Chapter 12
vss 1-4, Jeremiah asks God how long before he will go ahead and do this. Jeremiah seems to think the time should be immediately. It is an old question. Why do the wicked get to thrive and prosper - for generations sometimes! - while God does nothing?
I needed to see what MSB made of God's answer, which starts in vss 5, 6. God does not answer directly. He doesn't say why He waits. What He says is, if you are dejected to the point of quitting now, how will you deal with things when they get harder. Implication is that they are going to get way harder to deal with! Good one for FB. If you think Washington is corrupt now, what will you do when it gets bad? Not posted as of 10/5/20.
2021, Vss 3, 4:
3 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. 4 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." [Jer 12:3-4 ESV]
Jeremiah is asking God to destroy those who are evil in Judah because even nature is corrupted and wasting away because of the unrepentant, ongoing sin, corruption and evil they are doing. Not just crops, but the very grass is withering. Animals are scarce, fleeing the area, migrating to other places because this place - its very climate - is becoming inhospitable to natural things. I am not prepared to say that our climate change today is due to sin rather than CO2, but if I wanted to say that, if I was going to try and build a case for that, this verse would be at the top of the list!
2021, vss 5,6:
These are worded so eloquently. Isaiah said a lot of profound things, but I can't help but think that Jeremiah was more "poetic":
5 "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? 6 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." [Jer 12:5-6 ESV]
When things get really tough for those who know God, believe God, trust in God, when persecution is around every corner, what do we do? This seems to say "Don't trust anyone, not even family, because they are ALL out to get you." This was probably advice unique to Jeremiah, because he was so high profile, delivering messages at the very doorstep of the Temple. Better to take this as a specific command to Jeremiah rather than a general command. We know in the NT that Jesus himself told them not to prepare remarks for when they were persecuted and arrested. On the other hand, the NT also does not say to preach on the street corners when it is made illegal. We know early Christians had underground churches. They witnessed person to person, not in mass public meetings in defiance of Roman law. It is a complex issue. I will save it for another time.
2024 - Actually, Vss 5-6 seem to be the beginning of God's answer to Jeremiah, though the section titles in NASB95 say God's answer begins in vs 7. Vs 5 does not work as Jeremiah talking to God. It only works the other way around. God is telling Jeremiah that things aren't nearly as bad as they are going to be. That the evil in Jeremiah's time are just footmen compared to the horses that will come later. That the land is now peaceful, compared to the maze of evil that is coming. I don't see how these two verses can be otherwise.
vss 7-13, Seems to be Jeremiah's reply to God's answer of the original question. Or instead of reply, maybe it is a lament. Maybe Jeremiah is saying that the evil people of his time, in addition to attacking him, are also destroying Jeremiah's heritage, his future, the hope for the children being born. These people are laying waste to the country, but God's vengeance, when it comes, will devastate all the land.
2024 - Again, NASB95, I think, has it wrong. 7-13 are Jeremiah's answer to what God said in 5-6.
Then there is this verse, God speaking again:
15 And after I have plucked them up, I will again have compassion on them, and I will bring them again each to his heritage and each to his land. [Jer 12:15 ESV]
MSB says this is to be fulfilled in the Millennial Kingdom. Not necessarily before then. Israel did return from Babylon, and in 1948 they became a nation again against all odds and much opposition. But 1948 is not the fulfillment of this prophecy. Because the promises of the covenant made on exit from Egypt are not yet fulfilled again.