Why does Evil Prosper?

Jeremiah 12:1-17

Many of us have asked why evil people seem to prosper and God’s children don’t. We live in a world that sees godless people have the easy life, and those who follow Christ are constantly in a fight. You cannot turn on the news without seeing evil people doing evil deeds. It seems most TV shows and movies are about evil and mocking God. What is evil? Merriam Webster defines evil as “morally reprehensible (sinful, wicked); arising from actual or imputed bad character or conduct…” How does God define evil? Turning against Him and rejecting His free gift. Loving anything more than you love HIM!!!

Jeremiah is asking God the same question we ask about evil prospering. There are some realizations about wickedness prospering here. The first realization is that God planted these people. The second realization was that they gave God lip service, but He was far from their heart. The third realization is that they planted wheat but reaped thorns. The final realization is that God will pluck them at His timing.

But I want to show you how Jeremiah’s posture is before God. He went straight to God’s attributes. He said, “Righteous are You, O Lord. Righteous in Hebrew is (sad-dig), which refers to that which is right; it meets an established norm or standard, not of society but of God’s word. It is important to remember this as we traverse through this chapter.

Planted:

Jeremiah understood that God’s righteousness could not be bought or earned. It is a gift of God (Genesis 15:6; Titus 3:5). An Israelite demonstrated his righteousness by keeping the requirements of the covenant (Ezekiel 18:5-9).

Genesis 15:6 ESV

And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Titus 3:5 ESV

he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

Ezekiel 18:5–9 ESV

“If a man is righteous and does what is just and right— if he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman in her time of menstrual impurity, does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, does not lend at interest or take any profit, withholds his hand from injustice, executes true justice between man and man, walks in my statutes, and keeps my rules by acting faithfully—he is righteous; he shall surely live, declares the Lord God.

Jeremiah, by this understanding, could not comprehend why God had planted these people (from Anathoth). To him, their prosperity was a result of God’s growing them. How many of us have thoughts like Jeremiah’s? To Jeremiah’s thinking, he would remember what was written by Samuel, 2 Samuel 7:10, and what David wrote in Psalm 1:3.

2 Samuel 7:10 ESV

And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly,

Psalm 1:3 ESV

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

Jeremiah pleads his case by recalling to God that these people are outwardly religious, but the truth is their hearts are far from You. God was not influencing their decisions. He also does what most of us do: we demand God repay them. Jeremiah demands that God drag them to the slaughter. How many of us have done this? But we are to forgive those who trespass against us. We fall into the lip service but not the heart service. The realization is that they offered excellent lip service, but that’s all.

Lip Service:

How many of us know people who say they love the Lord, but their actions contradict their words? Now, how many of us have fallen into this? We claim to love the Lord, but our actions tell a different story. Billy Graham said this, “You cannot pray for someone and hate them at the same time. Even if you are asking God to restrain their evil actions, you should also be praying that He will change their hearts. Only eternity will reveal the impact of our prayers for others.”

These people said they loved YHWH, but they were pursuing Jeremiah to kill him. Why do we marvel when we are being persecuted by those who claim to know God? The enemy has planted people inside the Church to ridicule and harass the believers. Paul instructed Titus to be cautious of these people (Titus 1:16). Jeremiah wanted God to test them as he had been tested. Jeremiah was not only about lip service, but he was more about action-oriented service.

Titus 1:16 ESV

They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Another realization is that these types of people act like they are planting wheat, but they will reap thorns.

Thorns:

God’s answer to Jeremiah is profound. It shows Jeremiah and us that God is watching and observing all His creation. We do not worship an abstract God, a God that is absent, or a God that will not bring forth justice. God answers Jeremiah. Here is another truth: God will answer you, just not in your timing, but in His.

First, God tells Jeremiah that He has forsaken them, abandoned them, and given them into the hands of the enemy. These prophetic phrases are in the perfects; they translate, “I have forsaken… have abandoned.” It has already been done as far as God is concerned.

 This did not please YHWH. But God is the best Father who will correct His children. Praise Him when He does it, because it means He cares for us and loves us, Proverbs 3:11-12. But for those who reject Him, He will have their harvest be that of thorns. They would continue with business as usual. Planting grain, but they would have thorns, Hosea 8:7. This would be God plucking them out.

Proverbs 3:11–12 ESV

My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

Hosea 8:7 ESV

For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads; it shall yield no flour; if it were to yield, strangers would devour it.

Plucking out:

Though God just announced judgment on His people, the wicked neighbors who led them into idolatry would not escape His punishment. God is going to pluck out all who are evil. They may be prosperous here for a short time, but it shall end one day.  These passages show God’s sovereignty over all nations and His right to judge them. Those who sit on the fence and say they are not choosing a side will be judged. Those who say they do not believe, guess what, they will be judged. Though they were used for judgment on Judah they will be judged for their sins.

What does it mean to be plucked out? God will remove them, drive them out. They will not be in His presence ever again. Matthew 13:25, Jesus was clear about plucking the tares (darnel, which resembled wheat) out and casting them into the fire. YHWH also said, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?” Mark 8:36.

Matthew 13:25 ESV

but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.

Mark 8:36 ESV

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

But, for His people, He will bring them back. Those who are His will always be His, not by what we can or have done, but by His grace and mercy. I want to leave you with this: Ephesians 2:4-10. Our hope is not in this world or things of this world, but in Christ!

Ephesians 2:4–10 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.