September 2022

“If running against men has wearied you, how will you race against horses?”

I can’t think of anyone who had a tougher job than Jeremiah.  In his day he saw the last good king of Judah die in a senseless battle God had tried to warn him away from.  From that point, the land of Judah was eaten away by her enemy over the course of twenty plus years until she was completely destroyed.  Jeremiah was given the task of preaching unpopular sermons of repentance and surrender and was verbally and physically assaulted.  We would forgive him if he complained a bit.  He complains a bit.  God answers one of those complaints in Jeremiah 12:5 – “Look, if you can’t handle racing against people, how are you going to race against horses?”  And it strikes me – God expected him to race with horses….

Well, sort of, there is precedent.  But what He really expected was for Jeremiah to do what He told him to do and leave the consequences to Him.  Jeremiah was complaining that God was taking too long in His justice.  Not that Jeremiah wanted to see his country destroyed necessarily, but he was tired of preaching and seeing the people look at him like he had two heads.  “Just a second, Jeremiah, you say we’ve got to stop doing what we’re doing and if we don’t we’ll be sorry – but nothing – n-o-t-h-i-n-g will happen!  You’re a fraud!  And a stupid dangerous one at that!”

I get it.  When we stand up for what is right, say for example, speaking the truth in love or calling sin, “sin” or preaching whole-hearted allegiance to God and people say we are haters or ignorant of how the world works or alarmists, we can get caught up in the “No, I’m not,” “Yes, you are” game.  And we can turn to God and say, “Can I get a little help here?  Just a little sign from you to them so they can know I’m not crazy?” and God, being God and not working on our timetable, is justified in saying, “You are getting distracted.  You’ve said what I needed you to say, if they won’t listen, move on, I’ll take care of this.  Don’t worry if they think you’re crazy, I know you and that’s all that matters.  You go run with the horses over there and tear it up while I deal with this in my own patient and hopeful time.”  In other words, keep at God’s business.  Do what God wants you to do.  If there is widespread repentance, great!  If only a few listen, God has won a few.  If no one listens, at least we are His.

I think we are in an age of exhaustion.  The information age is relentless in bombarding folks with useless information that distracts from God’s voice.  More people than ever seem to believe the ends justify the means.  Talk of civility is ridiculed and entire bridges of communication have been nuked to make way for the highways of vitriol and spite and the world tries to funnel us to those roads.  But this is not the time to give up on God’s ways.  Nor is it time to sit down and cry.  This is the time to speak God’s love, truth, justice, mercy and holiness to a world that very well may hear all of what we say as a foreign language.  But there are always some who will strain to hear.  There are always some that, because we didn’t give up doing and saying the right things, will tune their ears to God’s language and become fluent.  So, let’s not lose heart – let’s race with the horses.