City Of Evil (2005) "Strength Of The World"

[reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]
As performed by AyX

My story starts the day they said "she can't be found"
the news so dark, heart stopped, I stood silent without a sound
It's over, she's finished, mother lies with my father and sister too
Cold-blooded, they suffered, shot down by the outlaws after you
Sorrow swallows my screams

Strength of the world - is on my shoulders
Strength of the world - is on my side
Strength of the world - the one true beholder
Ice in my veins - for those who've died

I've seen my family fade away, you've taken my whole life
There's nothing left to say

Avenge the dead kill all who cross me in my path
Suicidal, I never planned on coming back
I want it, I need it, revenge is dripping from my teeth
Need nothin', to feel power, and bring the killers to their knees
Nothin' ta lose vengeance ta gain (you know I'll never be the same)
So taste my breath I'm close behind you (so desperate on your final day)
Sorrow swallows my screams

Strength of the world - is on my shoulders
Strength of the world - is on my side
Strength of the world - the one true beholder
Ice in my veins - for those who've died

I've seen my family fade away, you've taken my whole life
There's nothing left to say

Sitting in silence with heaven above me I prayed every night by their graves
While I search for closure I feel it no longer
I can't turn my cheek away
I stand before you; I'll sin when I have to
But now I leave your side, to avenge my family's pride

I've seen my family fade away, you've taken my whole life
There's nothing left to say

Strength of the world - is on my shoulders
Strength of the world - is on my side
Strength of the world - the one true beholder
Ice in my veins - for those who've died

So far forever alone, a greater punishment on me has been imposed
A killer falling from the light, I'll miss my family, I'll never be alright

According to one source, this song is about, "running around from your problems, that you might have caused other people." It begins as a classic ballad in which a story is told.

Outlaws who were gunning for the author shot down his family instead. One imagines him standing by their graves, imploding with grief, as the realization settles heavily on him that the consequences of his life have permanently altered the lives of those he loves most.

He finds within himself both strength - along with a cold, settled sorrow over what's been done - and either a fatalistic or a focused view of what is left to him.

The next stanza describes that one thing: With nothing left to lose he is bent on vengeance; a suicidal obsession to bring the killers to their knees.

In the third stanza the poet remembers praying every night by his family's graves, with heaven silent above him. There is no sense of closure for him. He can't find it within himself to "turn the other cheek." He presents his decision to God:

I stand before you; I'll sin when I have to
But now I leave your side, to avenge my family's pride

In the end the poet understands that even worse than losing his family, because of his own transgressions, is this final choice he's made of vengeance. By walking away from God, "falling away from the light," he realizes the unforeseen and far greater heartache of now, for all eternity, missing his family and never being alright.

Who of us has never felt that surge of anger at gross injustice? Who of us has never wanted to right those wrongs with vigilante justice, frustrated by what seems like an uncaring God allowing the villain to win and the victim to lose? Do we just let it go? What does Jesus mean by "turning the other cheek," anyway?

In His famous "Sermon on the Mount," Jesus told the crowd,

You have heard that it was said, "Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth." But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

What Jesus was referring to was God's law given to Moses concerning how to deal with payback. The Romans called it the “Lex Talionis,” the law of “tit for tat.” Ancient and universal, it was found even in the Code of Hammurabi. Before this time, if a person injured another then payback was always much greater than the original injury. Clan would be against clan with killings often escalating on both sides. In fact we've just seen this ancient method of dealing with injury happen in Nigeria, with clans and tribes taking sides on religious issues that really fall along ancient tribal and territory lines.

God reigned all that in with His law:

You must give life for life—eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

This was not a command to take a life for a life, although God did allow that under certain circumstances (but He also established what He called "Cities of Sanctuary" at regular intervals within Israel so that any person being hunted down could find sanctuary in that city so long as they stayed within its boundaries). This was a command to severely limit payback so that the punishment was never greater than the original crime.

Now Jesus changed all that. His new teaching was to transform that righteous anger and understandable demand for punishment into forgiveness and an effort to restore. You're familiar with the old written law, 'Love your friend,' and its unwritten companion, 'Hate your enemy,' He said. I'm challenging that.

I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.

For whose sake? For God's sake? For the evil-doers' sake? No, for your sake,

In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.

But the injustice of it!! This is what was torturing the poet. The magnitude of the injustice is staggering. His entire family dead, gunned down ultimately because of his own wrongdoing. He couldn't bring them back to life. He couldn't undo any of his part in what had happened to them. The only thing he though that would help him to move forward, to make sense out of this tragedy, was to make the killers pay. Perhaps that would be penance enough, perhaps that would shift his sense of guilt and devastation onto them.

Paul the apostle understood all this when he wrote to the believers in Rome,

Be sincere in your love for others. Hate everything that is evil and hold tight to everything that is good. Love each other as brothers and sisters and honor others more than you do yourself. Never give up. Eagerly follow the Holy Spirit and serve the Lord. Let your hope make you glad. Be patient in time of trouble and never stop praying. Take care of God's needy people and welcome strangers into your home.

Ask God to bless everyone who mistreats you. Ask him to bless them and not to curse them. When others are happy, be happy with them, and when they are sad, be sad. Be friendly with everyone. Don't be proud and feel that you are smarter than others. Make friends with ordinary people. Don't mistreat someone who has mistreated you. But try to earn the respect of others, and do your best to live at peace with everyone. Dear friends, don't try to get even. Let God take revenge. In the Scriptures the Lord says,

"I am the one to take revenge and pay them back."

The Scriptures also say,

"If your enemies are hungry, give them something to eat. And if they are thirsty, give them something to drink. This will be the same as piling burning coals on their heads."

Don't let evil defeat you, but defeat evil with good.

Tall order, especially when, like the poet, we are scalded to the bone by an awful thing. And yet this is God's promise. He really will repay what is right and just to every person who has ever lived, whether by mercy because a person has run to Jesus, the ultimate "City of Sanctuary," or by clean and severe justice to those who decide to remain in their sin and take their chances.

As an epilogue to this song: Where there is life there is hope. It is God's desire that evil should be burnt out of every person and the person him or herself survive it, for redemption and restoration. It His express desire that none should "perish" but that all should live. No matter how awful the degradation, how terrible the sin, how complete the rejection, so long as you live there is a way back to God. He leaves the way open because of His love and His longing to make all right. The only unforgiveable sin is the sin that a person refuses to receive forgiveness for.

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