In Jeremiah 12, the Prophet had some very tough questions for God. Yes, a man subjected God to questioning because Jeremiah could not understand why in spite of all the goodness in his heart, it seemed to him that wicked men and women around him were prospering.
Here’s what Jeremiah said to God:
“You are always righteous, Lord,
when I bring a case before you.
Yet I would speak with you about your justice:
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why do all the faithless live at ease?
You have planted them, and they have taken root;
they grow and bear fruit.”
This is a fair question to the creator of the universe if you ask me. We all know that many of the billionaires we fuss over don’t even believe in the existence of God. There are powerful political figures in almost every country on the planet who profess that there’s no God. However, these people call the shots. They run the most important aspects of our lives.
Let me give you an example:
The CEO of Facebook, where I will share this article after posting, once said he does not believe in the existence of God. Mark Zuckerberg, even though did not believe in the existence of God, is worth $98 billion per my last check. He now says he believes in God, after becoming a father but then, “God is not his mentor”. I don’t know what that means.
Now, if you are a Christian, struggling with basic necessities in life, you will ask questions just like Jeremiah did. Jeremiah was seeing unbelievers becoming billionaires.
When you check the Forbes list of billionaires, I will hazard a 99% of them being atheists. Why?
How long will the land lie parched
and the grass in every field be withered?
Because those who live in it are wicked,
the animals and birds have perished.
Moreover, the people are saying,
“He will not see what happens to us.”
Have you asked yourself why there’s global warming? Have you questioned all the natural disasters and the other terrible things happening at a global level? Well, according to Prophet Jeremiah, it’s the results of wickedness stemming from faithlessness. So, why would God continue to allow the “wicked” to prosper at the detriment of those who believe in Him?
God’s answer
If you have raced with men on foot
and they have worn you out,
how can you compete with horses?
If you stumble in a safe country,
how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?
Your relatives, members of your own family—
even they have betrayed you;
they have raised a loud cry against you.
Do not trust them,
though they speak well of you.
God’s primary reason for allowing so-called unbelievers to prosper is because they can be trusted. According to God, those men may not be better in terms of intelligence than everyone else but they can be trusted. He says the very people the Prophet called “family” were traitors.
I know this may sound counter to what we may believe but what is the nature of people who claim to be Christians today? How trustworthy will today’s Christians be with the kind of money Zuckerberg has? There are pastors, who change completely with very little money. Once they get a Range Rover or any fancy car, they become super-human. You can’t even approach them. That is the nature of the average church-goer today.
The issue of spiritual fathers has once again become topical on social media and why is that? People are being destroyed because they decided to withdraw their loyalty from so-called spiritual fathers. The men and women professing the name of God have become more wicked and dangerous than Zuckerberg who publicly declared he had no faith in God.
Bill Gates gives millions in aid (damn the motives) to Africa and the rest of the developing world. He invests in food, vaccines and is working to end diseases like childhood cancer and malaria. How many pastors do anything close to this?
The average Christian, if given the kind of money Gates has, will use it all in proving how rich they are and zero will be spent on humanity.
God says, the people that we think are supposed to be blessed by him, cannot be trusted.
I will forsake my house,
abandon my inheritance;
I will give the one I love
into the hands of her enemies.
My inheritance has become to me
like a lion in the forest.
She roars at me;
therefore I hate her.
Has not my inheritance become to me
like a speckled bird of prey
that other birds of prey surround and attack?
Go and gather all the wild beasts;
bring them to devour.
Many shepherds will ruin my vineyard
and trample down my field;
they will turn my pleasant field
into a desolate wasteland.
Reading this part of God’s response is sad actually. He says He will abandon his “inheritance” and give the people He loves “into the hands of her enemies”.
There’s a raging debate about same-sex unions and how powerful nations are seeking to make less powerful ones like Ghana and Nigeria do their bidding. Christians in both countries are going to cry to God for help but the truth is, have we not “become” “like a speckled bird of prey that other birds of prey surround and attack?”
Have we not use our Church, religion, and little wealth as tools to cast people down and destroy others? He says we have preyed on others and now it’s time for us to be preyed on.
Christians have to make a u-turn. We have to repent of the conceit and reckless abandon. We used to care about providing humanitarian support, opening orphanages, helping widows, and building schools and hospitals. Now, we care about the latest iPhones, cars, and houses. Weddings and parties are our strong suit as if the problems in the world are over. If we don’t care about the problems in the world, why complain when God grants wealth to those who care about these things even though they will later use that as tools to control us?
God wants us to care. He wants us to love. He wants the Church to change from materialism and embrace the doctrine of love and sacrificial leadership. These are so obvious at first glance, it surprises me how easily we lost focus.
This article is not to say that there are no Christian billionaires. There are. That’s a subject for another day.