13¶Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?

14 Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?

15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.

Observation

The accusation of the Lord – Your words have been stout against me

Sons of Jacob response – What have we spoken against you?

The Lord lists their accusations against Him:

• It is vain to serve God

  • vain is shav: emptiness, worthlessness, falsehood – they are saying that the Lord is a false god.

• What is the profit

  • Profit is betsa’: plunder (from the idea of breaking off the jewelry of your dead enemy), gain(usually unjust), covetousness, lucre, dishonest gain

  • there are at least three other Hebrew words that do not have a negative meaning

• that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts

  • this is how they claimed to be serving God – but were they?

    • crippled offerings (chapter 1), marrying the daughter of a strange god (chapter 2), and no tithes (chapter 3)

• we call the proud happy – ‘ashar: blessed, prosperous

• they that work wickedness are set up – banah: to build up

• yea, they that tempt( – bachan: test) God are even delivered – malat: escape or deliver oneself

Interpretation

Prosperity of the Wicked

• Jeremiah questioned why God allowed the wicked to prosper – He planted them. God answered that, if they will obey they will be built, but if not, God will destroy them.

• • Jeremiah 12:1-2, 16-17 Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?  2 Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins. 

  • 16  And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The LORD liveth; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the midst of my people.  17 But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, saith the LORD. 

• David was envious of the wicked until he went into the sanctuary and understood their end.

  • Psalm 37:1 Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. 2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.

  • Psalm 73:3 For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

  • 13  Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. 

  • 15  If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. 

  • 16  When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; 

  • 17  Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.  Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. 

• David’s conclusion was that God is faithful. Judah’s conclusion was the opposite – that, because they were not getting their booty, and the wicked were prospering, God is unfaithful, a liar, and a false God. Judah was using the prosperity of the proud wicked as an excuse to justify serving God in an insincere, hypocritical way, saying He had not fulfilled His promised blessings to them.

Application

Motivation to Serve God

Judah said it was vain and unprofitable to keep God’s ordinances because the wicked were not serving God, but were happy and prosperous anyway. The wicked tempted God by disobeying Him but were delivered from His judgment. The fact that this was their complaint, reveals Judah’s motivation for serving God – to get blessings. But wait, God had promised blessings to the obedient (Deuteronomy 28), so isn’t it okay to serve God for the blessings? No, because that is man centered, me centered worship. Giving to get, the “prosperity gospel” of today, has its focus on man. It is worshiping me, not worshiping God. True worship of God has its focus on God – His character and attributes.

Is there a place for working with the reward in mind? We will stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ and receive rewards for faithful, abiding work. (This is not referring to our salvation Ephesians 2:8-10, Titus 3:5)

• 2 Corinthians 5:10  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 

• 1 Corinthians 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.  15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. 

It is okay to receive blessings and even to look forward to, and work for, rewards that God promises to the faithful, obedient believer – even to worship God because of these rewards. The reason is that, His blessings to us, glorify Him – they broadcast His character. He is just and righteous, but gracious, merciful and loving. He is faithful to the unfaithful.

• Philippians 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure

This is how the Gospel glorifies God throughout eternity.

• Ephesians 2:4-7 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,  5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)  6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:  7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.