Jeremiah 12:7 - Meaning and Application

The Jewish people are here marked out for ruin. God is shown breaking with them and leaving them desolate, and they could never have been undone if they had not provoked him to withdraw from them. It is a terrible word in Jeremiah 12:7: “I have forsaken my house,” meaning the temple, which had been his palace. They had polluted it, and so forced him out. “I have left my heritage, and will not care for it anymore.”

These were the people he had greatly delighted in and carefully watched over, but now they were cast out of his protection. They had once been the dearly loved people of his soul, precious in his sight and honored above every other people. That makes their sin worse, because they returned hatred for love, and it also makes their misery greater, because they threw themselves out of the favor of one who had been so kind to them. It also shows that God was just in what he did with them. He had not looked for trouble with them. If they had behaved with any decent faithfulness, he would have made the best of them, because they were the beloved of his soul. But they had acted so badly that he gave them into the hands of their enemies and left them unguarded, easy prey to those who hated them.

But what was God’s quarrel with a people who had once been so dear to him? The answer is that they had grown wild and corrupted. First, they had become like beasts of prey, and nobody loves such creatures. People keep their distance from them as far as they can. In Jeremiah 12:8, God says, “My heritage is to me like a lion in the forest.” Their sins cried out for vengeance as loudly as a lion roars. More than that, they cried out against God in the threats and slaughter they breathed against his prophets, who spoke to them in his name. What was said and done against the prophets, God counted as said and done against himself. They blasphemed his name, resisted his authority, and defied his justice. So they cried out against him like a lion in the forest.

Those who had been the sheep of God’s pasture had become savage and untamable, like lions in the forest. For that reason he hated them, because what delight could the God of love take in a people who had become roaring lions and raging beasts? They were fit only to be hunted down, a burden and torment to everyone around them.

Second, they had become like birds of prey, and so they were no longer fit for God’s house, where neither beasts nor birds of prey were allowed to be offered in sacrifice. In Jeremiah 12:9, “My heritage is to me as a bird with talons,” as some translate it. They were always pecking and tearing at one another, and by their unnatural quarrels they had turned their country into a cockfight. Or the verse may mean they were like a speckled bird, stained or sprinkled with the blood of their prey.

The shedding of innocent blood was Jerusalem’s sin that filled up the measure of their guilt and hastened their ruin. It also stirred up their neighbors against them, for those who stretch out their hand against everyone will find every hand against them, as in Genesis 16:12. That is what follows here: “The birds around are against her.” Some understand the image this way, that a bird of strange and unusual color draws attention from other birds. God’s people are often, among the children of this world, like people who are stared at as strange. But this people had made themselves odd by their own foolishness, and now the beasts and birds are called and commissioned to prey on them.

Let all the birds around be against her, because God has forsaken her, and let all the beasts of the field come and devour her. Those who made prey of others will themselves be preyed upon. It did not make Judah and Jerusalem less guilty that their destruction came by heaven’s order. In fact, it made their misery much greater. The birds and beasts may also be called to feed on the bodies of the slain, as in Revelation 19:17-18. The complete ruin of the land by the Chaldean army is spoken of as already done, so sure and so near was it.

God speaks of it as something he had appointed, yet he had no pleasure in it, just as he takes no pleasure in the death of any sinner. See how tenderly he speaks of this land, even with all its sin, remembering his covenant and the honor he had once received from it: “It is my vineyard, my portion, my pleasant portion” (Jeremiah 12:10). God still cares for his church, even when much is wrong in it, and his discipline is fully consistent with his delight in it.

See also how tenderly he speaks about the land’s ruin. “Many shepherds,” meaning the Chaldean generals who took control of the country and devoured it with their armies as easily as shepherds with flocks eating the produce of open ground, have destroyed my vineyard without regard for its value or for my claim on it. They have trampled it with great insolence and anger, and what had been a pleasant land they have made into a desolate wilderness. The destruction was total: “The whole land is made desolate” (Jeremiah 12:11).

It was made desolate by the sword of war. “The spoilers,” the Chaldean soldiers, came through the plain and onto all the high places (Jeremiah 12:12). They took the natural strong places and the built defenses. The sword devoured from one end of the land to the other. Every place was exposed, and the huge invading army spread through every corner of that fruitful country, so that no flesh would have peace. No one would be left out of the suffering, and no one could enjoy quiet. When all flesh has corrupted its way, no flesh has peace. Only those who walk by the Spirit have peace.

Finally, see where all this misery comes from. It comes from God’s displeasure. It is “the sword of the Lord” that devours (Jeremiah 12:12). While God’s people stay close to him, the sword of those who protect them is the sword of the Lord, as with Gideon. But when they have forsaken him and he has become their enemy, then the sword of their invaders and destroyers becomes the sword of the Lord, as with the Chaldeans. It is because of the fierce anger of the Lord (Jeremiah 12:13). This fire was kindled among them by his wrath, and it made their enemies so fierce.

And who can stand before him when he is angry? Their sin had made God their enemy, especially their stubborn refusal to improve after earlier warnings (Jeremiah 12:11). The land itself mourns before God, as if the ruined country is pouring out its complaint and bowing under his hand. But the people are so dull and careless that none of them takes it to heart. They do not mourn before God, and they remain unmoved by his displeasure, even while the ground they walk on stands against them.

When God raises his hand in judgment and people refuse to see it, he will strike, and they will be made to feel it (Isaiah 26:11).

See also how powerless they are to protect themselves (Jeremiah 12:13). “They have sown wheat,” meaning they have worked hard for their own safety and hoped for good results from their efforts, “but they shall reap thorns.” In other words, what they get will only hurt and trouble them. Instead of helping themselves, they will make their condition worse. They have worn themselves out with labor and with hopeful plans, but it will all fail. They will not get themselves out of the trouble they have brought on.

They will be ashamed of their revenues, ashamed that they trusted so much in their war supplies, and especially in their ability to pay for war. Money is often called the strength of war, and they thought they had enough of it. But they will be ashamed of that confidence, because their silver and gold will not help them in the day of the Lord’s anger.