I don’t think that I’m wrong when I say that there are some people reading this post who are maybe a little bit frustrated in the way things have turned out. You’re frustrated because maybe things have not gone your way. You’re frustrated because you’ve watched other people get promoted ahead of you when you put in the work, and you were passed by. You’re frustrated because you’ve watched your friends get married and you’re waiting on that special someone to show up. Maybe you’re frustrated because you’ve watched someone else moving into their new home and you’re still waiting to get approved. Whatever you want to say, however you want to put it, all of us experience frustration from time to time.
Frustration is the feeling or expression of distress and annoyance, especially because of an inability to change or achieve something.
If that’s you, then you are in a similar situation of the individual that I’m going to share about today. That person is the prophet, Jeremiah, and he is frustrated with God. He’s frustrated because things have not turned out the way that he thought they should. And he feels as though God has rejected him. He feels as though God has forgotten about him. And he feels as though God has forsaken him. Here it is from Scripture:
Jeremiah 12: 1 – 5 (NIV) You are always righteous, Lord, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease? You have planted them, and they have taken root; They grow and bear fruit. You are always on their lips but far from their hearts. Yet you know me, Lord; You see me and test my thoughts about you. Drag them off like sheep to be butchered! Set them apart for the day of slaughter! How long with the land lie parched and the grass in every field be withered? Because those who live in it are wicked. The animals and birds have perished. Moreover, the people are saying, “He will not see what happens to us.” (The God replies,) If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses?
So, Jeremiah begins by complimenting God. He starts off saying, “Lord, whenever I bring a case before you, you’re righteous.” Here’s what he’s basically saying, “God, you’re always right. You’re always right. Whenever we plead our case with You, Lord, you’re always right. You make the right calls, God, every time.” And then he says, “…yet I would speak with you about your justice.” And here’s what really he’s saying, “I’ve been thinking about some of the issues that we’ve been dealing with, and I’m not really pleased with some of your latest decisions”
Now, this is Jeremiah having a conversation with God, and he’s saying, “God, I don’t agree with how you’ve handled some things.” And I’m sure none of us have ever thought that or ever kind of contemplated that in our own minds. Jeremiah says, “Why does the way of the wicked prosper?” He’s asking, “Why are the wicked doing so well?” Probably at some point in time, we’ve all felt this way in our lives. “Lord, look at everything I’m doing. I’m doing everything right. I’m coming to church, praise God. I’m serving on a team, praise God. I’m paying my tithe. I’m giving an offering. I’m even loving my enemies. In other words, I’m checking all of the spiritual boxes that I know to check.” That’s kind of what Jeremiah is saying here. And he’s saying, “What’s up with that, God? Why are they prospering?”
And then he says, “Why do all of the faithless live at ease? I’m just struggling to make it through. I’m battling, I’m striving. And yet it looks like the godless, those who won’t even acknowledge you, it looks like they’re just living it up. They’re having a grand time, yet here I am, struggling.”
And then he says this, “You planted them. They have taken root, they grow, and they bear fruit.” In other words, he’s saying, “They are where they are, and they have what they have because of you. They’re blessed because of you. They have what they have because of you.”
And then he goes on to say, “You are always on their lips, but far from their hearts.” We would say it this way. They have a form of godliness, but they deny His power. We would say they pay lip service to God, but their heart is not in it. They know how to have church, but they are not part of church. That’s what he’s saying. He’s saying, “Lord, they’re clubbing on Saturday night and in the choir on Sunday morning. It doesn’t seem right.” He says, “Their hearts are not even turned towards you, God. They’re not even serving you.
And then he says this. “You know me. I’m your boy. You know my heart. You know how I am. You know my dedication. You know my commitment. You know the suffering.” If you read the story, you will know that Jeremiah is the weeping prophet. “You know everything that I’ve gone through. You know me, Lord. You see me. You test my thoughts, and then you know my heart.”
Then, Jeremiah says, “Drag them off like sheep to be butchered. Set them apart for the day of slaughter.” Now Jeremiah says his gloves are off. I’m not holding anything back now, God, because you already know my heart. You already know what I’m thinking. So, I’m just going to go ahead and say what I’m thinking. I’m asking you to just gather this group of wicked people and take them out and kill them.
The reason that Jeremiah was struggling is because he had an error in his theology.
He thinks that the blessing that he and the nation would have received had somehow mistakenly been given to wicked people. Notice what he said – They’re prospering. They’re living at ease. They’re living it up. They have the good life. And today, some people still have this kind of theology in their lives as well. Somehow or another, we think that the blessing that belongs to us has landed on the wicked. God needs to take them out in order for us to get our blessing. That’s wrong theology. That’s not right thinking.
No one else can have what God has designated and assigned for you.
If your name is on it, no one else can get it. So, the right reaction would not be for us to get upset just because we see wicked people prospering in this hour. The right reaction is to acknowledge that if God has blessed my neighbor, that means that God is in my neighborhood. So instead of being envious and jealous, we just need to throw up our hands and bless and praise the Lord. Because if God can bless them when they are living like that, just imagine what God will do, and what God can do for you, when you live the way that He’s called us to live. If God opened a door for them, imagine the doors that God is going to open for you. Because you see, it rains on the just and the unjust alike.
The Bible says that it is the goodness of God that leads to repentance.
So, when wicked people seem to be blessed left and right, it may be a means in which God is trying to turn their heart to Him. It’s the goodness of God that leads to repentance. Instead of being angry at them and jealous towards them, maybe we should join in prayer to God. “God, it seems to us that You want to bless them so that they understand that all good and perfect gifts come from the Father above. Let us have an opportunity to come in contact with them but not to condemn them. Let us tell them that Jesus loves them. He has a plan and a purpose for their life, and every good gift that they have received comes from Him.”
Then Jeremiah says, “How long will the land lie parched in the grass, in every field be withered?” In other words, there’s a drought going on. And whenever God withholds rain, it’s a sign of judgment. He’s talking about judgment that’s upon the land at this time. And then he says this, “We’re in this drought because those who live in it are wicked. I want you to see that we are in the condition that we are in because of these wicked people.”
Then he says, “The animals and the birds have perished.” This is how we would say it. We would say something like this today. We’re in this recession, and we’re in this economic crisis where gas is $5 a gallon, and two bags of groceries are $100. A Happy Meal is now $10 and makes no one happy. Inflation is at an all-time high. These are hard and difficult times because of the wickedness of the people. This is another wrong theology. He’s saying judgment has fallen on us because of these wicked people. But here’s the truth. God does not judge a nation because of wicked people. Sinners do what they do. Sinners, sin.
God judges nations not because of the wickedness of the wicked, but because the righteous people fail to live righteously.
Second Chronicles doesn’t say if the wicked will humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways…That’s not what it says. God said, “If my people, the righteous, will humble themselves, turn from their wicked ways, I’ll hear from heaven, and I will heal their land.” Now, this is what’s going on. God judges nations based upon those who claim to be righteous but fail to live right.
The judgment of God begins in His house.
So, what does that mean? That means that we can’t expect God to judge wicked people for being wicked because that’s who they are. But if we want things to turn in our nation, it starts with us. It starts with us acknowledging, “Okay, Lord, we’ve fallen short of the glory. Okay, Lord, we are the ones who need to repent. We are the ones who need to make sure that we are living right.” And when we are living right, it doesn’t matter what the wicked do. The nation will be blessed.
So, Jeremiah pleads his case, and then in verse five, the conversation shifts. God takes over, and God answers Jeremiah. And I’m not sure Jeremiah was expecting what God said to him. And I’m not sure that we are ready for what God’s saying to us.
Our frustrations are just footmen. The horses are coming!
God replies, “Okay, Jeremiah, I’ve heard your case. Now listen to what I have to say. If you have raced with the men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? How are you going to run with the horses, Jeremiah, if the footmen have worn you out? If you stumble in a safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?”
I think Jeremiah was wanting God to reaffirm and confirm the word that He gave him in Jeremiah Chapter One. In other words, before I formed you in your mother’s womb, I knew you. I called you. I ordained you. I anointed you to be a prophet to the nations. I called you to build up and to tear down. I put My words in your mouth. I’m the one who set you apart.
Instead, God said, “Jeremiah, I just want to tell you something. If you think this is bad, you haven’t seen anything yet.”
Now, I knew that wouldn’t make us shout. But I’m going to prepare us for the horses because they are coming. They are coming. And this is not a doom and gloom message. This is not one of those little series that’s meant to scare you. It is meant to prepare you. God said, “You’ve been running with the footmen, and they wore you out. Jeremiah, I have some news for you. There are horses coming your way. There are chariots that are coming your way.”
During this the time of Jeremiah, whenever a nation would invade another nation, the first line that they would send in and attack would be foot soldiers. They would send thousands of them and invade a nation. These men were not the strongest. They were not the best in battle. They didn’t have the best and most powerful weapons. But these men were part of the military, and there were a lot of them.
The king would send footmen to do two things: to weed out the armies and to weaken the opposing army.
They knew that there would be casualties. Every king that sent their army to invade another kingdom knew that they would suffer casualties. But it didn’t matter to them. The objective was to go in and weaken the opposing army. And that’s one of the assignments that the enemy is using right now against us and against the church. In these last days, there are footmen that have been assigned to come into your life and to weaken and wean out believers for what is getting ready to come. God was saying to Jeremiah, and he’s saying to us today, what we have been facing to this point are foot soldiers. That’s what we’ve been up against.
And this is what footmen soldiers look like in our life. They look like one problem after the next. They are one challenge after the next. These are footmen soldiers. One bill after the next, one setback after another. You get one thing fixed and two things break. You get one child straightened out, and three of them start acting up again.
God is calling our problems footmen problems.
Much of what we have faced to this point are footmen problems. Well, they’ve been gossiping about me. Footmen problems. No one hears me. No one listens to me. Footmen problems. They’ve lied. They’ve mistreated me. Footmen problems. I’ve been in all kinds of fights and disagreements. Footmen problems. Not enough money to pay the bills. Footmen problems. Children are acting crazy. Footmen problems. And what many of us are facing are footmen problems. Footmen situations. And I’m not making light of them. I understand.
But here’s what footmen are designed to do in your life. They’re designed to make you feel overwhelmed. They are designed to weaken your faith, and they are designed to wear you out. And how do we deal with footman problems? This is what the Bible tells us. Galatians 6:9 (NIV) Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
We will reap a harvest if we don’t give up, if we don’t quit, if we don’t give in, and if we do not surrender.
And some of you are right there. You’re at that breaking point. You’re on that line where you’re so overwhelmed and you’re so tired of one thing after the other, and you’re in that place where you’re ready to give in. So then, how do we not become weary contending with these footmen? We’re going to develop the faith that we can do all things through Christ. When these bills are piling up, I can do all things. When the kids are acting up, I can do all things. Philippians 4:13 (NKJV) I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
When nothing seems to be lining up, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. When it’s one battle after the next, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Look at the word that he uses. He uses the word Christ because he’s letting us know this is how you and I are going to accomplish all our assignments. You and I both know, or we should know, that Christ is not the last name of Jesus. It’s a title attributed to him. It means the Anointed One or the anointing. So, I can do all things through the Anointed One, or the anointing, that strengthens me.
There’s only one Anointed One, but there are many who are anointed.
He is the anointed one, and He anoints His body. What does it mean to be anointed? It means that we have been empowered by God. Empowered to do what? Empowered by God to accomplish His work. “Jeremiah, I have called you to be a prophet to the nations. I’ve called you to confront them. I’ve called you to tear things down, and I’ve called you to build things up. I’ve called you to challenge kings and kingdoms. I’ve called you to confront the issues of your day. And I’ve called you because I’ve anointed you. It’s my power working through you that enables you to deal with the footmen and to take care of the horses that are coming into your life.”
Don’t worry about how the wicked are prospering.
Don’t worry about what the world looks like. Don’t worry about any of that. Trust in God. Trust in God. His anointing will empower you. When we have His anointing operating in our lives, there’s nothing we can’t do. There’s nothing we cannot go through. There’s nothing we won’t be able to face, including the horses that are coming.
The footmen are precursors to horses, and the horses are coming!
Dig in because the horses are coming, and your Bible identifies those horses. And I can tell you, they are loose in the world today. Soon, we’re going to identify those horses, and we’re going to show you how to have victory over those horses because they’re coming. They’re coming. But in Jesus’ name, we are victorious. Don’t quit, dig in and stand your ground.
Pastor’s Prayer: Father, I thank you and I praise you for each and every person reading today. And I pray right now for those who may be battling discouragement that’s even slipping into depression, anxiety and fear. I pray for each and every one of them. And I pray for a fresh anointing to be upon their heads today, that those thoughts will not get in their hearts, that the enemy will not be able to plant seeds of doubt in their minds. May they would stand on Your word and Your truth and let a fresh anointing rest upon each and every one. I’m asking it in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.