NOTES for Jer 11:18-20

Hatred of a prophet is a fairly common thing. Of course, when it comes to Jeremiah, one can speak of special circumstances in his ministry. He had to preach in an era when superficial, purely external religiosity was combined in the public consciousness with boastful self-exaltation, confidence in one's own righteousness, and religious nationalism thickly mixed with a peculiar mythology that had nothing in common with Yahwism. The prophet had to spiritually oppose this mixture, provoking at least hostility, and often hostility turning into hatred, especially against the background of military defeats (Jeremiah preached in the last years of Judah's existence, becoming a witness to its end and to the beginning of the Babylonian exile).

But the matter is not only in the specific nature of Jeremiah's prophetic ministry; it is also in the features of this ministry as such. If a prophet were simply a predictor of the future, as prophets are sometimes considered to be, he would quite possibly have been dangerous to those in power, but such a predictor would not have provoked universal hatred. Universal hatred is explained by the fact that a prophet is not a predictor of the future, which in general cannot be predicted if only because no unambiguously programmed future exists, but a witness of God. He sees the situation as God sees it, as God reveals His vision to the prophet. Incidentally, prediction of coming events is also possible here, especially if those events have already matured and are explained by society's current spiritual condition; but even when catastrophe appears inevitable, the prophet usually still calls for conversion: nothing is predetermined, an alternative always exists; one need only repent of committed sins and turn to God. Yet the main thing remains witness, which those against whom it is directed often cannot forgive the prophet. That is what provokes hatred, hatred especially strong because those against whom the prophet's witness is directed understand: if not for him, this bothersome prophet with his preaching, they would have no problems; they could live in peace.

It is possible that these people even understand that the prophet is right, that catastrophe is inevitable; however, the traits of fallen human psychology often force a person to hide his head in the sand and ignore the approaching threat, especially when it can be prevented only by abandoning the accustomed way of life and the accustomed system of values. In such a situation, the prophet's words truly can provoke nothing in his contemporaries except hatred. And only years and decades later, and sometimes centuries later, when the catastrophe about which this prophet warned becomes a fact and is spiritually understood, the descendants of those to whom the prophet spoke will understand and acknowledge that he was right. As happened with Jeremiah.