Unliked

in a land not sown.

Israel was holy to the Lord,

the firstfruits of his harvest.

All who ate of it found themselves guilty;

disaster came on them.”

This is the Lord’s declaration.

Is Jeremiah reflecting back on this passage? If so, what a strong condemnation: “Why, God, are you treating them like you should be treating us? Why are you blessing them when we, Judah, are your choice vine? So, you are planting them?!”

The question of the prosperity of the wicked always troubles believers. As we wonder about the prosperity of the wicked in our time, we can take comfort in the angst Jeremiah felt when he saw others prosper. This is why we are warned repeatedly not to envy evil people (Prov 23:17). We are further reminded that a fool does not understand that God raises up the wicked, but only for the day of destruction:

A stupid person does not know,

a fool does not understand this:

though the wicked sprout like grass

and all evildoers flourish,

they will be eternally destroyed.

But you, Lord, are exalted forever.

For indeed, Lord, your enemies—

indeed, your enemies will perish;

all evildoers will be scattered. (Ps 92:6-9)

Then Jeremiah gives God a directive: slaughter them (12:3). What Jeremiah cannot understand is that God’s unwillingness to annihilate them does not have anything to do with God’s ignorance of the situation. Neither does it have anything to do with his ability. God is not ignorant; he knows everything. God is not impotent; he can do anything.

The issue is God’s plan and God’s timing. This is fascinating. God did not surprise Jeremiah with this assignment. From the start he promised it would be a hard road. I do not at all blame Jeremiah, but his statements are a little cringeworthy, like those of a child who yells at his own parents. How can he talk to someone like that? How can he talk to God like that? Yet God is not fazed, even when Jeremiah accuses him of treating the pagan nations better than Judah. He knows what Jeremiah is thinking and does not chastise him for verbalizing it.

In fact, God, in his remarkable patience, gives an honest response to the honest complaint. There is a practical lesson here in being honest with God: to receive an honest answer we need to pray honest prayers.

Jeremiah 12:5-17

God begins by challenging Jeremiah. What a great metaphor! Jeremiah, if you can’t keep up with mere men, how will you compete against horses? In other words, God is saying, “Jeremiah, if you can’t handle the persecution that is on you now, how will you handle the persecution that is coming?” In a way, this is an encouraging word. It’s good to know God has confidence in Jeremiah. It’s good to be told every once in a while to right yourself.

Jeremiah is facing persecution, but it’s at least a footrace, not a horse race. He has at least a chance of success. It’s a race that is small compared to what is coming. And that’s where the metaphor is negative. This is God’s way of saying, “Well, OK, but this is just the beginning of the persecution that is to come.” How are you going to run with horses?

He is calling for personal resolve and personal endurance. In 1914 Earnest Shackleton attempted to cross Antarctica from sea to sea. This had never been done. Before he and his men could reach the starting point for the trek, their ship, Endurance, was trapped in pack ice. While the crew disembarked, this was the end of the attempt, as the ice eventually crushed the ship and it foundered. In what is now known as one of the most heroic rescues in naval history, Shackleton set out in a small lifeboat to seek help, leaving the majority of his men on the small Elephant Island. He traveled 720 miles in an open boat to find help. After reaching help he went back and rescued each man (Lansing, Endurance). God is calling for this type of endurance. Jeremiah needs to run with the horses later, so he must learn to run with men now.

Following his personal response, God now gives a corporate response.

God’s response to Judah is that they have abandoned him. He describes it in vivid terms using word pictures.

God counters that he has abandoned his people, his “inheritance.” This is a significant word and a favorite one of God’s to describe his people. They are his heritage, his portion. They are what he treasures. Yet his love for them is met with disdain. He explains this disdain with vivid word pictures.

God’s people as a nation have been like a lion roaring at God. His inheritance has been like a hyena howling at him. They have been like birds of prey swooping down toward him (vv. 8-9).

He then, in a passage reminiscent of Ezekiel 34, describes his shepherds, his leaders, as those who have trampled the vineyard. Remember that the nation is God’s choice vine (2:1-2). This mixed metaphor is provocative. The shepherds charged with keeping the sheep have trampled God’s vine. The outcome is tragic (12:10-12). As a result, they have stimulated the anger of God (v. 13).

After a personal response to Jeremiah and a corporate response to Judah, God then gives a future response to both Judah and the nations.

God promises to uproot those who had gone against his people (v. 14). Perhaps God is picking up on the metaphor first used by Jeremiah. “Oh, you thought I was planting your enemies? Well, I am actually promising to uproot them!”

He says that Judah will be plucked up as well. However, the implication is that they will be plucked from the foreign land and placed where they belong in their own land. The first plucking is negative, and the second is positive. Or, in a way, they are both positive. One will be extracted as a way of punishment; the other will be extracted to fulfill God’s covenant promise to bring his people back to himself.

However, this restoration was contingent on obedience. And there is a strange twist to the end of the story. God promises to offer hope to the nations that persecuted his people! However, this is only if they will repent and turn to him (vv. 16-17). In this way God is not only restoring Judah; he is offering hope to a nation that is against him. He is so compassionate! Even though Jeremiah can’t feel it at the moment, God’s logic is airtight and his compassion is clear. He is restoring Judah and even offering hope to the nations that persecuted Judah. You can’t fault a God like that.

In summary, Jeremiah’s honest complaint is met with an honest response: a personal response for Jeremiah to endure, a corporate response to Judah’s explaining his own people’s revulsion of him, and a future warning to the nations that while God was going to uproot them, there was still hope.

In the messianic prophecy of Isaiah 49:6, Isaiah prophesied that it would be too small a thing for the Messiah to redeem Judah back to God. What God really wanted was for the Messiah to be a light to the Gentiles. The significance of this passage is huge. When Mary and Joseph took Jesus to be dedicated in the temple, Simeon quoted this passage of Scripture. Clearly he believed Jesus was to be that light to the Gentiles. Later, in Acts 13:47, Paul quoted this passage to explain why he was taking the gospel to the Gentiles. It seems that this had a dual fulfillment. Christ was not just for Judah but for the nations. Paul was not just to go to his fellow Jews, but he was also to bring the light to the nations.

Now we understand how Jesus was more than peeved at the Pharisees. Their chief criticism of Jesus was that he was a friend of sinners. But, hello, that was the point! No shocker. This was the prophecy and point from the beginning. The path of the Messiah has a trajectory toward Judah and beyond Judah. Their myopic vision of a one-nation God was too small. It would still include Judah, of course, but it would also fulfill the promises of the gospel—namely, that Christ would be slain for sin (Isa 53:5), bear the sins of many (Isa 53:12), and eventually conquer (Isa 53:12). This Messiah King is our King and is the Lord of all. The message of his death and resurrection is the message of the gospel.

This has everything to do with Jeremiah’s complaint. God’s plan was always to take those who were far away from him and bring them close. Jeremiah needed to endure because this plan was unfolding. His impatience with the wicked was in reality his impatience with God’s unfolding his plan.

Jeremiah thought God had forgotten him. God had not. In fact, God’s actions reflect how much God remembered Jeremiah. God said that he was going to uproot and destroy (12:17). This was exactly the call on Jeremiah’s life (1:10). God is carrying out what he said he would do, and Jeremiah, as predicted, is all caught up in this. The challenge, the struggle of Jeremiah, seems to be how God is doing this. He was using the pagan nations to accomplish his ultimate plans. In the meantime, God was calling him to endure as God worked out the plan—to learn how to run with the horses.

The metaphor of running with horses is distressing. It signaled that more persecution was coming. Yet it’s encouraging, and I need to hear it from time to time. When I experience discomfort, being treated unfairly, or any number of forgettable offenses, this is God’s way of saying, “Look, if you want to run with the horses, you have to at least run with men first.”