Lord, I thirst. I thirst for answers in my life. I thirst for the knowledge of how you think. I thirst for wisdom. I thirst for joy. I thirst for rest. I thirst for peace. I thirst for touch. I thirst for understanding. I thirst for acceptance. I thirst for patience. I thirst for forgiveness. I thirst for confidence. I thirst for righteousness. I thirst for love. I thirst. I thirst for deliverance. I thirst for judgement of the wicked. I thirst. What do you thirst for?

We see in Jeremiah 12:3, the prophet has grown weary of Israel. Not only are they wicked and sinful, but they’re also plotting to kill him!

God warns Jeremiah about their plotting and planning on his life. And Jeremiah as expected is furious. He’s tired of waiting. These people are trying to kill me. And God adds fuel to fire and tells him that not only do those people want to kill you, but also your friends and family. Members of your own house, they wanna kill you too! They talk nice about you to your face, but when you leave their plotting with others on how to trap you and take your life. Don’t trust them.

Jeremiah feels betrayed, because he has been. And if you’ve ever felt betrayed by those who supposedly love you, then you will know how Jeremiah feels. You will know how Joseph felt. You will know how Esau felt. God has sent Jeremiah to speak to his people, and instead of repenting and returning to God, they want to kill him and shut him up. When people who are wicked kill the messenger who was sent, they kill the messenger who was sent because they can’t get to the one who sent him.

It is a clear rejection of the message, the messenger, and the one who sent him. The plot to kill Jeremiah is a clear rejection of Gods leadership and authority. They couldn’t kill God, so they sought to kill the one who’s speaking for him. This story sounds familiar. Don’t be surprised when I say God is the one they really desired to kill. It’s evident. They killed Jesus. Before Jesus came they killed God’s prophets. They put the prophets to the sword, and then Jesus to the cross. Now Jeremiah thirst is for judgement. What started out as a call to repentance, has now turned into a call for judgement.

WHY DO THE WICKED PROSPER

It’s not his fault. He’s flawed for sure, but not his fault. Jeremiah poses a question to God, because of his thirst for judgement and his thirst to understand. “Why God are these people prospering”! While are they continuing to go about their lives unscathed? Not only have they turned away from you, not only have they rejected you, they also desire to kill me! These people will never change. Let’s just get this over with, and do what you keep on threatening to do! Jeremiah makes this request in Jeremiah 12:3 “Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, And prepare them for the day of slaughter“.

God understands Jeremiah’s point of view. He understands it perfectly. He’s in it. He’s been in it. These are my people you’re talking about Jeremiah. They betrayed me. They betrayed me long before they betrayed you. The true desire is to destroy me not you. Should I destroy them now because they are now betraying you? God answers Jeremiah, but not in the way Jeremiah had hoped.

God responds to Jeremiah in 12:5. God says: “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?” God’s response to Jeremiah is that, Jeremiah, you haven’t seen nothing! If these things are causing you to fall short of patience and endurance, then how will you endure the things that are substantially more grim then what you are experiencing and seeing now?

This is a troubling thought, because it’s telling Jeremiah that though they seek your life, you have no idea what is coming in comparison to what you see now. Do you also want me to carry away your own household as well? Because they also seek to take your life along with the people. I have forsaken my household Jeremiah, and delivered them up for judgement. Are you prepared to do the same for yours?

The quality that God has that most of us lack, including Jeremiah, is long suffering. Except when it comes to those we love. We suffered them, but when it comes to others, we thirst for judgement. The wicked do prosper. We see this everyday. At our jobs, in our government, in our legal system, amongst the rich. Wicked people prospering gallantly, and as Jeremiah put it, their hearts and minds are far away from God. They do well in all areas of their lives, while many of God’s people lack. Jeremiah is on the lookout because his life hangs in the balance according to Men, while they continue in their sinful ways with exceeding pleasure.

They continue in their great jobs while you struggle. They have 2 homes while you struggle to keep 1. Their kids go to the finest private schools, The kind you can’t afford to send your children too. They live in posh neighborhoods with over flowing investment accounts and 401k for their later years, why many of us don’t even have 401k accounts. Jeremiah feels like most of us do that serve the Lord. How long will the wicked prosper? We thirst for judgment. We thirst to understand why God is slow to deliver what is just for the wicked!

God reminds Jeremiah, that their betrayal is to himself first and foremost. If anyone has the right to deliver judgment to the house of Israel, it is God. If anyone has a right to thirst for wrath, it is him. God is showing Jeremiah that it is he who should be angry and quick to deliver a punishing blow to these people. God is teaching us a valuable lesson. That in order to deal with his people, we must not thirst for judgement, we must thirst for repentance! God seeks judgement on his people as a last resort. When grace and mercy fails, God brings his judgement. But God’s grace and mercy runs long, unlike ours.

WE SEEK JUDGEMENT, GOD SEEKS REPENTANCE

When we seek judgement, God seeks repentance. Jeremiah’s desire was not for the people to repent, it was for these people to be destroyed. For them to be led to slaughter. Our wrath must not run ahead of Gods. Gods teaching grounds for us to learn and grow in faith is our lives. Our lives are the classroom in which he teaches us the things we need to know. The pain, the annoyances, the agitations, the loss, the failures, the victories, the frustrations, the set backs, the trying; God uses all these things to grow us into a better disciple.

There is a married couple somewhere who cannot have a child. God has not allowed them to bring forth a child. I do not know the reason for this. I thirst to understand why he would allow it. There is someone somewhere who had a promising career as a professional athlete, but got injured and is now working in a different career altogether. This person loves the Lord, yet they suffered this terrible thing. I thirst to understand why. There is someone who loves the Lord, who desires a Family and a Husband or Wife. At the moment they are still single and without these things. I thirst to understand why.

Me knowing the answer to these things, would require me knowing the mind of God. I do not know Gods mind. So I cannot answer these questions we thirst to know in our lives. Something God allowed, or something God withheld. The Bible says all things work for the good of those who love him. So even good things we desire are sometimes not good for us. And what may be good for you is not good for another. What may be a burden for you is not a burden for another. And what may be a struggle for you is not a struggle for another.

But God has clearly said he does not desire for anyone to be alone. We should fellowship and develop intimate relationships with people. God did not call us to be lonely. Alone and lonely are not the same, though people will use these terms interchangeably. Lets not only thirst for the things that directly impact our lives, let’s also thirst to be more Holy. Let’s thirst to be more compassionate. Let’s thirst to be more sacrificial. Let’s thirst to be more forgiving. Let’s thirst to be more patient. Let’s thirst to be more long-suffering.

Let’s pray for the lost to repent first, and for Gods judgement last. Satan provokes the children of God at every opportunity he gets. How we respond shows what we are thirsting for. I am no better than Jeremiah. Had I had been in Jeremiah’s shoes, I am almost certain I would have behaved in the same way. I have thirsted for Gods judgement for far less offenses. So I am guilty too, Lord!

When our lives get tough, we thirst. When our circumstances become grueling, we thirst. When we suffer disappointment, we thirst. If the things you thirst for, become greater than your thirst for Christ, then those things you thirst for will separate you from Christ. Paul speaks in 2 Timothy 4:10 of Demas forsaken him. because he loved the things of this world. Many people thirst for Christ, but not as much as they thirst for money, or pleasure or other things. When presented with these things they will forsake the Lord like Demas did.

What is it that you thirst for? What do you thirst for in your life more than Christ? This is not a question of judgement, but a question to analyze your heart. If there are things in this life that you desire more than God, acknowledge it. We’ve all been there, and some of us still are there, fighting to place God number 1 in our lives. 

When God is number one in your life, it is not finished. We must fight to keep him there, because there will always be betrayals. There will always be injustices. There will always be things to temp us into quenching the things we are thirsting for the most.

I hope this message was a blessing to you. I hope God uses this message to bring into focus all the things you thirst for in your life. And allows you to re-evaluate, and fight to place God thirst. We show God we thirst for him most with our lives.