PESTERING AND PAYBACK

•    our natural tendency to “get even”
•    protect our security: even risking World War III
•    Jeremiah found security outside his own resources

THE PLOT AGAINST THE PROPHET

•    Jeremiah’s prophecies ‘subversive’ against Judah regime’s interests
•    did not realize hometown men were plotting to kill him
•    better than CIA: God revealed the danger he was in

TRUSTING THE OMNISCIENT JUST JUDGE

•    Lord would pay back disaster on Anathoth plotters
•    God tests heart and mind, judges with perfect fairness
•    protects those who trust Him / ‘commit my cause’
•    Psalmist: God our stronghold, fortress, deliverer, shield, refuge

ABSORPTIVE PEACE: NOT REVENGE BUT REPLENISHMENT

•    don’t take own revenge, but let God repay
•    overcome evil by feeding / caring for enemy, find out their real needs
•    peacemakers absorb the blow, bless those who curse / take
•    blessing-response prompts shame since hard-wired to know what’s just

THE CRAZINESS OF REVENGE

•    called to repay insults with blessing: Jesus bore our insults / shame
•    God can be trusted to avenge much more fairly than us