Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Jeremiah 12:1,2b-3a,5

Jeremiah 12 centres around a question asked by Jeremiah to God, which God then answers.

Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead with You;
Yet let me talk with You about Your judgments.
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why are those happy who deal so treacherously?...
…You are near in their mouth
But far from their mind.’ (Jeremiah 12:1,2b)

Have you ever felt like this? I know I have. Note first however, that Jeremiah recognizes God’s righteousness first up. He takes this as a given. He knows whatever God does is right. He is merely trying to understand it.

It is sometimes baffling to us how wicked people can be so successful, happy, prosperous and all the rest of it. Why does God allow it? It is often our desire for the LORD to do to them what they deserve. It is our ‘desire for justice’.

Even worse, so many people have God close in their mouth, but far from their mind. They talk about God, talk about religious things, sing Christian songs, go to a Christian school perhaps. But their mind, and their heart, is so far away from God. And yet, as Christians, we say with Jeremiah

But You, O LORD, know me;
You have seen me,
And You have tested my heart toward You.’ (Jeremiah 12:3a)

Our heart is true towards God, we have been tested and tried, and remain faithful. And where is our reward? Is our reward more trials? For sometimes it seems that there is no reward, and all the prosperity, success and happiness goes to those who the LORD doesn’t know.

So what is God’s answer to this? Surely at this moment you have started forming your own answer based on previous experience (as have I), but I think you’ll find God’s answer a little different than you might expect:

If you have run with the footmen and they have wearied you,
Then how can you contend with horses?
And if in the land of peace,
In which you trusted, they wearied you,
Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?’ (Jeremiah 12:5)

I think what God is saying is: ‘if you are having trouble with this little problem, then how are you to contend with those who are really against you?’ This is not meant to be a problem for us! And I daresay we set our sights too low when we are having trouble with this question. For prosperity and success on this earth to us is meaningless. Mere trash. To be troubled by the fact that those who disobey God obtain trash should be a silly idea to us. If we are troubled by this small thing, then how are we to contend with life’s real challenges, which God sets before us in love? Let’s set our sights much higher than the petty things of this world.

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