South Africa and the Folly of Revenge

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On Monday, I did a BlogTalkRadio interview with Facebook friend Chris Levels on his show Politics and Prophecy. Though I'm less than adept at these types of conversations, it was a pleasant experience, in spite of some equipment mishaps on my end.

One of the things that Chris asked me about is the situation in South Africa. If you haven't been keeping up, the South African government is considering confiscation of farms owned by white South Africans. I gave my opinion on the topic, but I want to do it here, as well.

James Michener (1907-1997)

The small amount of knowledge I have about South African history comes from James Michener's novel The Covenant. It's been quite a while since I read it and I plan to read it again, but the bottom line is this: The Boers and the English moved in and herded the natives in various ways, separating the latter from the former and taking the best parts of the land for themselves. It's a much longer story than that, but these things usually are.

Therefore it seems that the present-day government -- dominated by black persons -- intends to turn the tables. Tit for tat.

This makes sense in a worldly way. The black South Africans want to take back what was stolen from their ancestors.

Some of my black Facebook friends -- even the Christians among them -- are cheering the black South Africans on or at the very least are indifferent to the report. After all the white South Africans are getting what they deserve. Right? They are living off of the bad deeds of their ancestors, some from just one generation back, right? Apartheid ended in 1991.

However ...

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

-- Romans 12:19 (KJV)

Revenge feels good, but, as is so with all of His other admonitions, God has a good reason for telling us not to take it when we are wronged, the main reason being that it is usual the beginning of a never-ending cycle of revenge. If I may quote myself:

[E]ven if one does not believe in [God], it’s easy to see the chaos which is nearly always brought about by the unending cycle of human vengeance. You murder/enslave/oppress mine, then I take vengeance and murder/enslave/oppress yours. Then you take vengeance and murder/enslave/oppress more of mine. Then I ...

There are often unforeseen consequences to vengeance, almost all bad. But there is nothing unforeseen about the long-term consequences of mass vengeance through property transfer.

Zimbabwe went down the same road that South Africa is considering and now the former exists as an abject lesson about the folly of The Big Payback.

If South Africa carries out a plan to take (back) the land, I predict that the consequences will be worse for that nation than was so for Zimbabwe, for one reason and it's a spiritual one.

Zimbabwe had no example to learn from; South Africa does. And, should SA do this, it would be choosing to ignore the example.

God hates stupidity, but I bet that He hates aggressive stupidity even more.

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