And say, Hear you the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring such evil upon this place, that whosoever hears of it, his ears shall tingle.
All Commentaries on Jeremiah 19:3 Go To Jeremiah 19
John Cassian
AD 435
Sometimes Holy Scripture may, by an improper use of terms, employ the term “evils” in place of “affliction”—not that these are properly and in their nature evils, but because they are imagined to be evils by those on whom they are brought for their good. For when divine judgment is reasoning with human beings, it must speak with human language and feelings. For when a doctor for the sake of health with good reason either cuts or cauterizes those who are suffering from the inflammation of ulcers, it is considered an evil by those who have to bear it. Nor are the spur and the whip pleasant to a restive horse. Moreover, all chastisement seems at the moment to be a bitter thing to those who are chastised, as the apostle says: “Now all chastisement for the present indeed seems not to bring with it joy but sorrow; but afterwards it will yield the most peaceful fruits of righteousness to those who are exercised by it,” and “whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives; for what son is there whom the father does not correct?” And so evils are sometimes used to stand for afflictions, as where we read, “And God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do to them and did it not.” And again: “For you, Lord, are gracious and merciful, patient and very merciful and ready to repent of the evil,” that is, of the sufferings and losses that you are forced to bring on us as the reward of our sins.
And another prophet, knowing that these are profitable to some, and certainly not through any jealousy for their safety but with an eye to their good, prays thus: “Add evils to them, O Lord, add evils to the proud of the earth”; and the Lord says, “See, I will bring evils on them,” that is, sorrows and losses, with which they shall for the present be chastened for their soul’s health, and so they shall at length be driven to return and hurry back to me whom in their prosperity they scorned. And so we cannot in any way assert that these afflictions were originally evil, for they are good for many and ultimately offer occasions for eternal bliss. Therefore (to return to the question raised), all those things that are thought to be brought on us as evils by our enemies or by any other people should not be counted as evils but as things indifferent. For in the end they will not be what he thinks who brought them on us in his rage and fury, but what he makes them who endures them. And so when death has been brought on a saint, we ought not to think that an evil has happened to him but something indifferent. It is an evil to a wicked person, while to the good it is rest and freedom from evils. “For death is rest to one whose way is hidden.” And so a good person does not suffer any loss from these evils because he suffers nothing strange, but by the crime of an enemy he only receives (and not without the reward of eternal life) that which would have happened to him in the course of nature and pays the debt of human death, which must be paid by an inevitable law, with the interest of a most fruitful suffering and the recompense of a great reward.
