It’s bad enough no gruesome tragedy goes un-noticed by social media. But now we have to see the video of these attacks, almost in real-time. This is no movie. The screams, the fear, the blood—it’s real.

I can’t get the terrified look of Iryna Zarutska out of my head. It’s from her last moments before death, stabbed August 22 by a man who should have already been locked away for public safety and his own health. Now we see the raw video of Charlie Kirk shot today, September 10, at Utah Valley University. To these high-profile attacks we could add school shootings and war in Europe and the Middle East to the drug trafficking and gang retributions that don’t register enough ongoing concern because of their common occurrence. And all of this approaching the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The cries of victims, and their families, ring loud in our ears. This world is groaning (Rom. 8:22). So where is God? Why don’t we hear from him? Where is justice? Who will bear the sword to defend the law, to defend innocent life? (Rom. 13:4).

Dialogue in the Silence

If you believe Jesus is the Son of God and follow him with passion, the silence of God can be disorienting. The world isn’t the way it should be. But as we see throughout the Bible, our heavenly Father wants us to cry out to him in this condition. He invites dialogue that emerges from trust in him. He expects lament.

He may not answer the questions we’re asking about the violence today and its varied twisted motives. But if you believe in the Son, then God intends only good for you (Rom. 8:28). While our enemies may intend evil, God only works good (Gen. 50:20). He always has a purpose, for individuals and nations, though it may be hidden on this side of eternity.

When you can’t hear God, look to the cross and you’ll find him. There we receive assurance that justice will be done against all evil.

When you can’t hear God, look to the cross and you’ll find him. There we receive assurance that justice will be done against all evil (Rom. 3:26), whatever its origins. Every unrepentant assassin and assailant will pay the ultimate penalty in eternity. No evil escapes God’s justice.

Alternative to Revenge

But as we contemplate revenge, taking vengeance into our own hands, we’ve been warned, because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). We’re not justified because the other side welcomes worse sinners. We’re justified when we repent of our own sins, big and small.

When we’re suffering or lamenting the state of the world, God speaks in Habakkuk 3:17–19:

Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.

It was a fig tree that Jesus cursed on his way to Jerusalem, where he would climb Calvary’s hill (Mark 11:14). Jesus explained the lesson to his disciples in Mark 11:24: “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

That’s the encouragement of Habakkuk. Though God may be silent, keep talking to him. Though this world may be red in tooth and claw, God extends his mercy:

Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool. (Is. 1:18)

Evil doesn’t have the last word in eternity. Jesus has made sure of that, through his sacrifice on the cross. In the meantime, he tells us how to manage. We forgive. And when we forgive, we remember our own trespasses the Father has forgiven (Mark 11:25).

Nothing is more antithetical to our political climate today than forgiveness. Grievance births grievance. Enemies avenge enemies. Few listen for the voice of the crucified Jew who preached that the meek will inherit the earth, that peacemakers will be called God’s sons (Matt. 5:5, 9).

And yet, Jesus lives. Resurrected and ascended, he speaks in his Word. Through us, he attests to his loving and patient authority over all things—when we protest injustice, when we bear the sword of justice, when we forgive rather than avenge.