Commentary - Jeremiah 12:1-4

Bird's-eye view

Here we have the prophet Jeremiah, a man saturated in the Word of God and tasked with delivering it to a hard-hearted people, bringing a case before the Lord Himself. This is not the whining of a disgruntled employee; this is a formal, covenantal lawsuit, a plea lodged in the heavenly court. Jeremiah begins by affirming God's impeccable righteousness, which is the necessary starting point for any creature who would dare to question the Creator. He is not shaking his fist at the sky in blind rebellion. Rather, he is reasoning with God on the basis of God's own character and promises. The central question is one that has vexed the saints for millennia: why do the wicked prosper? Why do those who traffic in treachery live lives of ease? Jeremiah sees the rank hypocrisy, the outward religious motions disconnected from the heart, and he calls it what it is. And in response, he does not ask for a quiet life in the suburbs. He calls for holy vengeance. He prays an imprecation, asking God to act, to vindicate His own name by bringing the wicked to the slaughter. The plea concludes by connecting the sin of the people to the suffering of the land itself, a foundational biblical principle. Creation groans under the weight of man's rebellion.

This passage is a master class in honest, biblical piety. It teaches us that it is not sinful to be perplexed by God's providence. It is not sinful to ask God the hard questions. What is sinful is to ask them from a position of arrogant unbelief. Jeremiah asks from a position of faith, a faith that knows God is righteous and just, and therefore a faith that can boldly ask Him to demonstrate that righteousness and justice in the world He has made. This is a prayer for the kingdom to come, and for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. It is a prayer that God would stop grading on a curve.

Outline

Commentary

Jeremiah 12:1

Righteous are You, O Yahweh, when I would plead my case with You; Indeed I would speak matters of justice with You: Why has the way of the wicked succeeded? Why are all those who deal in treachery complacent?

Jeremiah opens his case, not with an accusation, but with a profound affirmation of faith. "Righteous are You, O Yahweh." This is the bedrock. Before any complaint can be registered, before any question can be posed, the character of God must be established as the fixed point of the universe. Jeremiah is not putting God in the dock; he is appealing to the Judge of all the earth to do right. He knows that if God is not righteous, then the entire conversation is meaningless. All our cries for justice would be nothing more than echoing shouts in an empty, absurd cosmos. But because God is righteous, Jeremiah can bring his case. He can "plead" and "speak matters of justice." This is not the language of rebellion, but of covenant. He is a prosecuting attorney, of sorts, but one who serves the Judge he is addressing.

And what is the case? It is the age-old problem of theodicy. "Why has the way of the wicked succeeded?" This is not an abstract philosophical query. Jeremiah has a front-row seat to the success of wicked men. He sees the corrupt, the treacherous, the apostates, and they are not just getting by, they are succeeding. They are fat and happy. They are "complacent," or at ease. They live their lives as though there is no final exam, no day of reckoning. This is a profound offense to the righteous soul. It seems to fly in the face of everything the law of God teaches about blessings and curses. Jeremiah is essentially asking God to explain the apparent discrepancy between His revealed will and His providential workings. This is the kind of honest wrestling that God invites from His people. He does not want us to pretend we are not bothered by what we see. He wants us to bring our perplexities to Him, grounding them in His unshakeable righteousness.

Jeremiah 12:2

You have planted them; they have also taken root; They grow; they have even produced fruit. You are near to their lips But far from their inmost being.

The prophet deepens his complaint by acknowledging God's absolute sovereignty over the situation. "You have planted them." Jeremiah understands that the wicked do not succeed by accident. Their prosperity is not some fluke of fortune. God Himself is the one who planted them. This is a hard doctrine, but a necessary one. If God is not sovereign over the prosperity of the wicked, then He is not sovereign at all. Jeremiah sees the whole process: God plants, they take root, they grow, they bear fruit. Their success is thorough, organic, and complete. From a worldly perspective, their lives are an unqualified success story. They are producing the fruit of wealth, power, and influence.

But then Jeremiah cuts to the heart of the matter. He exposes their spiritual rot. "You are near to their lips, but far from their inmost being." This is a devastating indictment of dead religion. These are not outspoken atheists shaking their fists at heaven. No, these are the respectable church-goers of their day. They have God on their lips. They know the catechism answers. They can say "Yahweh" with the best of them. They perform all the outward rituals. But it is all a sham. God is a stranger to their hearts, their kidneys, their "inmost being." The seat of their affections and desires is utterly estranged from the God they profess with their mouths. This is the essence of hypocrisy, and it is a stench in the nostrils of a holy God. And Jeremiah's point is that God, who sees the heart, is the very one who is allowing this charade to flourish. The problem is not just that the wicked prosper, but that the piously wicked prosper.

Jeremiah 12:3

But You, O Yahweh, You know me; You see me; And You test my heart’s attitude toward You. Drag them off like sheep for the slaughter And set them apart for a day of carnage!

Here the prophet pivots from the wicked to himself. He draws a sharp contrast. While the wicked are known by their hypocrisy, Jeremiah appeals to God's perfect knowledge of his own heart. "But You, O Yahweh, You know me." This is the plea of a man with a clear conscience. He is not claiming sinless perfection, but he is claiming integrity. He invites divine scrutiny. "You see me; and You test my heart's attitude toward You." Let the trial begin, he says. Put my heart on the stand. You will find that my loyalty, my core disposition, is toward You. This is the foundation for his next, shocking request.

Because God is a righteous judge who sees the heart, Jeremiah calls for a verdict. And the verdict he calls for is not a slap on the wrist. "Drag them off like sheep for the slaughter and set them apart for a day of carnage!" This is a raw, violent, imprecatory prayer. And it is glorious. This is not petty vindictiveness. Jeremiah is not asking for a bigger chariot than his neighbor. He is asking for God's justice to be done. He sees these complacent hypocrites as sheep being fattened for the butcher. Their prosperity is not a sign of God's blessing, but rather His prelude to judgment. He is asking God to stop fattening them and to bring on the day of slaughter. To "set them apart" is to consecrate them for destruction. This is a prayer for God to act like God. It is a prayer for the holiness of God to be vindicated against those who cheapen His name with their lips while their hearts are a world away. The modern, effeminate church gets the vapors when it reads prayers like this, but this is robust, biblical piety. It is a zeal for the glory of God.

Jeremiah 12:4

How long is the land to mourn And the plants of every field to dry up? Because of the evil of those who inhabit it, Animals and birds have been swept away, Because men have said, “He will not see our latter ending.”

Jeremiah concludes his plea by widening the scope of the tragedy. The sin of these wicked men is not a private affair. It has cosmic consequences. "How long is the land to mourn?" The prophet gives voice to the created order. The land itself is personified as a mourner, suffering under the weight of covenant infidelity. The curse that was threatened in Deuteronomy is now falling upon them. The plants are drying up, the animals and birds are perishing. This is not an early form of environmentalism; this is covenant theology. When man is in rebellion against God, the creation which man was tasked to govern suffers with him. The ground was cursed for Adam's sake, and here the land of Judah is being cursed for the sake of his faithless sons.

And what is the root cause of this rampant evil? It is a practical atheism. "Because men have said, 'He will not see our latter ending.'" They have convinced themselves that God is either blind or indifferent. They believe there is no final judgment, no ultimate accountability. They think they can get away with it. Their worldview is truncated; it has no room for a final act where all accounts are settled. They live for the now, with no thought for the "latter ending." This is the ultimate folly. And Jeremiah's prayer, his entire plea, is a cry for God to prove them wrong. He is asking God to show up, to demonstrate that He does indeed see, that He does indeed judge, and that the latter end of the wicked is nothing less than a "day of carnage." The health of the land and the glory of God are tied together, and Jeremiah prays for both to be restored.

Application

So what do we do with a passage like this? First, we must learn to pray with the brutal honesty of Jeremiah. Our prayers are often too manicured, too polite. We approach God as though He were a delicate grandmother who might be shocked by our real thoughts. Jeremiah teaches us to come to God as He is, the righteous Judge, and to bring our real perplexities, our real frustrations, our real zeal for His justice into His presence. God is big enough to handle our questions. He invites our wrestling, so long as we, like Jacob, cling to Him in the process.

Second, we must take the problem of evil seriously, but not let it shipwreck our faith. The success of the wicked is a real and painful mystery. But Jeremiah's starting point must be our starting point: "Righteous are You, O Yahweh." We must interpret the confusing circumstances of our lives through the fixed reality of God's character, not the other way around. God's providence is often a tangled knot from our limited perspective, but faith trusts that from His perspective, it is a perfect and beautiful tapestry.

Third, we must learn to pray imprecatory prayers. This does not mean we pray against our personal enemies because they slighted us at the office. It means that when we see the enemies of God, those who murder the unborn, who corrupt our children, who traffic in lies and blasphemy, we have a biblical obligation to pray for their downfall. We pray for their conversion, yes, but if they will not be converted, we pray for their confusion, their disruption, and their ultimate judgment. We pray, "Drag them off like sheep for the slaughter." To pray this way is to align our hearts with God's own hatred of evil. It is a prayer for cosmic justice, a prayer that God would vindicate His own great name.

Finally, we must remember that the ultimate answer to Jeremiah's plea is the cross of Jesus Christ. At the cross, the problem of evil was dealt its deathblow. There, the righteous Son of God was treated like a wicked man, dragged off as a sheep to the slaughter, so that wicked men like us could be treated as righteous sons. God's justice and mercy met and kissed. And because of the cross, we know that there is a "latter ending." There is a final judgment coming, when all wrongs will be made right, every tear will be wiped away, and the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Until that day, we, like Jeremiah, are to plead our case, trust the Judge, and pray for His kingdom to come.