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“What if the way of the wicked is sung, and all those who commit iniquity are consumed?” (Jer.12:1). The prophet departs from his custom. In other cases, he brings prayers and sighs to God for sinners, and now he seems to enter into a debate with God, asking why God is merciful to them when they are unworthy of mercy because of their stubbornness and hardness of heart? And truly, Jeremiah is not the only one who asks such a question, but many righteous people also wanted to know why God shows so many bounties to sinners. Thus, Job (Job.21:7), and David (Ps.72:3), and Habakkuk (Hab.1:13) marveled at the mystery of God’s long-suffering. But all the prophets had one goal - to call sinners to repentance, and therefore they explained this mystery of long-suffering, and revealed to sinners what benefits the Lord promises to those who repent. For He is kind and long-suffering to the sons of Adam, and like a compassionate Father, He rewards them with His benefits. But at the same time, the righteous announced to people about the punishment awaiting them if they were hard-hearted and did not stop their criminal stubbornness. Jeremiah had the same goal - to call and convince the Jews with threats and promises to serve their God. “You planted them” (Jer. 12:2), that is, good plantings, means the Jews and the entire continuation of their lineage from the seed of righteous Abraham. But they brought apostasy to the Lord of Abraham at the cross. “Gather them together like sheep to be slaughtered, and cleanse them on the day of slaughter” (Jer. 12:3). Apparently, this is a prayer, but in fact it is a prediction of disasters prepared for the rebellious people. And this is similar to what was said earlier: “I will bring... evil upon... them... in the summer of their visitation” (Jer. 11:23), that is, upon the fulfillment of a certain period. “How long shall the earth weep?.. Cattle and birds perished because of the cry: we will not see the end of it” (Jer. 12:4). Although the Jews saw that the disasters they had identified were already beginning, they nevertheless said: “We will not see our end,” it will not be that those disasters that the true prophets foretold would actually come upon us, that they would come upon us and our city and destroy us. “You fled with foot soldiers, and they weaken you,” that is, you fled with the surrounding peoples. The prophet means the Egyptians, Philistines, Moabites and Ammonites, who conquered the Jews, and they could not get rid of these creeping (creeping on the earth) peoples, but were oppressed and enslaved by them. “How are you getting ready with the horses?” ( Jer.12:5 ) How can you resist the Babylonians who are coming at you on horses? Can you cross the Jordan when it is in flood? Although you are able to cross the slow stream of waters, you are not able to resist these nations unless you repent, and thereby deliver yourself from the disasters determined for you by the omnipotence of God, the image of which is the Jordan in the flood, which is impossible for you to cross. “The cry of Jerusalem” (Jer. 12:6), that is, weeping and crying for Jerusalem, which grieves and complains about its misfortunes. “I have left My house,” says the Lord, “I have left My inheritance,” that is, Israel, part of My inheritance, My vineyard, which I did not want to give to man. “I gave My beloved soul into the hands of her enemies” (Jer. 12:7), that is, the daughter of Abraham into the hands of the Babylonians, because she became guilty before Me. “I was...like a lion in the oak forest.” Just as a lion, having met a flock grazing there in the forest, scatters it, or how it roars at travelers and makes them flee with its roar, so the beloved of My soul “gave her voice against Me,” for she killed and scattered My righteous and prophets, and blasphemed My law and My providence. “For this reason I hated her” (Jer. 12:8), and rejected my beloved from My presence, delivering her into the hands of the Babylonians for resettlement. “The peacock was My treasure, and the bird... was all around it” (Jer. 12:9). God calls the Jewish synagogue a peacock, because the Jews, according to the custom of the pagans, wore inscribed images of idols on their shoulders. God once called the synagogue a dove, but now, because it has deviated from Him, He calls it a peacock, a colorful bird, since it began to offer sacrifices to all sorts of idols. “The bird... around it” is the king of Babylon, who surrounded Jerusalem with his troops, oppressed, conquered, and handed it over as prey to the allied peoples. “The shepherds have destroyed my grapes” (Jer. 12:10). First, the Assyrian kings, who struck and destroyed the sons of Israel with the sword and took some of them into captivity, and then the Chaldeans, who attacked the remaining tribes and completed the extermination begun by the Assyrians, and brought the entire land, kingdom, and inhabitants to final ruin. The prophet speaks about the reason for this final destruction in many places, showing that the Jews did not heed the words of the prophets who saw and predicted their fall, and did not think in their minds about the right of God, who puts His word into action. “They sowed wheat, and ate thorns: and they became weary” (Jer. 12:13). Since the prophet entered into competition with the truth of God and asked: “Why do the wicked prosper?”, the Lord repeats to him what he commanded David to write in the book of Psalms, when he also said similar things, marveling at God’s orders, that is, that we should conclude about the judgment of sinners at their end, because there is no truth and firmness in the ways of the wicked. But this secret is hidden, and none of them will know it before the end of their lives. Then they will see that what at the time of sowing seemed to them to be pure wheat, at the harvest turned out to be thorns, for the earth rejected them and gave thorns instead of fruit. And the sacrifices that they gave to idols did not bring them any benefit, but only made them guilty. “Their wealth will not be useful to them,” that is, during oppression they will see the burden of vanity, they will learn that their treasures, which they considered strong and inalienable, are nothing but shadow and vanity. Then, at the time of their destruction, they will learn that these treasures will not support them in their fall. “Be ashamed of your fruits” (Jer. 12:13), because you have gathered the fruits of your wickedness. Thus, God proves the truth of His rule of the world by the evil end of those who hate Him, by the fact that they, clothed with pride during their lives, at the end, at the hour of death, will be stripped of this pride, and at the end they will recognize the vanity of their hopes, because the will of a corrupted nature leads to evil. “And it shall come to pass, when I have plucked them out, that I will return and have mercy on them, and bring them back” (Jer. 12:15). Here God, with the good news of a return to their former dignity, leads to repentance of those sinners whom he had previously rejected from idolatry and shameful deeds through the fear of captivity and slavery in Babylon, determined by the wicked worshipers of idols. You might be interested in: