Today’s reading in The NKJV Daily Bible recounts Jeremiah’s deep struggle.  He is given a message to proclaim to the backsliding disobedient among God’s people.  It is very difficult to share these words,

The LORD called your name, Green Olive Tree, Lovely and of Good Fruit.  With the noise of a great tumult He has kindled fire on it, and its branches are broken” (Jeremiah 11:16).

The people in turn seek to uproot Jeremiah and cut him off from the land.  Jeremiah is troubled; he doesn’t understand why the wicked seem to prosper.  He tells God,

You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; they grow, yes, they bear fruit.  You are near in their mouth but far from their mind” (Jeremiah 12:2).

Do you ever feel that way?

Yesterday, I taught a short Sunday School lesson from the book of Amos to a group of teenagers.

This verse stood out to me – a reality that will occur with every proud tree,

“Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of cedars, and he was as strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath” (Amos 2:9).

God is patient.  God is longsuffering.  But He will cut down the proud tree in the end.