1 You are always righteous, LORD, when I bring a case before you.
Yet I would speak with you about your justice:
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?
2 You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit.
You are always on their lips but far from their hearts.
3 Yet you know me, LORD; you see me and test my thoughts about you.
Drag them off like sheep to be butchered! Set them apart for the day of slaughter!
4 How long will the land lie parched and the grass in every field be withered?
Because those who live in it are wicked, the animals and birds have perished.
Moreover, the people are saying, “He will not see what happens to us.”
2 You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit.
You are always on their lips but far from their hearts.
3 Yet you know me, LORD; you see me and test my thoughts about you.
Drag them off like sheep to be butchered! Set them apart for the day of slaughter!
4 How long will the land lie parched and the grass in every field be withered?
Because those who live in it are wicked, the animals and birds have perished.
Moreover, the people are saying, “He will not see what happens to us.”
5 “If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses?
If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?
6 Your relatives, members of your own family - even they have betrayed you; they have raised a loud cry against you.
Do not trust them, though they speak well of you.
If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?
6 Your relatives, members of your own family - even they have betrayed you; they have raised a loud cry against you.
Do not trust them, though they speak well of you.
7 “I will forsake my house, abandon my inheritance;
I will give the one I love into the hands of her enemies.
8 My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest.
She roars at me; therefore I hate her.
I will give the one I love into the hands of her enemies.
8 My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest.
She roars at me; therefore I hate her.
9 Has not my inheritance become to me like a speckled bird of prey that other birds of prey surround and attack?
Go and gather all the wild beasts; bring them to devour.
10 Many shepherds will ruin my vineyard and trample down my field;
they will turn my pleasant field into a desolate wasteland.
11 It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me;
the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares.
12 Over all the barren heights in the desert destroyers will swarm,
for the sword of the LORD will devour from one end of the land to the other; no one will be safe.
13 They will sow wheat but reap thorns; they will wear themselves out but gain nothing.
They will bear the shame of their harvest because of the LORD’s fierce anger.”
Go and gather all the wild beasts; bring them to devour.
10 Many shepherds will ruin my vineyard and trample down my field;
they will turn my pleasant field into a desolate wasteland.
11 It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me;
the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares.
12 Over all the barren heights in the desert destroyers will swarm,
for the sword of the LORD will devour from one end of the land to the other; no one will be safe.
13 They will sow wheat but reap thorns; they will wear themselves out but gain nothing.
They will bear the shame of their harvest because of the LORD’s fierce anger.”
14 This is what the LORD says: “As for all my wicked neighbours who seize the inheritance I gave my people Israel, I will uproot them from their lands and I will uproot the people of Judah from among them. 15 But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bring each of them back to their own inheritance and their own country. 16 And if they learn well the ways of my people and swear by my name, saying, ‘As surely as the LORD lives’ - even as they once taught my people to swear by Baal - then they will be established among my people. 17 But if any nation does not listen, I will completely uproot and destroy it,” declares the LORD.
TODAY IN THE WORD
The Palais du Luxembourg sits at the end of the beautiful Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. First built in 1631 for the widow of King Henri IV, the palace became the seat of the French Senate following the French Revolution, and its gardens are a public treasure.
It’s hard to imagine the sickening horror Parisians must have felt when, in 1942, Nazis occupied Paris and used the Palais as the headquarters of the Luftwaffe, the Air Force. The dreaded Third Reich flag replaced the beloved French Tricolor, and Nazi soldiers filled the gardens - even the warning signs telling people to “Keep Off the Grass” were in German. What outrage! What humiliation!
Occupation and desecration at any level are horrible. The poignancy of Jerusalem’s occupation was even more gut-wrenching, however, because it had been set apart as God’s own special possession (Jer. 12:7), or inheritance. Even worse, the people, also God’s inheritance, were roaring at Him like a lion (v 8), so great was their arrogance and wickedness (v 4). They had been originally set apart for God - now because of their horrible sin, they would be set apart for slaughter (v 3). Even the land was forced to suffer judgment (v 4).
The nation of Israel was intended to be a light and a blessing to the surrounding nations (Gen 12:2–3; Isa 42:6). Instead, it had adopted pagan worship of godless creatures. Because of His fundamentally righteous nature, God had no choice but to render judgment.
Today’s passage, however, makes it clear that God had no pleasure in rendering such judgment. Note the use of the pronouns “my” in this passage. The inheritance mentioned in Jeremiah 12:7 refers to both the land and the people, both of which God had to forsake because of the people’s sin. Foreign invaders weren’t just taking over any plot of land, they were invading God’s field and His vineyard - a common metaphor for Israel.
APPLY THE WORDHave you ever considered that your sin is personally painful to God?
