“Righteous are you, O LORD,
when I complain to you;
yet I would plead my case before you.
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why do all who are treacherous thrive?
You plant them, and they take root;
they grow and produce fruit;
you are near in their mouth
and far from their heart.
But you, O LORD, know me;
you see me, and test my heart toward you.
Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter,
and set them apart for the day of slaughter.
How long will the land mourn
and the grass of every field wither?
For the evil of those who dwell in it
the beasts and the birds are swept away,
because they said, ‘He will not see our latter end.’
“‘If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you,
how will you compete with horses?
And if in a safe land you are so trusting,
what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?
For even your brothers and the house of your father,
even they have dealt treacherously with you;
they are in full cry after you;
do not believe them,
though they speak friendly words to you.’
“‘I have forsaken my house;
I have abandoned my heritage;
I have given the beloved of my soul
into the hands of her enemies.
My heritage has become to me
like a lion in the forest;
she has lifted up her voice against me;
therefore I hate her.
Is my heritage to me like a hyena’s lair?
Are the birds of prey against her all around?
Go, assemble all the wild beasts;
bring them to devour.
Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard;
they have trampled down my portion;
they have made my pleasant portion
a desolate wilderness.
They have made it a desolation;
desolate, it mourns to me.
The whole land is made desolate,
but no man lays it to heart.
Upon all the bare heights in the desert
destroyers have come,
for the sword of the LORD devours
from one end of the land to the other;
no flesh has peace.
They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns;
they have tired themselves out but profit nothing.
They shall be ashamed of their harvests
because of the fierce anger of the LORD.’” [1]
“If you have raced on foot against men and they have worn you out, how will you be able to compete with horses” [JEREMIAH 12:5 NET BIBLE]? God’s prophet was weary. He was exhausted. He had stood for what was right and good, and all it had gained for him were threats, intimidation, hostility, and imprisonment. At the time he wanted to temper his message, God commanded, “‘You shall say to [the men of Judah], Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man who does not hear the words of this covenant that I commanded your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God, that I may confirm the oath that I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day.’ Then I answered, ‘So be it, LORD’” [JEREMIAH 11:3-5].
The message that the prophet was compelled to deliver only grew more pointed. Though he was moved with compassion for his people, the LORD commanded, “Do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble. What right has my beloved in my house, when she has done many vile deeds? Can even sacrificial flesh avert your doom? Can you then exult? The LORD once called you ‘a green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit.’ But with the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed. The LORD of hosts, who planted you, has decreed disaster against you, because of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done, provoking me to anger by making offerings to Baal” [JEREMIAH 11:14-17].
Scripture warns us, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God” [HEBREWS 10:31]. When God says, “Enough!” there remains no recourse, no appeal. Whether for an individual, for a congregation, for a society, or for a nation, the Lord holds our times in His hands. There comes a time when sin shall no longer be tolerated, and when He will no longer permit sin to continue unchecked, there can be no remedy. Judah had played fast and loose with the decrees of the Living God, and now the LORD was no longer prepared to overlook their sin. At last, God commanded His prophet neither to pray for the nation nor to cry out for them. God had at last said, “Enough!” Now the nation would experience His wrath, and how severe that wrath would prove to be.
Because God will no longer permit sin to go unchecked does not mean that His prophet is unmoved. Neither the LORD nor His prophet gloats when judgement is at last unleashed on a sinful people. The prophet experiences only sorrow as he witnesses the pain of the people. He is filled with grief at the high cost of sin, he has great heaviness of heart in the knowledge that those judged must pass through this dreadful experience. The prophet will grieve, and though he is commanded not to pray for the people, he will still plead with the Lord to turn aside from His wrath. Though he loves God supremely, the prophet does not love the people less. Though in public he appears austere, the man of God will weep in secret for the judgement that shall smite the people in their sin.
What was true for Jeremiah in that distant day holds true to this day. Mark carefully the individual who professes to speak for the Living God if that man should appear to be filled with glee at the pain wicked people experience. There is no joy in knowing that the sexually immoral are susceptible to dreadful disease or that their lives are shortened through the accumulation of sorrows that attend their way. There is no pleasure in the knowledge that the drunk suffers numerous health problems that will almost assuredly shorten her life. There is no satisfaction in knowing that the violent will themselves face a violent end. There is sorrow in the knowledge that they have failed to live up to what they could have known with a righteous life. There is grief in the knowledge that others, even some who loved them, will be filled with pain at their own sorrows. Thus, we see the prophet’s sorrow displayed in Jeremiah.
THE PROPHET’S COMPLAINT —
“Righteous are you, O LORD,
when I complain to you;
yet I would plead my case before you.
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why do all who are treacherous thrive?
You plant them, and they take root;
they grow and produce fruit;
you are near in their mouth
and far from their heart.
But you, O LORD, know me;
you see me, and test my heart toward you.
Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter,
and set them apart for the day of slaughter.
How long will the land mourn
and the grass of every field wither?
For the evil of those who dwell in it
the beasts and the birds are swept away,
because they said, ‘He will not see our latter end.’”
[JEREMIAH 12:1-4]
It is precisely because God is righteous that the Prophet is distressed. It is why we are often distressed. “Why doesn’t God act?” is a rather common cry from aggrieved saints. We are distressed at the seemingly uninterrupted growth of wickedness, as if God is impotent, as if He is incapable to restraining evil. You will find a similar cry from the heart of Habakkuk.
“O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you ‘Violence!’
and you will not save?
Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
Strife and contention arise.
So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.”
[HABAKKUK 1:2-4]
If the Lord were powerless, or if He were unable to restrain the progress of evil, we would be distressed, but we would not be conflicted. As it is, the righteous are left in a conundrum, knowing God is righteous and knowing that He is omnipotent, and yet appearing to tolerate evil. Thus, Jeremiah questions why God does nothing. He wonders why the way of the wicked prospers. He questions why wickedness in the land appears to grow stronger with each passing day. From his vantage, it seems as though God plants the wicked of the land and they grow more vigorous all the time. And if the growth of the wicked was not enough to cause distress, the fruit of their unchecked evil seems to permeate the land. Wicked attitudes and the acceptance of sinful actions grows more and more acceptable. Have you ever felt that way?
Contrasted to this unchecked growth of evil, Jeremiah presses God to consider his own life, a life dedicated to delivering the LORD’s message. God knows His prophet and He continually tests his heart. Yet, God does not appear to ever intervene in the lives of wicked people. So, the Prophet feels compelled to ask God, “Are you ever going to do something? Must the land always grieve because evil strides with giant steps throughout the land? The righteous are grieved because the wicked claim to be good, and yet they do evil. Look, LORD, even the beast and the birds are destroyed because of the wickedness that characterises the land!”
Perhaps one of the problems that keeps Jeremiah’s arguments from resonating with us is that we are not certain that what he describes as evil is actually wicked. Our culture has defined deviancy down, we have tolerated sinful acts for such an extended period that wickedness no longer seems terrible in our estimate. Forsaking the Faith is bad, but it is no longer terrible. Actually, since it is our children who are deserting the House of the Lord, we shut our mouths, quietly tolerating the desertion of God’s House and the attitude of ignoring the Word of the Lord. When we make violence an entertainment form, what are we doing but normalising depravity? When we jettison God’s precious gift of children for our own convenience, is that no longer depraved? When we openly rebel against being the sex we are at birth, is that no longer weird? Our society is no longer able to discern right from wrong.
You have heard me say on multiple occasions that God does not discipline the devil’s children. Jeremiah is questioning why God permits evil to grow unchecked, though He always holds His own child to account. The confusion Jeremiah voices is quite likely true for you. I know that I often wonder at what appears to be God’s indifference to the wicked. I know that God doesn’t hesitate to keep me in line. He sure doesn’t seem to cut me any slack!
Consider some of the examples of the wickedness that characterizes this present day. Rampaging youth claim moral superiority over those whom we honour from past generations. Here is my question, how can a culture that kills 3000 infants in utero each day feel morally superior to slave owners from 200 years ago? These mobs of ignorant youth want to apply the present social conditions to life from ancient days without actually knowing the culture of that distant day. What we are witnessing in contemporary society are mobs that are woke but godless, arrogant but ignorant. Society today mistakes college degrees in fields that no one respects for wisdom. Tragically, students graduating from Ivy League colleges have been indoctrinated, but they were never educated. They seek a safe space where they need never hear a dissenting opinion. Unable to earn a living, they still believe they deserve the latest iPhone and time to game on their tablets. In the face of this strange world, the churches appear to be in retreat. We are counselled to try to understand the angst these young people feel, but they appear to have little motivation to understand their place in a productive society.
Even a casual survey of the growth of wickedness in our day reveals that righteousness appears to be in retreat even as evil deeds and evil attitudes grow unchecked. And the apparent growth of wicked attitudes and ungodly actions confuses us? Why doesn’t God do something? Is God blind? Perhaps He doesn’t really care? But then we act in a way that dishonours the Father and we are immediately smitten in our heart. We know that God is still on the throne and that He doesn’t tolerate any wickedness in our heart.
The Psalmist grappled with this very question in THE SEVENTY-THIRD PSALM. He admits that when he looked at the arrogant and considered how the wicked had prospered, he was envious. Arrogant people, wicked people, seemed to have no troubles, they were not hindered in any way as they pursued their wicked ends. They scoffed and spoke maliciously, and God seemingly did nothing to restrain them. They ridiculed God and those who endeavoured to honour Him; they appeared to be raking in wealth through their wicked actions, and yet the LORD God did nothing.
The Psalmist could well have been writing of what is observed in this day. Politicians are elected to office with nothing in their pocket, and after a few years in office they are millionaires. Corrupt people set up businesses and grow wealthy through shady deals; though they bend the law, they never seem to get caught. Scofflaws ignore the rules and seemingly skate when they are compelled to appear in court.
What is important to bear in mind as you read this Psalm is the manner in which the Psalmist turns the Psalm after registering his complaint.
“When I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
“Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!”
[PSALM 73:16-19]
The story isn’t complete; there is a chapter yet to be written, and the Lord GOD pens that chapter.
THE LORD’S QUESTION FOR HIS WEARY PROPHET —
“‘If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you,
how will you compete with horses?
And if in a safe land you are so trusting,
what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?
For even your brothers and the house of your father,
even they have dealt treacherously with you;
they are in full cry after you;
do not believe them,
though they speak friendly words to you.’”
[JEREMIAH 12:5-6]
I confess that I’ve always been fascinated by the LORD’s answer to His weary prophet. Perhaps the reason for my fascination is that I readily identify with Jeremiah in several areas. Consequently, I take the divine response to the Prophet’s complaint rather personally. It is as if he has spoken in my behalf; and when the Lord answers Jeremiah, it is as though God has spoken directly to my heart. What God said when He replied to the Prophet was indeed a rebuke, but it was a rebuke intended to put steel into the prophet’s backbone. The LORD meant for His prophet to understand that he would need strength if he expected to fulfil the will of the Living God. There is no place for the flaccid saint on the field of conflict, not if the Faith is to advance. Christianity is not a religion for wusses; it is a Faith for strong men and strong women. The Faith of Christ the Lord requires people who are prepared to serve with radical abandon, people who are willing to stand strong in the face of overwhelming opposition, people who are prepared to stay in the fray until they are victorious or until their holy Commander takes them out of the battle.
The Prophets seem to have struggled with the message they delivered and the patience the LORD displayed. God, speaking through His prophets delivered repeated warnings to the nation, calling the people to turn from their self-willed ways so that they could again embrace His will. The message of pending judgement is harsh, confronting people in the precise place they have no desire to be confronted. It invites pushback, anger against the one delivering the message. So, the prophets faithfully delivered the message, endured the hostility of those to whom they were sent, and wondered all the while why God delayed. They were much like Jonah, the errant prophet who delivered God’s message to Nineveh only reluctantly. The reason for his reluctance is revealed when he complained to the LORD. “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster” [JONAH 4:2].
We are living in a foreign land. It is easy to forget that “our citizenship is in Heaven” [PHILIPPIANS 3:20a]. It is far too easy for us to forget that we are appointed to service as “ambassadors for Christ” [see 2 CORINTHIANS 5:20], that we are assigned to represent Him in a land that is not our own. We want people to acknowledge us as important people because we represent the Son of God. But, just as we Canadians don’t become overly exercised by the demands of the Chinese ambassador to Canada, so the world doesn’t particularly like the message of Christ being proclaimed in their presence. That should never deter us as Christ’s servants; but it does help explain the hostility we face—hostility that sometimes is intense!
Just as one representing Canada to another nation is prepared through thorough training, so we have received thorough training. We were forewarned that we would be opposed when the Master Himself warned us, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause’ [JOHN 15:18-25].
That warning was not delivered without the promise of help, for we who serve the Master have been promised, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning” [JOHN 15:26-27]. Jesus our Saviour promised that we would have the help necessary to fulfil His command.
Moreover, the Master encouraged us as He prepared us for this great task of serving as His representative in a hostile environment, telling us, “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you” [JOHN 16:1-4a].
We have been provided with a course of training with an approved textbook—the Bible. And we have a certified instructor whom we know as the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit lives in us. He directs our thinking, so that we now “have the mind of Christ” [1 CORINTHIANS 2:16b]. As we allow Him to work in our life, He guides us into those avenues that will glorify the Son of God.
I’ve said all that to come to the point of admitting that the actions of this fallen world do grieve the child of God. We cannot see our neighbours and even members of our own families justify killing the unborn without feeling deep sorrow. We know that the Father gave those precious innocents as a gift; and when they are disposed of as unwanted encumbrances upon the parents to whom the Father gave them, we are grieved. We grieve not just at the loss of life, but we are grieved at the failure of those to whom these lives were entrusted to recognise them as a gift from the Father of lights. We are incensed when those who purport to hold to the Faith we represent legitimatise the taking of those innocent lives through failure to stand for righteousness and through refusal to speak the truth from the pulpits of their dead institutions.
We cannot witness the degradation of young men and young women celebrated in song and in pornographic videos without feeling intense pain. We grieve that young women didn’t realise that they are opening themselves to a life of self-degradation because they didn’t see themselves as women of worth, because they thought their value lay only in gratifying the lecherous desires of men. We grieve that young men failed to realise that their purpose was to defend the vulnerable, not to take advantage of the vulnerable. We are angered that men and women created in the image of God would debase that image by seeing only the physical and rejecting the spiritual.
When we see fellow ambassadors for Christ assailed and assaulted, imprisoned, and brutalised in the name of a hateful religion, we are grieved. We grieve that our brothers and sisters must suffer; but we are grieved that those who seek to hurt and harm the servants of the Most High God are so deceived that they think they are doing God’s work! We experience deep pain because we understand that “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God” [2 CORINTHIANS 4:4].
When we witness men and women rejecting the Creator’s design, imagining that if only they were another sex that they would be happy, we are grieved for them. We grieve because we know they have no joy, or they would be content in what God has done in making them who they are. We grieve because we know these benighted souls are pursuing a fleeting phantasm that can never bring happiness. We grieve because we know that though society seems to affirm them, the very ones who appear to affirm them have no love for them. We grieve because we know that peace, real peace, lasting peace, is never dependent upon our body; peace arises from who we are inside. Peace comes as we rest in the God who gives us our being.
Then, when we resist the mad rush of this culture away from righteousness, we find we are opposed, that powerful people speak against us and against the Faith to which we adhere. Those powerful individuals imagine that the Faith is something a person can put on each morning and take off when it is inconvenient to continue wearing it. They can’t understand why we can’t be silent, going to church and doing whatever it is that we Christians do for a few minutes each Sunday. Why, they wonder, do we need to bring what we believe into the marketplace where our presence disrupts their pleasant existence? Thus, because we make them uncomfortable by our presence, they will do what they can to hurt us. That should silence us, they imagine; that will put an end to this business faith in Jesus as the Son of God.
Well, if you’re tired from the battle now, what will you do when it becomes intense? What will you do when people don’t just speak ill of you, but you are fired from your job because you won’t be silent? What will you do when you are not simply fired from your job, but you are beaten and jailed because you are a follower of the Risen Son of God? What will you do when you are not simply jailed and beaten, but when you are crucified as was your Saviour? What will you do when evil sweeps over the land like a flood, destroying those whom you love and taking your life as well?
Dear people, we’ve been running a race—a race that had at least the prospect that we might win. One need not be a prophet to realise that we could soon be running a race that we can never win. We’ve been running against men; we might well be running against horses soon! We complain in a time of relative peace that it is hard to serve as an ambassador for Christ; what will happen when the going gets tough?
The writer of the Letter to Hebrew Christians sought to encourage those who read that missive. Listen to what he wrote and consider how it applies to us in this day. “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” [HEBREWS 12:3-4]. That challenge is humbling in the extreme! Though some have laughed at me, no one has ever beaten me because I’m a follower of the Son of God.
I’ve been threatened by law enforcement officers who told me I could not distribute literature, but I’ve never been jailed. I read the account of the early missionaries, and somehow I can’t connect. You will recall reading, “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them” [ACTS 16:25].
I know men who were imprisoned because they openly preached the message of the cross in Quebec, but such is not happening in this day. The fact that it did happen only a few years ago tells me that it could happen again in our nation, but it isn’t happening right now. I’ve had a few dark nights when it seemed as if there was no light for my feet, but I managed to croak out a tune even in those dark times. Still, I’ve never been imprisoned because I’m a follower of the Christ.
I read about my brothers in Nigeria who are dragged from their homes in the darkness of the night so that vile men can hack them to death, and I know that such has not happened in recent years here in Canada. I read about my sisters in that distant land who are taken captive and brutalised in an attempt to compel them to convert to a despicable religion, but my daughters have never been in danger of being enslaved and so brutalised. I read about my brothers who are crucified in Iraq and in Syria because they name the Name of Christ, but that has never happened here in Canada in the memory of any of us present today. I read of the wife of a Christian pastor who is run over by a bulldozer in China because she tried to keep the authorities from tearing down the building in which fellow Christians met for worship, but we don’t see any churches being destroyed here in Canada.
Here is the sum of what I’ve been saying—we haven’t seen anything yet. What is likely coming demands the best of God’s people. The time for preparing for what likely will be is now. The time to prepare for battle is before the battle begins. Now is the time to prepare for wrestling against the forces of the wicked one. Now is the time for each Christian to realise, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” [EPHESIANS 6:12].
Now is the time for each one who would follow the Christ to realise that, “Though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” [2 CORINTHIANS 10:3-5]. If ever there was a time for God’s people to live holy lives, it is now. If ever there was a time to stand firm in righteousness, it is now.
THE LORD’S WARNING TO THE LAND —
“‘I have forsaken my house;
I have abandoned my heritage;
I have given the beloved of my soul
into the hands of her enemies.
My heritage has become to me
like a lion in the forest;
she has lifted up her voice against me;
therefore I hate her.
Is my heritage to me like a hyena’s lair?
Are the birds of prey against her all around?
Go, assemble all the wild beasts;
bring them to devour.
Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard;
they have trampled down my portion;
they have made my pleasant portion
a desolate wilderness.
They have made it a desolation;
desolate, it mourns to me.
The whole land is made desolate,
but no man lays it to heart.
Upon all the bare heights in the desert
destroyers have come,
for the sword of the LORD devours
from one end of the land to the other;
no flesh has peace.
They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns;
they have tired themselves out but profit nothing.
They shall be ashamed of their harvests
because of the fierce anger of the LORD.’”
[JEREMIAH 12:7-13]
Though the people did not repent when they heard the words Jeremiah spoke, his words must nevertheless have sent an icy chill into the heart of each one who heard him as he spoke. Perhaps those who heard him dismissed his warnings as hypothetical; and yet, a dark shadow must surely have passed over the lives of those who heard him speaking. When God warns of pending judgement, it can never be easily dismissed. The prospect of divine judgement is not a pleasant experience, even for those who refuse to believe the Living God. Knowing this, we have some understanding of the terror Amos’ words held for those who heard him speak:
“The lion has roared;
who will not fear?
The Lord GOD has spoken;
who can but prophesy?”
[AMOS 3:8]
I must wonder whether God is even heard in the western world as He speaks through His Word in this day. There isn’t much reason to believe that most people attempt to hear what He says. Even among the churches bearing Christ’s Name, it would appear that those who should be shepherds are hesitant to speak boldly to sound out a warning of judgement to come. Clearly, the LORD warns that sinful nations must be held to account—He does not permit wickedness to continue unchecked. One cannot read what is written without understanding that wickedness shall be put down at the last; nevertheless, sinful nations are judged in this present time. I can only conclude that the Holy One does speak, and if we don’t heed what He has caused to be written we must pay a terrible price for our arrogance, for ignoring what we know to be right.
I do not believe that the recent CoVid-19 pandemic was a judgement from God, though I do believe that those of us who were compelled to shelter in place were being tested through our response to the inconvenience of the situation. We were not being tested by government, but we were revealing our faith through how we handled the inconvenience. Is it possible that God was attempting to get the attention of His people? It is easy to believe that it is a distinct possibility that God sought to get our attention through these tests.
I cannot expect that outsiders, that lost people who have not known the Son of God as their Saviour, will take note of God’s hand at work even in the midst of inconvenience since they are focused on themselves, on their own comforts, and on fulfilling their own desires. Nevertheless, because we who name the Name of the Risen Saviour aver our faith that He lives within, I must ask whether we seized the opportunity to honour Him during our enforced retreat from the daily grind by investing time in reading His Word. During the days of enforced retreat, did we seek to glorify His Name by praying for those who we know are in need? Did we endeavour to exalt Him by speaking to our family about the necessity of living for His glory even during our enforced isolation? When we were compelled to turn away from the routines that previously marked our lives, we were tested for a brief time. How did we fare in that test? There is an even greater test coming, a test that the Lord God will permit to come upon us, a test which will purify His people. Are we prepared for that test?
Watching the reports of the pressures faced by the people of our land, is it possible that we have not noticed that despite all the wealth we enjoy, we are not a happy people? [2] When we have surrendered our manufacturing to people who are openly intent on destroying our way of life, are we actually so blind that we can’t see that God is turning back on us our own arrogance? When our medications, our vital metals required for our modern way of life are controlled by people who despise us, have we begun a slide into oblivion, a slide that God permits because we have excluded him from our world?
The Lord spoke quite pointedly to His ancient people. He compared Israel, His heritage, to “a lion in the forest,” to “a hyena’s lair” surrounded by “birds of prey,” to a flock besieged by wild beasts. He charged the shepherds of Israel as guilty of destroying His heritage. Those who should have been pastors had introduced error and promoted wickedness rather than honouring the LORD and declaring His righteousness. He looked at the land and decried the fact that the leaders had “sown wheat and reaped thorns.” Because of their wanton acts, the leaders would be “ashamed of their harvests.” If God allowed His ancient and beloved people to sink into the oblivion of their own choices, why would we imagine that God will overlook the perfidy of our present culture? Why would we think that God would permit us to continue ignoring Him?
On Friday, April 17, 2020, the governor of one of the larger states of the USA announced that the state had turned the corner on the rate of infection by the COVID-19 virus. He boasted, “The number is down because we brought the number down.” Then, to emphasize his point, he said, “God did not do that. Faith did not do that. Destiny did not do that. A lot of pain and suffering did that… That’s how it works. It’s math.” [3] It was an arrogant statement, but sadly it expressed a common sentiment. We need God’s help during our darkest hour, but we can do anything on our own. That attitude grows out of a self-satisfied culture that has forgotten how utterly dependent we are on the Living God. That attitude, prevalent throughout modern society, invites divine judgement to compel us to confess our inability to do anything to defend ourselves from the next disaster to strike.
I’m not under any impression that anything I say will change the attitude of society, but perhaps the message I bring will encourage you to ensure that you do not participate in the movement of society toward oblivion. Perhaps you will take seriously the knowledge of our dependence upon the grace and mercy of the Lord to avoid judgement. Perhaps you as an individual, or even we as a congregation, will not change society, but the immediate culture in which each of us live and move will see the reality of the Lord’s goodness. Perhaps we can ensure that our family, that our circle of friends, that those with whom we interact, will be compelled to acknowledge that there is a God and that we owe Him so much more than anyone could ever imagine. Jeremiah didn’t stop the judgement on Israel that was even then threatening, but he left a legacy that ever after he wrote serves to instruct righteous people. He left a legacy of righteousness that honours the Living God. And each one of us can ensure that we leave precisely such a legacy through living in such a way that we honour God.
As I’ve delivered this message, I cannot help but wonder whether someone who listens, or perhaps someone who has read what I’ve written, has found himself or herself convicted as the Spirit of God impresses on the heart the need to believe the Risen Saviour. Is the Spirit of the Risen Christ speaking to you even now? If that is the case for you, I urge you to hear the Word of the Lord. If you openly admit that Jesus is Master, believing with all your heart that He is risen from the dead, you will be saved. Believing gives you a right standing with God and agreeing with Him gives complete freedom. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] See Michael Stark, “Death by Despair,” (sermon), https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/death-by-despair-michael-stark-sermon-on-evangelism-248316?ref=SermonSerps
[3] Kathryn Jean Lopez, “Beware Governor Declaring ‘God Did Not Do This’—Help Us in Our Pandemic Pain. We Need All the Divine Help We Can Get.” National Review, April 17, 2020, https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/beware-governor-declaring-god-did-not-do-this-help-us-in-our-pandemic-pain-we-need-all-the-divine-help-we-can-get/?utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=86600017&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9UEi4afyUf2I6VOkdyhg8-Se1C0s1Cuu8CZGayZj-5lEUMmkSIOQNkBFigAsNpTpf13U2kkZQRo5_rAlVK_oHFqeEgqw&_hsmi=86600017, accessed 21 April 2020
