Jeremiah 12, Jeremiah’s Query and Yahweh’s Response

Jeremiah is still smarting from the knowledge that his own hometown and relatives have plotted to kill him. He questions Yahweh about what is happening.

12:1 You are always righteous, Yahweh, 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, Yahweh; 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.”

Why do we always feel we know better than God? Jeremiah acknowledges that Yahweh is a just God, but he feels Yahweh has been too patient with his wicked countrymen, allowing them to prosper despite the fact that He is far from their hearts. He pleads his own good character and thus his right to ask for them to be judged. Why should the righteous suffer for their disobedience?

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.

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 Yahweh 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 Yahweh’s fierce anger.”

Yahweh’s response is a bit of a rebuke to Jeremiah as well as an affirmation. God says to him, “If you think this is bad, just wait.” Jeremiah has been made aware of just how dangerous it is to speak for Yahweh, but it is only going to get worse. He had promised Jeremiah safety when He called him (chapter 1). But that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be threats and dangers. Yahweh warns Jeremiah that his family is against him despite their appearances.

Then Yahweh acknowledges that His patience has reached an end and He will abandon His people to their enemies, the “many shepherds” of verse 10. Yahweh’s sword of judgment is coming to devour.

¹⁴ This is what Yahweh 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 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 Yahweh 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 Yahweh. (Jeremiah 12)

Yahweh surprises Jeremiah with an address to Judah’s enemy neighbors, Moab, Edom, Ammon, et al. He promises that they too, because of their wickedness, will be devoured by His sword and uprooted from their lands and dispersed in Babylon’s lands. But He will have compassion on the nations if they repent and learn Israel’s true ways. He will restore them to their lands if they make the proper vow to Yahweh. If not, they will be utterly destroyed. Other prophets, like Zechariah, predicted that indeed many of Israel’s enemies would be converted in the future and come under Israel’s tutelage. They would become part of God’s kingdom on earth.

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Discussion Questions:

1. What would you want to argue with God about?
2. Do you think God has been patient with your nation?
3. What is God’s reason for offering redemption to Israel’s enemies, the neighboring nations?
4. How do you think Jeremiah processed this?