September 3, 2020: Day 12 – Jeremiah 12

We begin this chapter with the question that has provided uncertain answers for millennia.  Why do good things happen to bad people?  Normally we would follow suit and ask the question with the same title of the book, why do bad things happen to good people, but here it is reversed.  The author asks: “Why do all who are treacherous thrive?”  As Billy Joel would say:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMdOsk3fVAE

We then hear God,  and Jeremiah, ask the people of Israel and Judah that if they think they can do it on their own, then they should try.  But they need to look at their previous attempts.  They tried to run with people and were exhausted, how are they going to run with horses?  They were given a safe land and still fell down, how will they do in the treacherous land of their neighbors who are looking to kill them?  

We are not able to live outside of the protection of God.  God is our maker, God is our potter, and we are the clay.  How can the clay say to the potter, why did you make me in this way or shape?  I would rather be a bowl, but you have made me a vase.  Why do the wicked prosper?  I would rather they suffer.  But we have not created the wicked, we do not control what God does.  How does that sit with us?