Jeremiah 12:1-4. Jeremiah acknowledges that he is complaining, and that God is always righteous, but he asks "Why does the way of the wicked prosper?" Why do the treacherous thrive? God plants them among us and they "grow and bring forth fruit." They have God on their lips but not in their hearts. But God knows Jeremiah - he has tested and tried Jeremiah's faithfulness. So please, asks Jeremiah, pull the wicked out and "set them apart for the day of slaughter." The people, land, and animals are suffering because of them. They think that God will never see their "latter end."

Although we know that God sees the "latter end" of everyone, we can all sympathize with Jeremiah here, especially now. It does seem like the wicked get away with their misdeeds for a really long time - much longer than I would let them get away with them if I were God (haha!). For a long time I've turned away from thinking about their wickedness, trusting that God knew what they were up to (he does) and would set things right (he will). But now the suffering and death that their evil is causing has reached a fever pitch. I simply cannot believe how much they are getting away with and I, like Jeremiah, really plead with and complain to God to stop it.

How long must it go on? How long must people suffer and die? But Jeremiah gives his own answer to his plea, whether he realizes it or not. He says "But thou, O Lord, noticed me; thou seest me, and triest my mind toward thee." Jeremiah does have a special relationship with God, it is true. Jeremiah is a prophet, often an unwilling or unhappy one, but a prophet nonetheless. He has responded to God's call even when it makes him uncomfortable because he listens and hears and knows that it is the truth. He knows that God is the power that the power that created him and the universe is calling to him, seeing him and knowing him.

But God does not love Jeremiah any more than he loves the wicked. Perhaps that was not the right way of saying that - God is love, so God loves - all and everything and everyone in the world, even the wicked, with the same intensity - it is what he is. Since God loves the wicked and since he also "seest " and "knowest" their hearts, just like Jeremiah's, he is giving them time and experiences to repent - to come back to him - to stop being wicked!

This is small consolation for those who are suffering and dying because of the wicked, but those suffering are loved by God, too, also with the same intensity. He will love them through their suffering, he'll give them the strength to endure it and it may very well be earning them their place in heaven. There is no way to heaven other than the way of the cross.

So when we ask how long God will allow the wicked to thrive, we have to remember that he does not want them to go to the slaughter, he wants them to get to heaven, just like he wants everyone to get to heaven. He is giving them time, and he will see us all through all of this.