Sometimes we can think as followers of Jesus that this would mean that we would not have any questions for God. Or maybe we think that we should not have any questions for God about life because we are supposed to walk by faith. But when you read the scriptures you will frequently see God’s people asking God important questions. We certainly see the disciples asking Jesus many questions about things that they did not understand about what he was doing during his ministry. But we also see the people of God asking challenging questions to God. Job was a righteous and blameless man yet he had many questions for God. The prophet Habakkuk had many questions for God about what he was doing in the world as well. Tonight we are going to look at another of God’s prophets who also had some questions for God. It is my plan for our fall evening series to look at the people who were questioning God. We will look at the different questions they had and how God answered their questions. Open your copies of God’s word to Jeremiah 12 and we are going to look at the questions that Jeremiah has for God.
Questioning God (Jeremiah 12:1-4)
Remembering our context is important in helping us understand the questions that the prophet Jeremiah has. What we read at the end of Jeremiah 11 was that there was a conspiracy against God and against Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s own hometown people have committed to the plan of killing him (cf. Jeremiah 11:19-21). They have told Jeremiah to stop prophesying or they would kill him and they meant it. They now have a plan in place to murder Jeremiah. This is the background for the questioning that Jeremiah has for the Lord in the first four verses of chapter 12. Jeremiah’s questions are not coming from a general wondering about God but from a personal crisis in his life.
Jeremiah begins by acknowledging God’s righteousness. Jeremiah knows that God is right and all that he does is right. Jeremiah understands God’s nature and character. But this understanding of God’s character leads to the questioning in verse 1. “Why does the way of the wicked prosper? What do all who are treacherous thrive?” I think this has been a common question for the ages for God’s people and for people in general who have a moral concern for the world. Why do the wicked do well? Why are evildoers living at ease? Why do they thrive? This observation was a problem for the psalmist in Psalm 73. He proclaimed that his faith nearly slipped when he saw the prosperity of the wicked and how they seem to not experience much trouble in life (cf. Psalm 73:2-5). This is a point that Jeremiah makes in verse 2. You have planted the wicked and they grow and prosper. But they are hypocrites. They talk about God but their hearts are far from God. How can you sustain the wicked when they are complete frauds?
Jeremiah then draws a contrast to himself in verse 3. He is not fake. He is not a spiritual fraud. He knows that the Lord knows that. Test his heart and see that his heart and his thoughts are toward God. This sets up his problem as you see at the end of verse 3. These evildoers and spiritual frauds are conspiring to lead Jeremiah as a gentle sheep to the slaughter (Jeremiah 11:19). Lord, you need to lead these false sheep to the slaughter (Jeremiah 12:3). You need to judge them because they are false and I am true. Why would I die at the hands of the wicked when you are righteous, Lord? You need to deal with them before they deal with me! You need to stop them and bring your righteous judgment on them for their wickedness!
This leads to Jeremiah’s second question which we read in verse 4. The question is “How long?” How long will the wicked continue? How long will they think that they are untouchable? How long will they continue to cause desolation and suffering? How long will they be allowed to continue and think that they are getting away with what they are doing? Why do the wicked prosper and how long are going to allow this to continue?
God’s Answer (Jeremiah 12:5-6)
Now what would you expect God’s answer to be? I would like for you to think about what Jeremiah has asked and then consider what you would think God’s answer would look like. Here is God’s answer:
If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan? (Jeremiah 12:5 ESV)
Is that the answer you expected God to give? God’s answer is that you are just getting started. If you are worn out by running with people, what are you going to do when you have to run with horses? It is going to get worse, not better. If you stumble now when you are in the safe land, what are you going to do when you are the thorns of the thickets? What a challenging response from the Lord! But it is an important response that needs to challenge us! If you are only secure and trusting in the Lord when you are on safe and level ground, then what are you going to do when your life takes you into deep into thorny bushes?
Do we need to hear God say this to us? Sometimes we need to hear God tell us to take a breath, suck it up, and go forward. Are you really going to quit now? Are you really going to crumple now? Now before we take offense I would like for us to think about how God does say this to his people in other places at other times.
35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. (Hebrews 10:35-36 ESV)
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. (Hebrews 12:1-4 ESV)
12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. (Hebrews 12:12-13 ESV)
How many different ways does God have to tell us that we have need for endurance? God says you have need for endurance. God says you must run with endurance. Consider Jesus and what he endured so that you do not grow weary or fainthearted. You have not struggled in your life to point of death. God says to lift up your weak hands and strengthen your weak knees so that you are not broken or put out of joint. Rather, hold it together so that you can be healed. Are you going to give up now? What are you going to do when life gets harder? Jesus spoke about the difficulties his disciples would go through on different occasions. Then he would say, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (cf. Matthew 10:22). God is constantly telling us that we need endurance.
Please note in verse 6 that God is not discounting that what we are experiencing is hard. God is not pretending about Jeremiah’s circumstances. Your family is betraying you. Your own family is acting treacherously toward you. God tells Jeremiah that he cannot even trust his own family. But you have need for endurance so that you can run with horses. You have need for endurance because God is not promising to alleviate what you are going through. God is saying it is going to get even harder.
You know when we received the diagnosis for our daughter’s condition, it was devastating. We were wrecked. I have never been so numb in life. We were hurting. We were broken. We have prayed and prayed for her that God would heal her. We have prayed for God to come up with treatments. We have prayed for a cure. We have prayed for so much for her. We had so much hope that things would get better and it would have been easy to quit under the weight. Nothing has gotten easier. Nothing. What are we going to do when the trial begins and it does not get any easier? What will we do if all that happens is that the trial increases in its pain and difficulty? Sometimes God’s answer to our questions is simply this: if you are worn out running with people, what are you going to do when you are running with horses? If you want to quit when you are in a secure place, what are you going to do when you are walking through the thorn bushes? God is not saying that what you are going through is not hard. What God is saying is that it is going to get harder and you have need for endurance.
How Endurance Is Built
Now here is the wrinkle in thinking about the need for endurance. How does God say that he develops endurance within us? What does God do in our lives so that we will have the endurance we need? The apostle Paul proclaimed that we rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces endurance (Romans 5:3). James also said that one of the purposes for our trials is that it will produce endurance (James 1:2-3). We have need for endurance and God is at work in our lives and in the world so that we can have the endurance we need to reach eternity. Which means that we have to hear these tough words from God to us sometimes. We need to be reminded of what the apostle Paul understood and taught as he encouraged disciples of Jesus.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (Romans 8:18 ESV)
We must have this view of what we are going through in this life. Whatever God has given me and no matter how hard it is, it cannot begin to compare to what God has in store for us. But let me underscore where Jeremiah is at and God’s message to him. Even if we do not understand what God is doing and how all of this seems so messed up, it is still not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed to us. So how do we get through?
Look To Jesus
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV)
Look to Jesus. What does he want us to see? We are to see that Jesus endured the cross. Why did he endure the cross? Why did he despise the shame of the cross? Why did he not give up? Why did he not quit? “For the joy that was set before him.” Look at verse 3.
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. (Hebrews 12:3 ESV)
He endured so that you would not grow weary or fainthearted. Jesus died on the cross so you would not quit. Jesus endured so that you would run with horses when the time came. Do not give up. One person said it well: “We do not pray for a lighter load, but a stronger back.” Do not ask how to get out of this but ask what I can get out of this difficulty.