Protests

by: Michael Wilcock

Do you ever pray in italics? Like, “Why, Lord?” Or, “Can’t you hear me, Lord?” Or, “Lord, what do you think you are doing?”

As with all the other prophets, Jeremiah’s book is primarily about what God said to him. But it also includes something of what he said to God. And, given the kind of man he was and the kind of job he had, it is not surprising that Jeremiah went in for italicized praying. This was the kind of prayer he must often have prayed. Half a dozen of these prayers of protest are spaced out across ten chapters (11-20), and the first part of today’s reading is one of them.

The Lord’s answer begins with verse 5. But it isn’t of much apparent comfort. To the question “Why do the guilty prosper?” he replies, in effect, “If you can’t handle this, what will you do next? There’s far worse to come.” G. K. Chesterton’s lines became famous as the struggle over apartheid in South Africa gathered pace:

I tell you naught for your comfort,

Yea, naught for your desire,

Save that the sky grows darker yet

And the sea rises higher.

God’s plans are always more complex than we can grasp. They have greater, and better, ends in view than we can at present imagine. There is only one thing for Jeremiah — or for us — to do. Have faith, and hold fast.