God Will Repay As We Have Done

Note from today’s Bible reading: Judges 1-4

At the beginning of the book of Judges, the tribes of Judah and Simeon went out to fight the Canaanites and Perizzites. They defeated ten thousand men, and the enemy leader, Adoni-bezek, fled (Judges 1:1-6).

However, they pursued Adoni-bezek; when they caught him, they “cut off his thumbs and big toes” (Judges 1:6). This may seem like an unusual punishment, and we might wonder why they did this. Yet Adoni-bezek’s words provided an answer: “Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to gather up scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has repaid me” (Judges 1:7).

This evil ruler got what he deserved for his cruelty to others. Many today might talk about “karma” as the reason why this punishment came back upon him. Yet Adoni-bezek understood this was not “karma,” but divine judgment.

People suffer today because of their sin, not because of “karma.” By God’s design, “the way of the treacherous is hard” (Proverbs 13:15). Wicked actions make life difficult. Doing wrong to others results in negative consequences. And ultimately, if we do not repent, there is eternal punishment for sin.

So remember that God will repay as we have done. We will stand before the Lord in judgment and “be recompensed according to what [we have] done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10). If we fail to turn from our sin and meet His conditions for forgiveness, we have no hope.