Jeremiah 12:7-8

Jeremiah 12:7-8“I will forsake my house, abandon my inheritance; I will give the one I love into the hands of her enemies. My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. She roars at me; therefore I hate her."

Contextually this is part of the response God gives when Jeremiah asks why the wicked prosper and the people of Judah suffer condemnation (Verse 1-2).

So God announces in verses 7 and 8 that He hates His own creation and more specifically His own people that He set apart ever since the Abrahamic covenant. To me here, God is telling Jeremiah: nations of unbelievers will subdue you and enslave you all for their own benefit because Judah remains disobedient. Simply put: the wicked prosper because God's people are disobedient... The goodness, the prosperity, the favor and the blessing are all foregone by Israel.

Why then does the prosperity surface among the enemies, the heathen? How is gifting ungodly people productive to bring repentance to Judah and Israel? Wouldn't that make God's people interested in the things of the heathen culture instead?

I think in verse 8 there is a sensitivity to the character of God in relation to His creation that I don't pick up on often. God says His inheritance was like a lion in the forest "roaring against me." To me this illustration recalls a tipping-point that happened to my mom. I grew up without a father so my pride and anger were often out of control. At about 13 years old I told my mother I hated her. I told her I would beat her that next time she tried to discipline me. She wept, one of the only times I ever saw her cry in my life. My mother never imagined she could be treated with so much hate by her son because of the love she continuously poured out.

So God the Creator is heart broken by Judah and illustrates it as a lion roaring back at Him. His free-willed creation provokes God to hate His creation. When the angel who became Satan rebelled in heaven God must have condemned him like He did to unrepentant Judah.

It is a great loss to God to see His own inheritance disown Him. I think also about the Judgment Seat and how hard it must be for Jesus to hand down condemnation on the ones He created. At times I even wonder why does God -in His all knowing, allow people to be born and never come to faith in Christ? I understand that we have free will and God desires a relationship with us... But from God's pre-destined, all knowing perspective: how could He create a people knowing full well that they will disobey and have eternity in hell from the day they are born?

Ultimately that doesn't matter to me because I do not know who is and isn't in the Book of Life. So I must love all with faith that God can save each of them. Jesus is mighty to save. Afterall, I never planned on being a Christian, but God revealed himself to me in the sacrifice of Jesus and His resurrection.