May 10, 2011
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

How Long, O Lord

Please see the links to our EXTRA Bible Study notes at the bottom of the page.

Opening Prayer

Loving Lord, today I want to carry with me the remembrance of my Savior’s suffering love on my behalf.

Read JEREMIAH 12:1-17

For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.

[1] You are always righteous, O 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? [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, O 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 brothers, 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. [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. So bear the shame of your harvest because of the LORD’s fierce anger.” [14] This is what the LORD says: “As for all my wicked neighbors who seize the inheritance I gave my people Israel, I will uproot them from their lands and I will uproot the house of Judah from among them. [15] But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bring each of them back to his own inheritance and his 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.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.

Reflect

Our God is no stoic, detached deity. The tender heart of the Father is bruised by the cries of his suffering children and all whose cry is, “How long…?” (Psa. 13:1).

“The prophet is a man who feels fiercely … God is raging in the prophet’s words.” There is a striking contrast at the heart of this chapter, in vs. 7 and 8. God speaks of “my house,” “my inheritance,” “the beloved of my soul” (literally) and in the next verse, “I hate her.” For Jeremiah, God is not some passionless abstraction, remote, distant, detached; nor is God senile and powerless, reduced to wringing his hands at his people’s misdemeanors. This risky language reminds me that God is active, God is always the subject, God’s love and justice are the world’s redemption—finally he accepts the Father’s will, whatever that entails for him, accepts the Father’s will, whatever that entails for him (Matt. 26:39).

Perhaps not many readers of Encounter with God work on the land; have soil under our fingernails. Reflect on all the farmer’s images in this chapter—parched land, wild animals, berserk shepherds. The word “inheritance” denotes “God’s special acre.” But “there is no one who cares” (11). Look at the verbs: forsake, abandon, uproot, devour, swarm. It is as if creation is going backwards; all is reverting to thorns and thistles. Pray for those who work in conservation, for the renewal and stewardship of the natural world.

The formatting of your Bible shows, perhaps, that vs. 14-17 are in prose. These astonishing verses show, in the distance, an amazing reversal; the Lord’s fierce anger (13) is not his last word. The wicked neighbors (14), whom the Lord has used to uproot Judah and who have in turn been uprooted, will be compassionately restored (see chs. 46,48,49). They are offered incorporation into God’s own people, if they will give him their allegiance. For God’s purpose always was that his people should be a means of blessing to the whole world (Gen. 12:3).

Apply

What stranger might God mean to bless today—through me, my word, my life?

Closing prayer

Lord, refresh my barren life, my society, my nation, and Your good earth. I thank You that Your renewing can bring new life in the most barren circumstances.

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