Running with Horses Text: Jeremiah 12:5-6
Introduction: The Divine Summons to Man Up
We live in a soft age. Our Christianity has become soft. We have convinced ourselves that the primary business of God is to be our celestial therapist, to affirm our feelings, and to ensure that our path through this life is as comfortable and friction-free as possible. We come to God with our complaints, our hurts, and our anxieties, fully expecting a gentle pat on the head and a soothing word. We expect God to say, "There, there. It will all be okay." And when He does not, we are offended. When He answers our lament with a challenge instead of a comfort, we are tempted to think He is being unfair, or perhaps that we have misheard Him.
Jeremiah finds himself in precisely this position. He has just lodged a righteous complaint with God. He has looked around at the prosperity of the wicked, at the flourishing of treacherous men, and he has asked God the question that has echoed down through the centuries: "Why?" It is a good question, a covenantal question. He is not shaking his fist at Heaven; he is pleading with God on the basis of God's own character. "Righteous are you, O Yahweh, when I complain to you; yet I would plead my case before you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper?" (Jer. 12:1).
And what answer does he get? He does not get a detailed explanation of the problem of evil. He does not get a five-point plan for emotional well-being. He gets a bucket of cold water in the face. He gets a divine summons to grow a spiritual backbone. God's answer is, in essence, "You think this is hard? You haven't seen anything yet." This is not the answer our therapeutic age wants, but it is the answer we desperately need. God is not interested in coddling His saints; He is interested in forging them. He is in the business of making spiritual men, not spiritual invalids. And the forge He uses is the fire of affliction. The training ground He uses is the very world that seems to be spinning out of control.
This passage is God's loving, bracing, and absolutely necessary corrective to our spiritual self-pity. It is a call to endurance, a warning against naivete, and a preparation for the greater battles that lie ahead for every faithful servant of the Lord.
The Text
"If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, Then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, How will you do in the thicket of the Jordan? For even your brothers and the household of your father, Even they have dealt treacherously with you, Even they have called aloud after you. Do not believe them, although they may say nice things to you."
(Jeremiah 12:5-6 LSB)
The Coming Escalation (v. 5)
God begins His response not by solving Jeremiah's current problem, but by pointing him to a future, more difficult one.
"If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, Then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, How will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?" (Jeremiah 12:5)
God uses two powerful, proverbial images here to make His point. The first is a race. Jeremiah, you have been running against ordinary men, footmen, and they have worn you out. The opposition you have faced from your hometown boys in Anathoth, the plots and the whispers, these are the junior varsity squad. You are winded already. What are you going to do when I send in the cavalry? How will you contend with horses? The horses represent a faster, stronger, more overwhelming form of opposition. God is telling him that the conflict is about to escalate from a local skirmish to a full-blown war. The opposition in Jerusalem, the princes, the false prophets, the king himself, they are the horses.
This is a fundamental principle of the Christian life. God trains us for greater trials by means of lesser trials. He does not throw us into the deep end on day one. He gives us footmen to race against first. The question is, how are we running? If the small irritations of daily life, the petty slights, the minor disappointments, are enough to knock us off our stride and send us into a spiral of complaint and self-pity, then we are in a perilous state. We are being tired out by footmen. We are proving ourselves unfit for the greater contests that God, in His wisdom, has prepared for us. The purpose of the small trial is to build the spiritual muscle needed for the large one.
The second image reinforces the first. "If you fall down in a land of peace, How will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?" A "land of peace" is a relative term. It means open country, cleared land, where the footing is secure and the dangers are visible. Jeremiah feels like he is in a warzone, but God tells him he has been strolling through a meadow compared to what is coming. The "thicket of the Jordan" was a well-known place of danger. It was the dense, wild jungle that grew up along the banks of the Jordan River, especially during the flood season. It was infamous as the haunt of wild beasts, particularly lions (Jer. 49:19). If you trip and fall on a flat, paved road, what hope do you have of navigating a treacherous, lion-infested jungle in the dark?
This is not God being cruel. This is God being a realist. He is a loving Father who is training His son for the realities of the world we live in. He is telling Jeremiah, and us, that we must not mistake the current peace for the final peace. We are soldiers in a real war, and we must be prepared for the terrain to get rougher. Complacency is a luxury we cannot afford. We must use the times of relative peace to train, to strengthen our legs, to learn the Word, to deepen our prayers, so that when we are thrust into the thicket, we are not taken by surprise.
The Treachery of the Familiar (v. 6)
Then God reveals the source of the current trouble, and in doing so, He sharpens the warning. The footmen who have been tiring Jeremiah out are not strangers.
"For even your brothers and the household of your father, Even they have dealt treacherously with you, Even they have called aloud after you. Do not believe them, although they may say nice things to you." (Jeremiah 12:6 LSB)
Here is the sting. The opposition is not coming from the Babylonians, not yet. It is coming from his own kith and kin. "Your brothers and the household of your father." These are the people who should have been his staunchest allies. This is covenantal betrayal of the highest order. They are not just disagreeing with him; they are dealing "treacherously" with him. The word implies backstabbing, duplicity, and deceit. They are smiling to his face while sharpening their knives behind his back.
"Even they have called aloud after you." This phrase likely refers to raising a hue and cry, as one would when chasing a criminal. They are publicly denouncing him, joining the mob against him, trying to run him out of town. His own family is leading the charge against him.
And so God gives him a piece of hard, practical advice: "Do not believe them, although they may say nice things to you." This is a command to abandon naivete. Jeremiah must learn to be shrewd as a serpent. When those who have proven themselves to be traitors suddenly start speaking sweetly, it is not because they have had a change of heart. It is because they have changed their tactics. The flattering word can be more dangerous than the open threat. It is the bait on the hook.
This is a hard lesson, but an essential one. The Lord Jesus warned us of this very thing. "A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household" (Mark 6:4). And more starkly, "a person's enemies will be those of his own household" (Matt. 10:36). The gospel creates division because it demands ultimate allegiance. And when our allegiance to Christ conflicts with the allegiances of family, the result is often betrayal. Your stand for the truth will expose the compromises of those closest to you, and they will often resent you for it. They will deal treacherously with you.
The Christological Center
As with all Scripture, we must see how this points us to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jeremiah is a type of Christ, a forerunner who experiences in part what Christ would experience in full. If Jeremiah ran with footmen, Christ ran with horses. If Jeremiah stumbled in a land of peace, Christ entered the thicket of the Jordan for us.
Who faced greater opposition than Christ? He contended not just with the footmen of Galilee but with the horses of the Sanhedrin, of Herod, and of Pontius Pilate. He faced the full cavalry charge of hell itself.
And who knew betrayal more intimately? Jeremiah's brothers dealt treacherously with him. But Jesus' own disciple, one of the twelve who ate at His table, lifted up his heel against Him (Psalm 41:9). His own brothers did not believe in Him for a time (John 7:5). He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him (John 1:11). They called aloud after Him, shouting "Crucify him!"
And what was His "thicket of the Jordan?" It was Gethsemane, where the weight of our sin pressed upon Him like a wild beast. It was Gabbatha, where He was scourged and mocked. It was Golgotha, where He was plunged into the ultimate darkness and bore the full flood of God's wrath against our sin. He went into the darkest part of the jungle, where the Lion of Judah was slain for the sins of His people.
Conclusion: Our Race, His Strength
So what is the takeaway for us? It is not a call to despair. It is a call to preparation. God's word to Jeremiah is His word to us. Do not be surprised by trials. Do not be surprised when the race gets harder. Do not be surprised when the betrayal comes from close quarters. This is the normal Christian life in a fallen world.
Our task is to run the race we are given. We must not complain that we were assigned to run against horses when we would have preferred footmen. We are to run with endurance, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:1-2). He ran the ultimate race. He entered the ultimate thicket. And He did it for us.
Because He endured, we can endure. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. God is not asking you to compete with horses in your own power. He is telling you to prepare for the horses by clinging to the one who has already broken them. The trials God sends are not meant to crush you; they are meant to drive you out of your self-reliance and into the arms of Christ.
So when the footmen tire you out, do not despair. See it as training. When you find yourself in the thicket, do not be surprised. Know that your Savior has been there before you and has cleared a path for you. And when even your brothers deal treacherously with you, do not believe their nice words, but do believe the Word of the one who sticks closer than a brother. He is the one who will see you through the race, out of the thicket, and safely home.