Jeremiah believes that God is righteous, but wicked people are prospering. Untrustworthy people are happy while those who are reliable grieve and receive no compensation.
Jeremiah 12:2: “You have planted them. Yes, they have taken root. They grow, yes, they bear fruit. You are near in their mouth but far from their mind.”
God planted and cultivated them. They knew how to speak God lingo, but their hearts and minds were not about loving God or loving their neighbor.
In Habakkuk 1:13, the prophet asked the Lord, “Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they?” Prophets want God to stop evil doers from killing His righteous witnesses.
What is going to happen when workers of iniquity flourish according to Psalm 92:7? “When the wicked spring up like grass, and when all the workers of iniquity flourish, it is that they may be destroyed forever.”
In Galatians 6:7 it is written, “What a man sows that will he reap.” The prosperity of the wicked is a sign of God’s longsuffering and patience. Their destruction is a sign of His righteous judgment.
Jeremiah’s fellow priests and prophets were suppressing and denying the truth, by saying, “Peace, peace,” when there was no peace.
Jeremiah 12:3: “But You, O Lord, know me. You have seen me, and You have tested my heart toward You. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter and prepare them for the day of slaughter.”
Jeremiah reminded God of his heart toward Him. He yearned for God to deal with the princes, priests, and prophets who sabotaged his efforts, humiliated him and planned to kill him.
Jeremiah 12:4: “How long will the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither? The beasts and birds are consumed, for the wickedness of those who dwell there, because they said, ‘He will not see our final end.’”
Land, herbs, animals, and birds were suffering due to sin. In Romans 8:19, 21, the Lord says, “The creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. …because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”
As in Revelation, so in Jeremiah, nations are at war with one another. People are dying. Plants and animals are being destroyed. Rivers are bloody. The instigators press forward with their delusion that God will not stop them.
Jeremiah 12:5: “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?”
The footmen represent Jeremiah’s fellow priests. The horses represent the king and princes. The flooding represents the Babylon’s army.
The injuries done to Jeremiah by his neighbors in Anathoth (footmen) are small compared with the injuries the men of Jerusalem (horsemen) are about to inflict on him. The floodplain of Jordan refers to the overwhelming army of Babylon that is about to destroy Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 12:6: “For even your brothers, the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you. Yes, they have called a multitude after you. Do not believe them, even though they speak smooth words to you.”
According to 1 Chronicles 6:13-14, Ezra 7:1, and Jeremiah 29:3, Jeremiah had a brother named Azariah and a brother named Gemariah. The Lord warned Jeremiah not to believe their smooth talk. They rallied people against Jeremiah. Their father was Hilkiah the high priest. Hilkiah is never mentioned as affirming, supporting or protecting Jeremiah. The Lord was his helper.
Brother against brother stories abound in the Bible. In Genesis 4:8, Cain killed his younger brother Abel. In Genesis 37:18-28, the brothers of Joseph planned to kill him, but his brother Reuben stopped them. In 1 Samuel 17:28, Eliab the oldest brother of David falsely accused him, saying, “I know your pride and the insolence of your heart.” Brothers need God to help them love one another.
In John 7:5, the brothers of Jesus did not believe in Him.” In Matthew 10:21, Jesus warned His disciples, “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.”
Jeremiah 12:7: “I have forsaken My house. I have left My heritage. I have given the dearly beloved of My soul into the hand of her enemies.”
What is tough love? Tough love is to let the loved one to bear the consequences of his bad choices.
Jeremiah 12:8: “My heritage is to Me like a lion in the forest. It cries out against Me. Therefore, I have hated it.”
Long ago, they loved God and He loved them, but now they were like ravenous lions toward God and His servants. Their one reliable attribute was unreliability. The Promised Land became a field of weeds in their hands. They sought to destroy Jeremiah.
In Matthew 25:45, Jesus told those who mistreated His brothers, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”
Jeremiah 12:9: “Is My heritage to Me as a speckled bird of prey? Are the birds of prey against her all around? Go assemble all the animals of the field. Bring them to devour.”
Judah and the nations around her were like scavenging vultures to God. God called for devouring beasts (armies) to consume them.
The imagery of scavenger birds consuming the dead in Jeremiah 12 compares with similar events spoke of in Matthew 24:28 and in Revelation 19:17, 21. In Revelation 19:17, John saw an angel crying out to the birds, “Come, assemble for the great supper of God.” “All the fowls were filled with their flesh.”
In Revelation 19:21, John wrote, “The remnant were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of His mouth. And all the fowls were filled with their flesh.”
Jeremiah 12:10: “Many rulers have destroyed My vineyard they have trodden My portion underfoot. They have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.”
In Mark 12:1-9, Jesus told a parable of a certain man who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress, built a tower, and leased it to tenant farmers, and then departed. When the appointed season came near, He sent His servants to the farmers to collect its fruit. of the vineyard. The farmers beat one. They killed another and stoned another. Again He sent other servants. Finally, He sent His Son to them thinking they would respect Him, but they killed Him.
The mistreatment of Jeremiah and Jesus compares with the mistreatment of God’s people in Revelation 11:2. John is told to, “Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations. They will tread underfoot the holy city for 42 months.” This act symbolizes the arrogant pride of rulers against God and God’s servants.
Jeremiah 12:11: “They have made it desolate. Desolate, it mourns to Me. The whole land is made desolate, because no one takes it to heart.”
In Malachi 2:2, the Lord told Israel, “If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My Name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings; and indeed, I have cursed them already, because you are not taking it to heart.”
Jeremiah 12:12: “The plunderers have come on all the desolate heights in the wilderness, for the sword of the Lord shall devour from one end of the land to the other end of the land. No flesh shall have peace.”
War and plundering wealth are works of the flesh. If they would have humbled themselves before God, repented of their evil deeds, and asked for His intervention, God would have intervened and gave them new hearts capable of loving Him and loving one another.
Jeremiah 12:13: “They have sown wheat but reaped thorns. They have put themselves to pain but do not profit. But be ashamed of your harvest because of the fierce anger of the Lord.”
In Haggai 1:6, the Lord pointed out to Israel their folly, “You have sown much, and bring in little. You eat, but do not have enough. You drink, but you are not filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”
Jeremiah 12:14-15: “Thus says the Lord: against all My evil neighbors [Gentiles] who touch the inheritance [the land] which I have caused My people Israel to inherit—behold, I will pluck them [Gentiles] out of their land [Israel’s] and pluck out the house of Judah from among them [Gentiles]. Then it shall be, after I have plucked them out, that I will return and have compassion on them and bring them back, everyone to his heritage and everyone to his land.”
The Lord told Israel in Deuteronomy 30:2-3: “When you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything, I command you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where He scattered you.”
Praise God for plucking His people like grapes from their bondages. Praise God that He has compassion on both His people and the Gentiles as well. God promised if they honored Him, He would honor them and establish them in the midst of His people.
Jeremiah 12:16: “And it shall be, if they [the Gentiles] will learn carefully the ways of My people [Israel], to swear by My Name, ‘As the Lord lives,’ as they taught My people to swear by Baal, then they shall be established in the midst of My people.”
Thanks to Jesus, us Gentiles have been welcomed into the household of God. In Ephesians 2:19, it is written, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.”
Jeremiah 12:17: “If they do not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, says the Lord.”
Jeremiah 12:17 agrees with God’s Word to the Gentiles in Romans 11:17-21, “If some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.’ Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.”
The law God wants nations to learn is to love one another. “For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
In John 16:11, the Holy Spirit convicts the world about judgment because the prince of this world has been judged. Revelation 12:12 says that the devil’s time is short. All the more reason for us to love people and share the Gospel with them.
May our Heavenly Father grant each of us to be prophetible people for Him by the power of His indwelling Holy Spirit within us, in the Name of Jesus, I pray, amen.”
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