At first glance, the prophet's words about deliverance from the hand of enemies may seem too reassuring. If everything were so simple, then, according to Baruch, people of deep and sincere faith should never have to suffer from the consequences of human malice...
At first glance, the prophet's words about deliverance from the hand of enemies may seem too reassuring. If everything were so simple, then, according to Baruch, people of deep and sincere faith should never have to suffer from the consequences of human malice. Everyone knows, however, that this is not so. More than that, even Christ Himself—the Messiah who came into the world to bring it the Kingdom—suffered at the hands of enemies.
How, then, are the prophet's words to be understood? Can God deliver a person from enemies, and if He can, why does He so often not do so? The Savior's earthly path may offer the best answer to this question, not because He is the God-man, but because He is free from sin.
If an ordinary person were in question, one could always say that everyone receives what his sins deserve, and it would be difficult to argue with such claims. Few people know even the measure of their own sin, let alone the sins of their neighbors. Whenever an ordinary person was involved, a thought would always creep, perhaps involuntarily, into the minds of both those asking and those answering: what if this is what his sins deserve?
In Jesus' case there can be no doubt: He certainly deserved nothing bad, because He never knew any sin. Yet during His earthly life He suffered just as any other person in His place might have suffered. No one else, of course, could have brought the Kingdom to the world, but anyone who, while doing God's work, crossed the secular authorities or religious leaders could have been betrayed, slandered, and executed on a false charge. And yet, according to His own words, Jesus could easily have avoided this if He had wished, but then the ministry for which He came into the world would have remained unfinished.
It is probably the same with each of us. Sometimes God can deliver us from enemies, whom we will inevitably have if we do anything good and necessary in this world. But at times we can be delivered from them only at the cost of work left undone, of God's work left unfinished. Then no deliverance can be expected, if we truly want to finish what we began.
Sometimes, however, it is our own sin—or rather its manifestations: malice, arrogance, and aggression—that draws our enemies to us. Then we have no one to blame but ourselves. This is precisely where repentance and turning to God can help, because with repentance and conversion a new life begins for the one who repents: life with God, who will not let him be harmed without cause.
