Jeremiahs Complaint

Jeremiahs Complaint

Jeremiah 12: 1-2 NKJV
1 Righteous are You, O Lord, when I plead with You;
Yet let me talk with You about Your judgments.
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why are those happy who deal so treacherously?
2 You have planted them, yes, they have taken root;
They grow, yes, they bear fruit.
You are near in their mouth
But far from their mind.

   Jeremiah gets to the point quickly here, and says he has a question about God’s justice.  He says he’s troubled about a question that had come up before.  Job was perplexed by it, the prophet Habakkuk struggled with it; and the Book of Psalms has two places where the subject is written about – in Psalms 37 and 73.
   This question has come up a lot through the years.  Why do the unrighteous seem to prosper so easily while God’s people suffer and struggle so much?  And I doubt my take on this question will satisfy some and I doubt my words will be recorded as the definitive answer to this question.  But I’m going to put my two cents in anyway.
   The unfairness of this is what most people see first.  “I serve God and I’m faithful and I struggle and that no-good neighbor of mine just breezes through life and he hasn’t been inside a church in 20 years!”  Yes, it looks like that, on the outside.  But if you dig a little, you can get a better view of it all.
   First off, if you are serving God faithfully, then you will probably face a rough road.  Remember when I talked about spiritual warfare?  You will face opposition in life for no other reason than that.  And if you’re an active witness for Christ, you’ll face even more opposition.  But don’t take my word for it, what did Jesus Himself say?  Matthew 10:22a NKJV says “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake.”  Seems unfair, but that’s how spiritual warfare works.  The enemy opposes those who oppose him.  If you’re a child of God, you become a threat to the devil and his kingdom.  If you’re an active witness, you become an even bigger threat to him.
   Second, if someone is not serving God, they are no threat to the enemy.  Why should the enemy bother to hinder anyone who is no threat to him?  In fact, the better an unsaved person does the more people will envy them and want to be like them.  Its good advertising!  Serve God and suffer – eat, drink and be merry and prosper!   And the Christian church does it best (or worst) to make this happen.  I’ve known many Christians who have been quick to tell everyone how miserable they are!  That’s NOT good advertising.
   Third, you need to keep life in perspective.  All this around us is temporary.  You’re suffering is temporary; you have a retirement plan that’s, quite literally, out of this world.  Romans 8:18 NKJV “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
   On the other hand, the unsaved have a very different destination prepared for them.  They may get a “free ride” now, but that will end quickly and they face a judgment I can hardly imagine.
Revelation 20: 11-15 NKJV
11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 3 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 4 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
   So they prosper for now, and many will scoff at you when you attempt to witness to them.  (You ARE trying to witness to them, right?)  And you will feel humiliated at times and maybe, like Job and Habakkuk and Jeremiah and David feel frustrated at the unfairness of it all.  But you should also have pity on those who seem to live so well now.  Their lives are hollow shells with nothing inside.  They face no bright future; they face eternity without Christ.  Where they are going it will be a dark and miserable place where they will spend an eternity regretting their lives.
   Today, they prosper.  In eternity, you will live in comfort with God’s throne in our midst and Christ will be our light, while they will suffer alone with their regrets.

Stephen Cram                                 June 3, 2012                                Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8