NOTES for Jer 11:18-20

In the Bible, and above all in the Old Testament books, there is frequent mention of vengeance on God's enemies and other wicked people. Usually such calls come from the mouths of those whom God Himself calls His own: prophets and psalmists. In the New Testament there is nothing of the kind. Most often this difference is explained by a different spirit of the Old and New Testaments.

True, this explanation sounds somewhat strange: God is one, but the spirit, it turns out, is different? Meanwhile, calls of this kind have another explanation as well. It is connected with the fact that the New Testament books were written after the coming of the Messiah, who is described in them. With the coming of Christ the situation really changed radically, and changed quite objectively. The point is not that with Christ's coming everyone immediately began to understand God and God's love better. People remained what they had been. Something else changed.

Together with the Messiah, the Kingdom entered the world. And in the Kingdom many things are possible that are possible nowhere else. Among other things, the coming of Christ and the entrance of the Kingdom into the world mean the beginning of the time of Judgment. Judgment consists, according to the Savior's word, precisely in this: that light has entered the world, and people flee from it because they do not want to part with their sins. In pre-Christian times this could only be awaited. And many really awaited Judgment with joy and impatience.

The issue is, of course, righteous people, God's people. They did not consider themselves sinless, but they were confident in their choice. And they knew that God would complete the rest, cleansing them of the sin from which they could not free themselves by their own strength. The wicked, however, in every age fled from Judgment.

And God's people always awaited the day when there would be nowhere left for them to flee. Not in order to enjoy vengeful triumph, but in order finally to see God's Kingdom with their own eyes. They knew that God would put everything in its place, but only when the world truly became His Kingdom. And the triumph of the wicked over the righteous they always perceived as the triumph of the powers of darkness over this Kingdom. But they always knew that such triumph is by definition temporary. And they asked God for this time to end sooner, and for the world to become what God had intended it to be.