Imagine a judge who didn’t believe in punishment. If an arsonist came before this judge, the offender would only need to say they wouldn’t do it again and all would be forgotten. A murderer could go free if they would only apologize. Would that be just? Would that be fair to the victims?

At a gut level, we know this is wrong, right? We know it’s wrong for evil to get swept under the rug. We know it’s wrong to ignore the cries of victims and survivors. And yet, when we say we want a God with love and no judgment, we ask for a God exactly like this. A God without judgment is a God who ignores evil and injustice – and turns out not to be a God of love after all. God’s love and judgment go hand in hand because judgment is an expression of love for suffering people. God loves us enough wage war against the things that would bring us harm.

The Book of Habakkuk gives us an example. The whole book is a prophecy about faith in the face of suffering. Judah was about to go into exile at the hands of the Babylonians and Habakkuk cried out to God, “Where are you?” How could God look out on the evil of the Babylonians and do nothing?

God responded to Habakkuk by assuring him that he could see every evil thing the Babylonians were doing and would not let one of them go unanswered. Not a single one. Habakkuk 2:6-20 contains a series of woes. In them God takes the wickedness of evildoers and turns it back on them. Habakkuk 2:12-14 is a striking example of this reversal:

Woe to him who builds a town with blood

and founds a city on iniquity!

Behold, is it not from the LORD of hosts

that peoples labor merely for fire,

and nations weary themselves for nothing?

For the earth will be filled

with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD

as the waters cover the sea.

Habakkuk describes a powerful person building their own personal empire on the backs of other people. And what will come of it? Thanks to the LORD: nothing. Nothing will ultimately come of such evil. In fact, it’s all more kindling on the fire. Such evildoers exploit others to have everything but, in the end, they will have nothing. God saw his people suffering and promised them that evil would not stand. God would get justice and make everything right. The earth will be filled with the glory of God and evil will be reduced to nothing.

We’ve all suffered in one way or another because of someone else’s sin. Some of us have had to endure small things. Others of us are survivors of some major evil. Whatever it is that you’ve endured, God sees it and he won’t ignore it. God doesn’t say vengeance is wrong; he says it belongs to him (cf. Rom. 12:19-21). If we believe that God loves us enough to fight our battles – to right the wrongs we experience – we can be free to let go. We can be liberated to love others. We can be relieved from our burden to settle everything and trust that God sees us, loves us, and has taken up our cause. He will make it right.

What grudges do you need to put down this week? Where do you need to trust God to make things right?