Joel 3:4. "What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will requite your deed upon your own head swiftly and speedily."

The lands God is calling out here are the enemies of Israel, some of those who have raided and conquered God's people and sent them into exile, taking for themselves the gold and silver of the temple. God asks if they think, by punishing His people, they are somehow paying Him back for perceived mistreatment. He tells them, if that's what they think, they will have their own mistreatment of His people heaped upon them.

It is easy to side with God here and take a little schadenfreude-ish pleasure in knowing Tyre and Sidon will get their comeuppance, but I think we have to admit that we try to pay God back in a negative way sometimes, too. Tyre and Sidon were meant to be conquered as part of the settling of the Promised Land (how that played out is another story - See Judges 1), so they probably did hold a grudge against this God of Israel. Their hatred of the Jews probably stemmed in large part from that grudge (and can't we just see the same kind of thing playing out in our own modern world?).

But how do we react when we have what we perceive to be a legitimate beef with God? Do we run to Him, asking for His grace and wisdom to accept His will, even though it seems unfair? Or do we turn from Him and become hurtful to Him or others? I think we have all done the latter, at least once or twice. What do we think we are accomplishing when we do that? Do we think we are repaying God, getting Him back? I think sometimes we do, but what we are really doing is creating problems that will be requited on our own heads, eventually.

At least the original inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon did not profess to believe in this God they were trying to get back at. We do, and we know His ways. We know He is all loving, and that He will be with us in our suffering if we let Him. But if we blame Him for our suffering and turn on Him or His people in our pain, we will suffer even more in the long run.