An Eye for an Eye...

If you'd like to get in the habit of a daily Bible reading, but struggle for various reasons (as I do), I recommend reading Proverbs. A very good friend of mine recommended this to me years ago and I return to the concept--if not always the practice--often. The Book of Proverbs contains thirty-one chapters, so it's conveniently divided such that you can read one chapter a day. And even if you're not a big believer in the Bible or Christianity as a lifestyle, this book still offers sage advice.

I was reading today in chapter twenty-four and came across this passage:

Do not say, "I'll do to him as he has done to me: I'll pay that man back for what he did."

In chapter twenty, verse twenty-two, it similarly says:

Do not say, "I'll pay you back for this wrong!" Wait for the Lord, and he will deliver you.

Seems like there are other similar passages in Proverbs, but I cannot think of or find them right now. You get the idea: it's all about not plotting revenge. You might say it's also about forgiveness. That's certainly a related concept. But wait! you might think, what about that old eye for an eye thing? At least that's what I always thought. Seems like a contradiction. I thought if a dude punched me, I could punch him back. That's what they're talking about with the eye for an eye business, right?

Well, it wasn't terribly long ago that I came across the idea that the old eye for an eye thing wasn't about ensuring plenty of punishment; it was about limiting punishment. Think: no more than an eye for an eye. This site does a great job of explaining the idea:

Biblical Research Institute.

I actually don't mean to get into a discussion at this point about the whole crime and punishment thing. I would very quickly diverge into a rant about corporate heads and their evil ways. Actually, in this post there are just a couple of ideas I wanted to touch on: the first is that reading Proverbs daily is a pretty structured way of getting into a daily reading habit and the other idea is that once you do start studying, it can be pretty interesting if you follow the leads where they take you. As I used to tell my son all the time: Question your assumptions. See where that takes you.