Jeremiah 12:5 – Equanimity in Epiphany
“If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you,
Then how can you contend with horses?
And if in the land of peace,
In which you trusted, they wearied you,
Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan? Jeremiah 12:5, New King James Version
"We are too indulgent," warns Edmund Burke, "to our own proficiency."
Thus, the Lord provides moments like Jeremiah 12:5. The timing of this warning from the Lord is interesting, for the faithful prophet has just experienced the catharsis of confession. Jeremiah has just laid aside all his expertise and experience at reading the culture and admitted the elemental to be most crucial, that God knows HIS heart.
Does not pride creep even into the forms of confession which in the beginning are sincere? Do not, as Jerry Bridges admits, even our tears of repentance need to be washed in the blood of the Lamb?
For, no sooner are we clean, no sooner had we understood the error of our ways than we begin to corrupt that state. We begin to congratulate ourselves, or compare ourselves to our peers, or even to compare ourselves to our former selves with little of the charity God has shown him or shown her.
Thus, our lap of self-congratulation, and any incipient tendency Jeremiah had in that direction, is stopped cold by Jeremiah 12:5. Having received wisdom from the Lord, we may begin to rewrite the narrative to show that we were the quickest on the uptake and arrived at His answers by the brawn of our brains.
He loves us too much to leave us in that trap. He will, for sanctification rather than condemnation, remind us of enough of our former state, sometimes yesterday's state, to keep us in a realistic mindset as to our need for His grace.
We were wearied by yesterday's struggles, and He will remind us, that He might be our strength. We made man our measure and were discouraged in the process. He will remind us, then, of the fuller scope of His creation, that even his horses might relieve us of our man-centered complacency and renew our awe in Him. As with Job, this isn't shaming, this isn't off-putting. It is renewal to see ourselves as He sees us.
It is also preparation for our next lesson. For, if we keep the last one ringing in our ears, we will be distracted. If we, unlike David, are so fixated upon the fact that the last battle strategy Lord gave us worked, we will not be receptive to the next one.
If we are so inward-gazing at our latest theological revelations, or even, in a generally encouraging way, amazed at who we are before Him, we might forget that he placed us in a particular time and place. We might lose sight of the other humans He will use us to reach, and, indeed, of their role in Satan's work.
Then how can you contend with horses?
And if in the land of peace,
In which you trusted, they wearied you,
Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan? Jeremiah 12:5, New King James Version
"We are too indulgent," warns Edmund Burke, "to our own proficiency."
Thus, the Lord provides moments like Jeremiah 12:5. The timing of this warning from the Lord is interesting, for the faithful prophet has just experienced the catharsis of confession. Jeremiah has just laid aside all his expertise and experience at reading the culture and admitted the elemental to be most crucial, that God knows HIS heart.
Does not pride creep even into the forms of confession which in the beginning are sincere? Do not, as Jerry Bridges admits, even our tears of repentance need to be washed in the blood of the Lamb?
For, no sooner are we clean, no sooner had we understood the error of our ways than we begin to corrupt that state. We begin to congratulate ourselves, or compare ourselves to our peers, or even to compare ourselves to our former selves with little of the charity God has shown him or shown her.
Thus, our lap of self-congratulation, and any incipient tendency Jeremiah had in that direction, is stopped cold by Jeremiah 12:5. Having received wisdom from the Lord, we may begin to rewrite the narrative to show that we were the quickest on the uptake and arrived at His answers by the brawn of our brains.
He loves us too much to leave us in that trap. He will, for sanctification rather than condemnation, remind us of enough of our former state, sometimes yesterday's state, to keep us in a realistic mindset as to our need for His grace.
We were wearied by yesterday's struggles, and He will remind us, that He might be our strength. We made man our measure and were discouraged in the process. He will remind us, then, of the fuller scope of His creation, that even his horses might relieve us of our man-centered complacency and renew our awe in Him. As with Job, this isn't shaming, this isn't off-putting. It is renewal to see ourselves as He sees us.
It is also preparation for our next lesson. For, if we keep the last one ringing in our ears, we will be distracted. If we, unlike David, are so fixated upon the fact that the last battle strategy Lord gave us worked, we will not be receptive to the next one.
If we are so inward-gazing at our latest theological revelations, or even, in a generally encouraging way, amazed at who we are before Him, we might forget that he placed us in a particular time and place. We might lose sight of the other humans He will use us to reach, and, indeed, of their role in Satan's work.
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