Daily Archive

The Prophet Jeremiah is God’s man, chosen by God, set apart by God, given the message to preach by God, being protected by God, but when God reveals to him that the priest at Anathoth were plotting to kill him (Jeremiah 11:18-23), his first response is not to condemn the men in Anathoth but to question God. He doesn’t question God’s righteousness, but he questions God’s goodness (Jeremiah 12:1-4). He wants to know why God allows wicked people to prosper. Why does He allow wicked people to succeed?

We have to start by looking at a fallacy in that question because at the heart of the question “Why do wicked people succeed” we find envy. We look at the world around us and it seems like the worst people on the planet make the most money and have the most influence, but the reason that we’re wrong to ask that question is that we don’t understand what success is. We ask why the wicked succeed and we look at all that they have, but the Bible asks what it is worth for a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? (Mark 8:36). Is that really success in God’s economy? It’s not! You see we have it mixed up in our thinking that the better off you are, the more blessed by God you are. Now can God bless with wealth and material things? Yes, but He can also curse you with those things as well.

We need to understand that true success, biblically, is faithfulness. It is obedience, love, bearing the fruit of the Spirit, and as we look at the world around us, we don’t need to be envious of the wicked and all that they have because all they have is all they’re ever going to get. That’s going to be as good as it gets when we realize where the wicked will spend eternity.

Jeremiah has already admitted the judgment that God is going to bring on the land is deserved judgment because of the depth of the people’s sin and their depravity. Now he sees that people are plotting against him, and they’re not really suffering. He knows judgment is coming, but it’s not here yet, and the people of Judah seem to be doing okay. In fact, he says they’re “complacent” (Jeremiah 12:1). Nothing bothers them. They live in this wickedness – wickedness to the point where they can serve as a priest on one hand and plot to kill a prophet on the other, and it doesn’t even bother them. Their life is not upset in any way.

So, the question that Jeremiah is asking is how can a good God allow wicked people to succeed? Job asks the same thing in Job 21. He says, “I don’t understand it. I’m suffering. I don’t know why I’m suffering. I don’t know why God is allowing me to suffer. Why aren’t the people who should be suffering suffering?” He looks at the wicked and says, they should suffer, and we would all agree, right? Wicked people should suffer. Be careful! “There is none good, no, not one” (Psa. 14:3). And if the wicked are supposed to be suffering, then none of us should have a moment free of suffering!

We can’t go to God and say the wicked deserve it, but we don’t. Why are they succeeding instead of suffering? And why are we suffering instead of succeeding? You know, the danger of defining success that way is that the most successful people in the world at the same time are often the most miserable. Because you can ask a wealthy man, “How much do you need to be happy?” The answer, “A little more, just a little bit more.”

David in the 37th Psalm said, “Be still in Yahweh and wait patiently for Him. Do not fret because of Him who prospers in His way because of the man who carries out schemes of wickedness.” The Lord through David says that if you see a wicked man who you think is prospering in his way, don’t let it bother you. Now, David doesn’t elaborate on it there, but Asaph does in the 73rd Psalm. Asaph is coming with the same complaint.

“I was envious of the boastful, I saw the peace of the wicked. They are not in trouble as other men, and they are not stricken along with the rest of mankind. Behold, these are the wicked; And always at ease, they have increased in wealth. Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and washed my hands in innocence; For I have been stricken all day long and reproved every morning.” (Psa. 73:3, 5, 12-14).

You hear where Asaph has gone in his thinking? He’s gone to the point that he’s so perturbed by the prosperity of those who reject God that he says, “Maybe it’s just vain that I’ve tried to be holy at all. Maybe I should have just gone with them, and it would have been better. For I have been stricken all day and reproved every morning.”  

However, as he continues, he writes, “When I gave thought to know this, it was trouble in my sight, until I came into the sanctuary of God, then I understood their end.” (Psa. 73:16-17). Those who we suppose are prospering in this world, while living in wickedness, will not get away with it. He saw their end. He saw the judgment that was coming.

Now let’s be honest, would we want to have everything that the world has to offer, for as long as we’re alive here, only to lose it all, take none of it with us, and suffer under the wrath of God for all of eternity? Do you think that’s a good payoff? To get a few decades here of pleasure and not trouble, but to have an eternity of God’s wrath? We have to realize what the Bible tells us about who’s really blessed: “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of Yahweh, and in His law he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.” (Psa. 1:1-3).

God answers the prophet’s question by telling him that he hasn’t seen anything yet. Just wait for what the future holds for the wicked. Then there will be no questions left about the goodness, or holiness of God!