Today's Bible Reading: JEREMIAH 12:1-15:21
Jeremiah 12:5 “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?
We all have our issues, those things for which we voice our complaints. We communicate with others and occasionally with the Lord our deep frustrations and concerns for our particular circumstances. We all verbalize at times our dissatisfaction and disappointment with how things are going.
Jeremiah was frustrated. He saw the belittled condition of God’s people and the apparent blessing that was upon nonbelievers. He asks, “why does the way of the wicked proposer?” (Jer 12:1). He wondered if God was being just in the administration of His favor upon all men. It seemed His own people were being unjustly treated. He apparently was telling God he was fed up with all that He was allowing to happen around him. Jeremiah had done his best but now he was bailing. He no longer wanted to fulfill his role as God’s prophet or His responsibilities to God’s people. He was wearied by all of it, and he didn’t want any more of it. He was done.
In our text, God responds to his complaint with a couple of questions. He asks, “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?” Here He asks how Jeremiah can expect to endure everything he will encounter in the coming conflict if he can’t handle his present hostilities. What was ahead would be far worse. If He can’t bear through these insignificant races “with men on foot” without becoming weary, then how will he expect to bear up when the insurmountable cavalry approaches.
This is a great challenge to all who have committed to wholeheartedly follow Christ. The Christian life is a constant battle and a never ending conflict. We are besieged daily. We are bombarded without mercy by our relentless enemy. Satan, self and societal pressures consistently push against us to pull us away from Christ. We must daily decide whether or not we will stay committed or cave to the temptations placed in our path.
If we can’t bear up when the struggle is light, aka, when we race “with men on foot”, then how will we be expected to resist when we are competing “with horses”. Or put another way, if we become wearied with the spiritual struggle when things are relatively peaceful and “safe”, then how can we be expected to refrain when things get real like being in the underbrush that surrounds the Jordan River where many wild beasts hide in wait to attack.
Our trusted in our Lord must not be toppled in times of trouble. Whether we are running with men or running with horses, or it is times of peace or times of peril, our faith must be firmly founded in the Lord your God, the faithful one. He is the one to whom we must turn to and trust in times of trouble. Don’t let your failures and frustrations cause your faith to fail. When our hope is in Him we can “compete with horses”.
Today don’t let the little skirmishes make you surrender. Don’t trust in what you see, but who you know. God is faithful and just, (1 Cor 10:13) trust Him to be there for you in your times of temptations. Ask Him to help you by His Spirit to have the faith to not only be able to run with men, but to race with horses.
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