Running With Footmen

"Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper?" Jeremiah asks that out of his own life, and then he asks a second question: why are those who "deal very treacherously" so happy? He has watched both up close. "Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit." He is not trying to be clever. He wants an answer.

The reply is today's verse, and the complaint against it is fair. He asked why the wicked prosper, and he was given no reason at all. What came back was a question about how much he could bear, and a warning that things would get harder. "If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?" The swelling of Jordan means the thick brush along the river, where it floods and the wild animals come out. People often quote this line as a call to try harder. But it was said to a man whose own family had joined the plot against him: "For even thy brethren, and the house of thy father, even they have dealt treacherously with thee." All of it came true. Jeremiah ended up sinking in the mud at the bottom of a pit, and later he was carried off to Egypt against his will.

Yet something does come back to him, even though it is not an explanation. Two verses later, God Himself begins to grieve over the same land: "I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies." Jeremiah's question is met by Someone who is mourning too. So if you have a question that size, you are welcome to bring it to God at that size. Bring the one you really have. He may answer by telling you what is coming, and even so, you will be met by a God who grieves over the same things you do.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 326 is Victory Through Faith (1 John 5:4).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two