DEVOTION – DAY 131

​Jeremiah 1:11-12 “God Acts In His Time”

 

Jer.1:11-12 The word of the Lord came to me: “What do you see, Jeremiah?” “I see the branch of an almond tree,” I replied. The Lord said to me, “You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.”

 

The Lord gave Jeremiah a prophetic vision. Often, in the Bible, when the Lord asks, “What do you see?” it is His way of introducing a prophetic vision to His chosen prophet. In these verses, Jeremiah had a vision of a branch of an almond tree. An almond tree blooms first in the year of all the trees where Jeremiah lived indicating that it “wakes up early”. Now, the Hebrew word for “watchful” means “to be wakeful” or “to be alert”. The Lord was telling Jeremiah that He is alert and watchful to make sure that His word is fulfilled. The nation of Israel had drifted away from God and God had warned that He would judge Israel. Thus, here in these verses, God was telling Jeremiah that He had not forgotten what He said about judging Israel and He was watchful that He would carry out what He said.

In the same way, we sometimes wonder why God allows great injustice to go unpunished. But, the Bible tells us that God will punish the wicked. Passages found in Psalm 1, 73 and others warn that God will deal with the wicked. But we sometimes become impatient when the evildoers seem to get away with their acts of evil. Instead, they seem to get rewarded for their evil. We see an example of this in the life of Pablo Escobar. He was born in Columbia in 1949. He dropped out of University to pursue a life of crime. He eventually dominated the illegal cocaine industry and earned the nickname “King of Cocaine”. From the late 1970’s to the end of 1980’s, he grew his drug empire and became the richest criminal in the world with a personal net worth of US$30 billion, ranking him as one of the richest men in the world. He even went into politics to try to legitimize his position. But in order to get to his position, he was behind many ruthless murders and his involvement in drugs ruined the lives of millions of people in North America. One may wonder why God allowed such evil to get away with so much wealth. But God did not forget. Just as in Jeremiah’s vision, God is always watchful that His word will be fulfilled. God’s Word promised that evildoers will be punished. In God’s perfect timing, in 1991, Pablo Escobar was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. He escaped and following a massive manhunt, in 1993, he was killed by the police in a gunfight. His drug empire crumbled and his assets were seized. In the end, God judged Pablo Escobar.

Let us pray: Dear Father, forgive us for the times we had doubted that you will fulfill your Word and for the times when we have been impatient for you to act. Please grant us the patience and the grace to wait upon you always. In the mighty name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.

 

Questions

  1. What promises in God’s Word are you waiting to be fulfilled and what is your attitude towards God over this matter? Share.
  2. What evil do you see go unpunished? (Racism, Favoritism, Greed, etc)
  3. How can you trust that God will judge evil in His perfect timing?