Jeremiah 12:1 "You are always righteous, Lord, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?"
This verse stood out for me, it asks the same questions that Christians have been asking forever. Why do good things happen to bad people? This frustrates us when we see ourselves struggling in our jobs or in raising our children, and then look over to someone who doesn't even care about God and they seem to have it all together and have everything (material items).
To me, the answer to this comes at the beginning of 12:3, where it says "But you know my heart, Lord. You see me and test my mind...."
Nobody can fool God, He knows our hearts and cares for us. I think Christians would all agree that it is better to be rewarded in heaven then to gain rewards here on earth, which don't last.
In our New Testament reading we see how the Sadducees and Pharisees tried three times to fool Jesus with questions and three times He frustrated them with wise answers. He made them look foolish.
When I've read this over the years I've always wondered why they even tried to go head to head with Jesus and match wits with Him? I think it shows arrogance, and is a reminder for me of how small I am and how big God is. I'd rather be on His side and obey Him, then rebelling against Him.
3 comments:
We know that God's justice will prevail perfectly in the end, but it is so hard to be patient when justice doesn't come quickly. Life is sometimes extremely hard despite our love for and obedience to God. And sometimes God's answers aren't any easier. When Jeremiah questioned God, God answered him (in 12:5-6) by basically saying - if you think this is hard, how are you going to handle it when it gets really bad? We need to be committed to God no matter how hard things get and there is no relief in sight.
I love it that all the law and commandments can basically be summed up in "Love God, love others". Simple, but not always easy.
Jeremiah 12: 15-17 (MSG)
Then I said, Listen. Listen carefully: Don’t stay stuck in your ways!
It’s God’s Message we’re dealing with here.
Let your lives glow bright before God
before he turns out the lights,
Before you trip and fall
on the dark mountain paths.
The light you always took for granted will go out
and the world will turn black.
Have you ever been in a power outage? When the lights go out, you still reach for the switch out of habit and try to turn on the lights. The darkness can be overwhelming and it's easy to lose our way and not know where to go. We are all walking around in that darkness when we are without Christ. When we love God and love others, we shine God's light.
"This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing." Jeremiah 13:10
When we refuse to listen to God and follow our own agendas, we cannot be used to further His kingdom. A good reminder to keep our desires to the side and seek God's will first.
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