we’re paying the consequences and we come and we beg for mercy. And at that moment, we don’t want the justice and the judgment of God. We want the mercy of God. We want him to show us compassion and kindness. We want to see his goodness pass before us. We still want to see him show his goodness to us and let…

Goodness and mercy follow us the rest of our days. We still want all that.

Jaime Luce (32:37.922)
This God that we serve is just. He will show compassion on who he will show compassion. He will be merciful to whom he will be merciful. Whatever he’s gonna do, he has the final say. He’s going to do, he’s the I, it’s the same type of language when he says, am that I am. I am that I am.

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resisting the temptation to do Popeye. Anyway, he is God and he’s good. Okay. Let’s we’ve referenced first Kings, where, yeah, first Kings chapter 21.

but I want you to see.

Well, I’ll go to that in a second. We’re going to actually go backwards in a moment, but there’s a reason for that. If you look at verse, which one do I want to give you? Let’s do.

Jaime Luce (33:49.87)
Let’s look at verse 17. Okay, it says, then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite saying, arise, go down to meet Ahab, king of Israel who lives in Samaria. This is right after Naboth is dead. There he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it. You shall speak to him saying, thus says the Lord, have you murdered and also taken possession?

And you shall speak to him saying, thus says the Lord in the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick your blood, even yours. So Ahab said to Elijah, have you found me, my enemy? And he answered, I have found you because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord.

Behold, listen to this, that word means pay attention, behold, look at this. I will bring calamity on you. I will take away your posterity and will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, both bond and free. I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat and the house of Baisha, the son of Ahijah because of the provocation with which you have provoked me to anger.

and made Israel sin. And concerning Jezebel, the Lord also spoke saying, the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Ahab and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field. But there was no one like Ahab.

who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord because Jezebel his wife stirred him up. We talked about that before, so we’re not gonna go over that again. And he behaved very abominably in following idols according to all that the Amorites had done whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. Now listen to this. So it was when Ahab heard those words that he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body

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and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about mourning. Verse 28, and the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite saying, see how Ahab has humbled himself before me. Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the calamity in his days. Meaning I won’t wipe everyone out while he’s alive.

in the days of his son, I will bring the calamity on his house. So God is showing both justice and mercy in the same swoop. He’s saying, this is gonna happen. This is the justice that I’m gonna bring. But because you humbled yourself and truly actually did, God knows every heart of man. He knows what’s in it. He knows what it’s.

thoughts are and its intentions are, he knows. You can’t hide from anything from him. You can even hide it from yourself. You may not even truly know your own motivation, but God does. And he says, because he has done this, he has humbled himself before me.

He is truly repented before me. Now his, his repentance was not permanent. It was temporary, but that’s why this justice is only temporary. The, the murder had happened. It needed to be dealt with and

all of the sin compiled that he did and caused his people Israel to sin. He was also responsible for a lot of other people’s sin because he was the instigator of it all. So he says he has humbled himself. I will not bring the calamity in his days in the days of his son. I will bring this calamity. Okay. Now I want us to look at. We, this is tight. These are two stories tied together. So I want to talk to you about.

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Jehu. Now Jehu is mentioned from Elijah just a couple chapters backward. Now just hang with me this will all come together. So I want you to go to 1 Kings 19 and I want us to look at verse 14 and we’ll read through 17.

This is when Elijah was depressed. You’ll remember we talked about this. He was very depressed and God took care of him and took him to the mountain of God and spoke to him there and showed himself to him there and recommissioned him. Okay, so verse 14 says, and he said, this is Elijah speaking,

I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts because the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left and they seek to take my life. Verse 15, then the Lord said to Elijah, go return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, anoint Hazael

as king over Syria. So he’s going to anoint Hazael as king over Syria. This is going to matter. Also, you shall anoint Jehu, the son of Nimshi, as king over Israel. And Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abel-Mohallah, you shall anoint as prophet in your

place. It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. Okay, that’s a lot of information. It is completely prophetic in nature and God is telling him things that are to come, things he’s to be a part of. This is the assignment given to

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Elijah. Okay. Now I want us to go to,

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First Kings chapter 22. So let’s move ahead.

So we know that Elijah has already anointed Elisha, okay, where we’re going. You’re gonna know that’s already taken place. We know that Elijah needs to anoint Hazael as king and he needs to anoint Ajayu. In this process, in his recommissioning and this process is when the Naboth story takes place. And when this Naboth story takes place, we get God’s judgment on Ahab.

But he tells them, I’m not gonna do the whole thing, have all these people killing everybody. I’m not gonna have everybody gone during the life of Ahab. I’m gonna do it during the life of his son. But there still needed to be judgment come to Ahab himself. So we’ll read that and then we’re gonna go to 2 Kings. So 1 Kings chapter 22, verse 38. So there was a time that God was showing mercy.

he will continue to have an extended time of mercy until the time of Ahab’s son. But verse 38 says,

I’m sorry, let’s start with, let’s go to, let’s go to 34. Now, so Ahab is in a battle right now, he’s out at war. Now a certain man drew a bow at random and struck the king of Israel, which is Ahab, between the joints of his armor. So he said to the driver of his chariot, turn around and take me out of the battle, for I am wounded. The battle increased that day and the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Syrians and died at evening.

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So a has been shot and he’s dead. Now listen to this. The blood ran out from the wound onto the floor of the chariot. Then as the sun was going down, a shout went throughout army. The army sang when every man to his city and every man to his own country. So the king died and was brought to Samaria and they buried the king in Samaria. Then someone washed

the chariot at a pool in Samaria. And the dogs licked up his blood while the harlots bathed according to the word of the Lord which he had spoken. Now we had just read that the curse was that the dogs are gonna lick the blood up. And this is the fulfillment of that first part of the judgment.

Folks, sometimes God’s full justice comes in waves. It doesn’t all happen at the same time. So if you’re dealing with something that you feel like you sort of saw God move and you feel like that’s not what I still need him to do something else and you’re still needing God to bring forth the right judgment for you, he will.

He will. He said, we read it, Vengeance is mine says the Lord, I will repay. I will repay. It’s what I’m hanging on to for all this wickedness that we’re seeing. I may not see it with my own eyes. I may never see it with my own eyes. That’s disappointing, but God is never wrong. And we will see justice at some point. Justice will be fully executed.

and I will know it, whether here in this earth and I see it or whether I am with Jesus and I see it, however it goes, whatever God does and however he does it is right and justice is coming. And we can have peace. We can know they don’t get away with it. I know it looks like it. They don’t. They won’t.

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and you have to take that knowledge and that truth and base your life where you go, what you choose to do, who you do it with. You need those moving forward instructions to be settled on that so that you can walk in peace. So that you can truly walk in peace and not live under the

onslaught of the feelings that come from being so riled up about what we see as injustice. Folks, are,

We are not only bombarded, it is like an assignment against our mental health. Against our peace. The enemy wants to steal our peace. Because if he can take your peace, then he can take your rest. He can take your energy. It’ll drain you. You won’t have courage and will. And we have to put our anger and our vengeance in its proper place.

so that we are unaffected and able to still march on in the glory of God, taking ground and living victoriously for Jesus Christ. I mean, I know, like I said, this is like going off-roading and we are a little bit all over the place, but this is really important for our lives right now. This really matters on how we are able to conquer and live victoriously right now. Okay, so I want us to finally turn

to Second Kings, chapter eight.

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And we’re gonna look at verse seven. That’s where we’re gonna start. And it says, then Elisha, so we’re already in the timeframe. Elijah’s gone up in the whirlwind with God. He anointed Elisha. He actually, I didn’t read it to you, but he went and he immediately anointed Haseel. So Haseel is in his position as the king of Syria. He’s there.

But we’re missing someone. We’re missing Jehu. We never see that Elijah anoints Jehu. Interesting. Keep that in mind. Now we’re going to read. Then Elisha went to Damascus and Ben-Hadad, king of Syria. Now Ben-Hadad is more of a, it’s not his name. It’s like a title. They had different, Syria had.

many regions and there were kings over different regions and they had different names so don’t be confused but Ben-Hadad king of Syria was sick and it was told him saying the man of God has come here so this is the king of Syria not a god-fearing man this is not Israel this is Syria but God sends Elisha to Damascus well Damascus is where the king of Syria is located okay and

This king is sick. And it was told him, saying, The man of God has come here. And the king said to Hazael,

take a present in your hand. Now has a we’ve heard that name. Take a present in your hand and go meet the man of God and inquire of the Lord by him saying shall I recover from this disease. So has a went to meet him and took a present

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with him of every good thing of Damascus, 40 camel loads. And he stood before him and said, your son, Ben-Hadad, king of Syria has sent me to you saying, shall I recover from this disease? So this ungodly king hears that a man of God is there and he decides, hey,

Maybe he’ll give me a favorable word and I can hear from God if I’m gonna live or die. Take the most giant gift to him and see if we can get an answer. Okay? Verse 10. And Elisha said to him, go and say to him, you shall certainly recover. However, the Lord has shown me that he will surely die.

Now at first it looks like he’s telling a fib, telling a lie, that he’s being deceitful. That’s not what’s happening. I’ll explain in just a minute. Let’s read verse 11. Then he set his countenance in a stare until he was ashamed and the man of God wept. I did some digging on this verse and

What this means is that basically Elisha almost goes into a vision. He’s just staring. And Hazael is embarrassed because it’s so long and he doesn’t know what to do with this. And at some point after the length of his stare, Elisha begins to weep. Weep.

Now he’s weeping because of what he saw. He’s about to tell us verse 12 and has I’ll said why is my lord weeping? He answered because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel.

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Their strongholds you will set on fire and their young men you will kill with the sword and you will dash their children and rip open their women with child. So has they all said, but what is your servant? A dog? He’s saying, what am I? I’m just a guy. That he should do this gross thing. Now that word gross doesn’t mean like how we would think of gross like, ew gross. That’s awful. That’s not what it means.

That word gross right there, now your Bible might say the word great. It actually means this huge thing. Who am I? I’m just a dog to grow into such a person that I would have that much power and be able to do such a thing, such a great, humongous thing. So he’s not grossed out by it. He’s trying to say, how am I gonna be the one? How am I gonna be the one to?

be able to pull off such a feat.

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Verse 13.

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So Hazael said, but what is your servant a dog that he should do this gross thing? And Elisha answered, the Lord has shown me that you will become king over Syria. Then he departed from Elisha and came to his master, who is the king, who said to him, what did Elisha say to you? And he answered, he told me that you would surely recover. Now what that meant was this disease was not unto death.

naturally you would recover. Verse 15, but it happened on the next day that he took a thick cloth and dipped it in water and spread it over his face so that he died and Haseel reigned in his place. So what Elisha was saying was that he will recover, meaning his physical body is not in danger of death, but God has shown me he’s going to die, meaning you

the one who I’m talking about here, the one who’s come to me to ask me this, you’re gonna kill him and he’s gonna die. Not because he’s sick, but because you’ve murdered him.

Okay so now I hope you’re hanging with me we’re getting there. The next set of verses I’m going to jump past them. This is the switching of different kings are now dying and different kings are coming into power. Go to chapter nine. This is the main thing here. This is the this is the main text.

Verse one and Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him get yourself ready Take this flask of oil in your hand and go to Ramoth Gilead Now when you arrive at that place look there for Jehu. We talked about Elijah was supposed to anoint Jehu Look for Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi and go in and make him rise up from among his associates and take him to an inner room then take a flask of oil and pour it on his head and say thus says the Lord

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I have anointed you King over Israel, then open the door and flee and do not delay. So the young man, the servant of the prophet went to Ramoth Gilead. And when he arrived there, he, where the captains of the army were sitting and he said, I have a message for you commander. Jay who said from what for which one of us. And he said for you commander. Now I’m going to jump down. Okay. I better read it to you. There’s too much here.

he arose and went into the house and he poured the oil on his head and said to him, thus says the Lord God of Israel. have anointed you King over the people of God, the people of the Lord over Israel. You shall strike down the house of Ahab your master that I may avenge the blood of my servants, the prophets and the blood of all the servants of the Lord at the hand of Jezebel. Okay. So we’re right now.

We are completing what was began with Elijah and Ahab. Ahab’s dead, but to this point Jezebel has not died yet and Ahab’s son has been reigning in his stead. Now the promise, the reason that Elijah did not anoint Jehu was because of Ahab’s humility before God.

humbling himself and God says, okay, I’ll delay it. I’ll delay it. I won’t do it during your lifetime. I’m gonna do it during your son’s lifetime, during your son’s reign. So that’s why this anointing was passed then from Elijah to Elisha, okay? So wasn’t like Elijah didn’t get done everything God wanted him to do. God changed the order and delayed the judgment.

for a time. He delayed the judgment for a time. Now it’s time to pay up. Verse eight, for the whole house of Ahab shall perish and I will cut off from Ahab all the males in Israel, both bond and free. So I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat and the house of Baasha, the son of Abijah. He is quoting verbatim what was spoken between God and Elijah. To Ahab.

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Verse 10, the dogs shall eat Jezebel on the plot of ground at Jezreel and there shall be none to bury her. And he opened the door and fled. He knew I need to get out of here. This is about to go down and it’s gonna happen because it’s time for judgment. Okay, verse 11, then Jehu came out of the servants, then Jeho.

sorry then jahoo came out to the servants of his master and one said to him is all well why did this man man come to you and he said to him you know the man in his babble and they said a lie tell us now so he said thus and thus he spoke to me saying thus says the lord i have anointed you king over israel then each man hastened to take his garment and put it under him

on the top of the steps and they blew trumpets saying Jehu is king. Now, I’m gonna go through this quickly, but I’m gonna take you to the end, we’re almost to the end, and you’re gonna see God fulfill his justice, okay? And this is, wanted you, you had, we had to jump all over and see all of these different things and understand the character of God and why God does what he does and.

and that what he does is complete and he doesn’t forget. And he doesn’t, like I used to hope my parents would do. He doesn’t forget justice. God sees you. He sees all of us. He knows what we’re dealing with. He is not slow as some may call him. He has a plan and whatever he does is just and right. And we can trust that we can settle it in our hearts. We can have peace knowing that God sees us and we’ll do it.

So let’s see how this played out to the T what God said. I mean, you can take God’s word to the bank. It’s going to be what God said. Okay. Verse 14. So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. Now Joram has been defending Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel against Hazael, King of Syria. But King Joram had returned to Jezreel

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to recover from the wounds which the Syrians had inflicted on him when he fought with Hazael king of Syria. And Jehu said, if you are so minded, let no one leave or escape from the city to go and tell it in Jezreel. So Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel for Joram was laid up there.

Ahaziah, King of Judah had come down to see Joram. Now a watchman stood on the tower in Jezreel and he saw the company of Jehu and he came and he said, I see a company of men. And Joram said, go get a horseman and send it to him and meet him and let him say, is it peace? So the horseman went to meet him and said, thus says the King, is it peace? And Jehu said, what have you to do with peace? Turn around.

and follow me. So he’s letting him know this isn’t peace and I’m coming and you’re either with me or you’re against me and he’s giving him the choice. So what did the man do? He joins him. He doesn’t turn around and go back to the king. He joins Jehu. Okay. He knows judgment is literally pouring through the streets as fast and furious as they can in their chariots.

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Verse 18. So the horseman went to meet him. I’m sorry. We already read that. Turn around and follow me. So the watchman reported saying the messenger went to them, but he’s not coming back. Verse 19. Then he sent out a second horseman who came to them and said, says the King is at peace. And Jehu answered, what do you have to do with peace? Turn around and follow me. So the watchman reported saying he went up to them and he’s not coming back.

And the driving is like the driving of Jehu, the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously. Then Joram said, make ready. And his chariot was made ready. Then Joram, king of Israel, and Ahaziah, king of Judah, went out, each in his chariot. And they went out to meet Jehu and met him on the property of Naboth, the Jezreelite. So this is coming full circle, folks.

This is God is to bring in this whole thing right to the place where Ahab really messed it up. And he’s on the land of Naboth, the vineyard of Naboth. Now what happened when Joram saw Jehu that he said, it peace Jehu? So he answered, what peace? As long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft are so many.

So Joram turned around and fled and said to Ahaziah, treachery, Ahaziah. Now Jehu drew his bow with full strength and shot Jehoram between his arms and the arrow came out at his heart and he sank down in his chariot. Then Jehu said to Bidkar, his captain, pick him up, throw him into the track of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite for remember,

when you and I were writing together behind Ahab his father, that the Lord laid this burden upon him. Excuse me.

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Surely I saw you yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his son says the Lord and I will repay you in this plot says the Lord now therefore take and throw him on the plot of ground according to the word of the Lord. So Jehu is saying I was there I heard it this is what he said and according to the word of the Lord it has been established and done.

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Verse 27, but when Ahaziah king of Judah saw this, he fled by the road to Bethhagen, Hagon. So Jehu pursued him and said, shoot him also in his chariot. And they shot him at the ascent of Guz, which is by Iblium. Then he fled to Megiddo and died there. And his servants carried him in his chariot to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the city of David in the 11th year of Joram, the son of Ahab.

Ahaziah had become king over Judah. So we’re seeing literally the word of God was that when you know this one, anybody who doesn’t buy dive from this one’s gonna die from this one. And anybody who doesn’t die from this one is gonna die from the next one. Now when Jehu had come to Jezreel Jezebel heard about it and she put paint on her eyes and adorned her head and looked through the window.

Then as Jehu entered at the gate, she said, is it peace, Zimri, murderer of your master? I she’s mocking. And he looked up at the window and said, who is on my side? Who? So two or three eunuchs looked out at him. He was yelling past Jezebel into the house.

they knew Jehu was there. And he’s saying, who’s with me? Who’s with me? While Jezebel sits in the window.

and the eunuchs who were there popped their head out of the windows, we’re here Jehu. All right, verse 33, then he said, throw her down. So they threw her down and some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses and he trampled her under foot. And when he had gone in, he ate and drank. Then he said, go now.

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Seed of this accursed woman and bury her for she was a king’s daughter. So they went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. And that’s because the Lord said there would be none to bury her. Therefore they came back and told him and he said, this is the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite saying,

On the plot of ground at Jezreel, dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel, and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as the refuse on the surface of the field in the plot at Jezreel, so they shall not stay here lies.

Wow. Wow. I mean, justice to the last letter. Every single thing that had been spoken and over these different King’s lives and different decades now of time, things have happened. Things have changed. Different prophets are now there and God was still faithful to bring his vengeance.

I just, I know this is a major heavy today, major heavy, it really is. But it’s the word of God and it’s truth and we can glean and take from it and we can gain encouragement from it. We know that in ourselves, without God, we all deserve. We all deserve. There are like levels of sin, I guess you could say. Some sins are worse than others. It is worse to murder.

than it is to steal a piece of candy. But one is theft and one is murder and they are both sin.

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But all of us were born into sin, have sinned natures in us that Jesus came and died for. His mercy was poured out in the giving of Jesus so that we do not have to suffer this vengeance. But this vengeance does need to get served and paid. And if we don’t

choose God, we don’t get that blessing. We will live with this curse of whatever is coming. And the same goes for whoever has done evil to us. God’s vengeance was served on the very people who had brought harm and hurt to other godly people. God cares about that.

He said they have to pay this price because of all who they have hurt. Everyone they have done wrong, everyone that they have mistreated, everyone that they had murdered and killed. And we can know that God is just. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. I will repay. Boy, do we need that. But today, if you need His mercy, you can know.

Yeah, I need your mercy, God. I need forgiveness. I need you to put away the price that I need to pay by covering me by your son’s blood who paid the price for me.

Blood was spilled at the cross. There was blood spilled that needed justice with Ahab and Jezebel. But there was justice that was purchased for us when Jesus shed his blood for us. The choice is ours.

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There is a delay. We’re living right now in the delay of time. Jesus has not returned yet.

And we have an opportunity right now to be on the side of God’s mercy.

But there is coming a day when that clock strikes 12 and there will be time will be no more. Justice is coming and he rides furiously. Our great Jesus is coming back on a white horse with his sword and he will bring justice. We don’t have to fear what’s going on around us.

we can take comfort in that God sees it all. And He has declared.

And because I belong to Him, I get to hear Him declare His name and His goodness. I get to know His name and His goodness. I get to know Him. I get to have relationship with Him. But there will be those who reject it. And when they do, they will know His fury. They will know His judgment.

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The choice is ours. I really do hope today that this has brought you a sense of both urgency and peace, urgency that we get things right, live right, do right, please our God, accept his beautiful gift of mercy to us, a free gift of grace that he gives us to live empowered to do it righteously.

for his glory, bringing honor to his name for what he has done for us. And at the same time, we can know, we can live with the fear of God and know that it is real. And when we need justice and we need God to step in, he will. He absolutely will.

He absolutely will.

Make your decision today. Remember the verse that says, I lay before you life and death. Choose life. I bring that submission to you today. Choose life. And for those of you who are dealing with something very difficult, very personal to you, and you need justice, I’d like to pray for you today. Father, we come today with a righteous anger.

We have been done wrong. Things have been done that we did not deserve by the hands of man. That wickedness has been done. Possibly vile evil has been done. Misfortune has come because of others. Whatever the circumstance is, if I have friends today listening that have suffered at the hands of others,

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and there has been no repentance. Father, we come today and we rightfully take our anger and our wrath and the vengeance we want and we lay it at your feet. We release it into your perfect, just, righteous hands. And we trust you. We know.

that you will give justice. You see us, you know what’s been done and you will protect us, you will provide for us, you will deliver us, you will help us, you will strengthen us and you will bring justice.

I Father for every person now to receive a supernatural gift of peace to know they can trust you and your timing and that you are faithful.

You are a-

Pass before them now with your goodness. Declare your mighty name over them and let them rejoice in the gift of salvation and relationship with you. It is in your son’s name, Jesus, that we pray. Amen.

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I know you might have to chew on this. I know that this will need to sit, but you may know somebody who needs this, who needs to understand God and God’s justice, that needs to understand God’s mercy. And whatever that might be, you can be a help to them. You can share this message with them and let God show them who he is. You never know. Maybe you need to send it to someone.

who will understand in themselves there are places that they need to repent. And there are places where they could have peace that they don’t.

And we need to help strengthen one another. So I encourage you to do that today. Hit that like button, give us a thumbs up, subscribe if you haven’t done so already. If you’re listening to this on any kind of podcast platform, I encourage you leave us a review. If you want to send in prayer requests or praise reports, you can do that by sending me an email. My email address is mail at JaimeLuce.com. That’s J-A-I-M-E-L-U-C-E.

you can go back and hear previous episodes. If you miss them, you can go to those, on any platform, you’ll be able to find them. But if you need to quick reference, you can go to my website. That’s jaimeluce.com. Everything’s there. if you want to get ahold of my book, you don’t need money. You just need God. You can find that at my website as well. I am so grateful for you. I am so grateful for the time that we spent together. I truly do pray for you and pray that you receive the strength that you need today, the encouragement that you need.

and that you will know how to move forward today in peace. I’ll be lifting you up before the Lord and we’ll see you next time. Bye bye.