We recall that Anathoth was Jeremiah’s home town (Jeremiah 1:1), and so it is sad to recognize that it was the people he grew up with who had formed a conspiracy to kill Jeremiah (11:21). They had said “You shall not prophesy in the name of the Lord, or you will die by our hand” (11:21). And “Let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will no longer be remembered” (11:19).

This prompted Jeremiah to raise a complaint: “You will be in the right, O Lord, when I lay charges against you; but let me put my case to you. Why does the way of the guilty prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive?” (Jeremiah 12:1). The verse gives us a window into the complexity of Jeremiah’s theology. He recognized well that God’s perspective on things must be deeper than his own: even when Jeremiah couldn’t see it, it must be the case that God’s decisions are just. But even while believing that God’s plan will surely prove to be righteous in the end, in the meantime it often doesn’t look that way at all: and Jeremiah had the confidence that he could speak up about that, and ask God hard questions without putting his piety or his relationship with the Lord at risk (12:3). The conventional wisdom proposes that it will always be the case that the guilty suffer and the righteous prosper (we saw Job’s friends arguing for this viewpoint). But Jeremiah recognized that this simply isn’t true: often the guilty do just fine. Why is this?

God’s reply to Jeremiah began with a question instead of an answer: “If you have raced with foot-runners and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses?” (12:5). It’s a challenging response. It means the race you are running is about to get a lot tougher; the anxiety you have experienced so far is mild compared to what is going to happen.

God’s response is neither simple nor glib: the answer is difficult. The shepherds of Israel have made the land desolate (12:10); exile is coming because people trust in lies instead of in God (13:24); “no one shall be safe” (12:12). And when people ask, “Why have these things come upon me?” it will be for the greatness of their iniquity (13:22). We can see, then, that it is by God’s mercy that our many sins are not immediately punished every time, giving us time to repent (12:16, 13:15-17); but we also need to see that there comes a point where God’s forbearance comes to an end (13:25-27).

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We see with great clarity, O Lord, the sins of others against ourselves – sometimes inadvertent, often deliberate – and we wonder why you are so slow to punish them like they deserve: and we are so cavalier about our own sins against you. Teach us to repent, O God: to turn our hearts to you, in renewed devotion!