A Righteous Lawsuit Against the Complacent Text: Jeremiah 12:1-4
Introduction: The Audacity of Faith
We live in a sentimental age, an age that has mistaken niceness for righteousness and effeminate platitudes for robust faith. The modern evangelical impulse, when confronted with the raw, jagged edges of Scripture, is to either sand them down with allegorical sandpaper or to discreetly cover them over with a doily of pious embarrassment. And few things are more jagged than a prophet of God bringing a lawsuit against God Himself, which is precisely what we find here in Jeremiah.
This is not the prayer of a man questioning whether God exists. This is the prayer of a man who knows God exists, knows Him to be righteous, and is therefore profoundly disturbed by the state of the world. Jeremiah is not some detached philosopher in an ivory tower, stroking his beard and pondering the abstract problem of evil. He is a man with his feet on the ground, mud on his boots, and a divine message burning in his bones. And what he sees all around him is a flagrant contradiction. The wicked are not just getting by; they are succeeding. The treacherous are not just surviving; they are complacent, fat, and happy. And so Jeremiah, in an act of audacious faith, not faithlessness, comes before the bar of heaven to plead his case.
This is a covenant lawsuit. Jeremiah begins by affirming the righteousness of the Judge, which is the only proper way to approach Him. He is not shaking his fist at the sky in blind rebellion. He is standing on the covenant promises of God and asking why the terms of that covenant appear to be inverted in real time. God had promised blessing for obedience and curses for disobedience, but from Jeremiah's vantage point, the wicked were receiving the blessings and the righteous were receiving the curses. This is the ancient cry of the saints, echoed in Job and in the Psalms: "Why does the way of the wicked prosper?"
Our soft generation needs to learn from this. We think faith means never asking hard questions. But biblical faith is robust enough to handle them. God is not fragile. He is not intimidated by our confusion. Jeremiah's plea is a model for us, not because he has it all figured out, but because he takes his confusion and his outrage to the only one who can do anything about it. He doesn't gossip about God to his neighbors; he speaks to God directly. And in doing so, he reveals the deep conflict between the apparent realities of this fallen world and the ultimate reality of God's perfect justice.
The Text
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?
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.
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!
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 12:1-4 LSB)
The Righteous Complaint (v. 1-2)
Jeremiah opens his case by establishing the foundation of his argument: the absolute righteousness of God.
"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 12:1)
This is crucial. Jeremiah is not accusing God of being unrighteous. He is reasoning from God's righteousness. It is because God is just that the current situation makes no sense. This is the polar opposite of the atheist's complaint. The atheist stands on nothing and complains that the universe is not fair, without ever being able to define what "fair" is. He has no standard. Jeremiah stands on the rock of God's revealed character and says, "You are the standard of justice, and what I see in Judah does not line up with Your character."
His question is pointed and direct: "Why has the way of the wicked succeeded?" This is not a theoretical problem. He sees treacherous men, covenant-breakers, living comfortable, untroubled lives. The word "complacent" here means to be at ease, secure, free from anxiety. These are the men who should be tormented by their sin, but instead, they are sleeping soundly at night. They are the fat cats of Judah, and their prosperity is a public scandal that seems to mock the very idea of a just God.
Jeremiah then presses his case in verse 2, arguing that God Himself seems to be the source of their prosperity.
"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." (Jeremiah 12:2)
This is a staggering accusation. Jeremiah uses the metaphor of a flourishing tree, a picture the Old Testament reserves for the righteous (Psalm 1:3). But here, it is the wicked who are planted by God, who take root, who grow, who produce fruit. This is a direct challenge to the doctrine of providence. Jeremiah is saying, "Lord, this isn't just happening. You are doing this. Your sun is shining on them, Your rain is watering them." This is a hard truth that we must all face. God is sovereign over the prosperity of the wicked. He gives them their health, their wealth, their intelligence, and they use it all to rebel against Him. He loads the gun that they point back at His chest.
And their rebellion is one of profound hypocrisy. "You are near to their lips But far from their inmost being." These are not overt, card-carrying atheists. These are the religious hypocrites of the covenant community. They say the right things. They go through the religious motions. They probably had "Yahweh is Lord" bumper stickers on their chariots. But their heart, their "inmost being," is a wasteland of unbelief. God's name is on their tongue, but He has no place in their affections or their allegiances. This is the kind of religion that God detests most of all, a hollow piety that uses the language of faith as a cloak for treachery.
The Imprecatory Appeal (v. 3)
Having laid out the problem, Jeremiah now turns to his own situation and makes a raw, violent appeal for justice.
"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!" (Jeremiah 12:3)
The contrast is sharp. While the wicked have hearts far from God, Jeremiah invites divine inspection. "You know me; You see me; You test my heart." This is the cry of a man with a clear conscience. He is not claiming sinless perfection, but he is claiming fundamental loyalty. He is saying, "Lord, you have searched my heart. You know that despite my weaknesses and fears, my fundamental orientation is toward You. Theirs is not." The testing of his heart has proven its genuineness, even as their untested complacency proves their hypocrisy.
And on the basis of this tested loyalty, he prays a prayer that would make the average modern worship leader faint. "Drag them off like sheep for the slaughter And set them apart for a day of carnage!" This is an imprecatory prayer. It is a call for divine judgment, for holy vengeance. Our sentimental age is scandalized by such prayers, but they are woven throughout the fabric of Scripture. This is not a petty, personal vendetta. Jeremiah is not asking God to slash his neighbor's tires because of a property dispute. He is praying as a prophet of the covenant, asking the covenant Lord to uphold the terms of His own covenant. He is asking God to be God.
The wicked are complacent because judgment has been delayed. Jeremiah is praying for that delay to end. He is praying for God to vindicate His own righteousness. The imagery is stark: sheep being dragged to the slaughter. This is not pretty. It is a prayer for a "day of carnage." Justice, when it finally arrives for the impenitent, is a bloody affair. To pray for justice is to pray for the violent overthrow of evil. This is not sub-Christian; it is profoundly Christian. It is a prayer that is ultimately fulfilled at the cross, where God's wrath was poured out, and will be consummated at the final judgment, when every enemy is put under Christ's feet.
The Ecological Complaint (v. 4)
Jeremiah's complaint extends beyond the social and theological realms. He sees the consequences of sin written into the very land itself.
"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 12:4)
This is a foundational biblical principle that our modern, Gnostic sensibilities have forgotten. Sin has ecological consequences. When man rebels against God, the creation groans. The land itself mourns. The drought Jeremiah sees is not an unfortunate meteorological event; it is a covenantal curse. The land is vomiting out its inhabitants because of their wickedness (Leviticus 18:25). The death of the animals and birds is a direct result of the evil of man. We are not separate from the created order; we are its federal head. When the head rebels, the whole body suffers.
This is the opposite of the pagan environmentalist's worldview. They believe man is a virus and the earth is a goddess to be placated. The Bible teaches that the earth is God's creation, given to man as a stewardship, and that it suffers because of man's rebellion against God. The solution to ecological crisis is not fewer people, but more righteous people. The solution is repentance and faith.
And what is the root of this evil? Jeremiah tells us. It is a practical atheism. "Because men have said, 'He will not see our latter ending.'" They believe God is either blind or indifferent. They think they can sin with impunity because God is not paying attention to the consequences. They live as though there is no final judgment, no day of accounting. This is the ultimate folly. It is the sin of every generation that suppresses the truth in unrighteousness. They believe that because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, it will never be executed at all. Jeremiah is here to tell them, and us, that they are dead wrong.
The Gospel in the Lawsuit
So where is the good news in this raw, disturbing passage? It is found precisely in the fact that Jeremiah's lawsuit is ultimately answered and resolved in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Jeremiah cries out, "Why do the wicked prosper?" And for a time, it seemed the most wicked act of all prospered most of all. At the cross, treacherous men took the only truly righteous man and, with God's sovereign hand planting them there, they seemed to succeed. They put the Lord of Glory on a tree and watched Him die. It was the ultimate triumph of wickedness, the moment when the darkness seemed to win.
Jeremiah prays for the wicked to be dragged off like sheep to the slaughter. But on the cross, the sinless Lamb of God was dragged off in our place. He was "set apart for a day of carnage." The imprecation we deserved fell on Him. The divine justice that Jeremiah called for was satisfied completely in the broken body of Jesus Christ. God did not ignore the sins of the wicked; He judged them with infinite ferocity at Calvary.
Jeremiah saw a land that was mourning, withering under the curse of sin. But Jesus, by His death and resurrection, has become the firstfruits of a new creation. He is the one who breaks the curse. He is the one who will one day wipe away every tear and make all things new, restoring not just our souls, but the entire cosmos, which now groans in eager expectation for the revealing of the sons of God (Romans 8:19-22).
And finally, the wicked said, "He will not see our latter ending." But the resurrection of Jesus Christ is God's definitive, thunderous declaration that He sees everything. He saw the end from the beginning. He saw His Son's glorious victory over sin and death, and He sees the final judgment where every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The prosperity of the wicked is temporary. Their complacency is a delusion. The Judge of all the earth will do right. Jeremiah's lawsuit is ultimately answered with an empty tomb. And because of that, we can face the injustices of our own day not with despair, but with the same audacious faith as Jeremiah, knowing that the King is on His throne and His justice will not fail.