Jeremiah 12:2-5 - Yet you know me Lord

12:2-4

God planted these faithless people. They also used God’s name, giving a pretence of devotion to God. In reality in their hearts they were far from God. Jeremiah then utters a tirade against the faithless ones, calling on God to get rid of them. We can imagine Jeremiah thinking, “they have caused all this trouble, God, just get rid of them, destroy them”. Jeremiah cannot see how any of this is just, or how it furthers God cause. There is nothing unusual about wondering what on earth is God doing.

12:5

So is Jeremiah going to get tea and sympathy? Not a bit of it. It is fine for us to complain to God, indeed we should definitely do that, it is infinitely better than complaining about God to men! However, God is God and we are not. He is holy and we are not. He is infinitely wise and we are not. So when we go to God with our complaints we should be aware that it is we who will need to change, not God. We are the ones who will be humbled. But this is good for us. 

“If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in the safe country how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?” Basically God is saying, “if you think this is tough, wait until things really get difficult! Jeremiah, you need to get your act together!”. God speaks and works in our lives to take us to a higher level, a higher level of obedience, a higher level of faith.