Lex Talionis (Law of Retaliation) & Trusting God

The Pharisees had mis-applied the concept of "eye for an eye" and turned it into a permission for personal vengeance. The law of judicial punishment in kind (lex talionis in Latin) had become a law of personal vengeance. The Pharisees taught ways in which personal revenge was actually sanctioned by God. Instead, Christ teaches us that rather than seeking our own vengeance, we are to trust God and government to do so. God established government for the purpose of justice. And God sees all that is done in the world, even the wrongs missed by men, so that in the final judgment all will be made right. God will repay. Rather than trusting ourselves for temporal revenge and personal satisfaction, we are to trust God who sees all and who judges righteously.