Running with Horses
Life comes with struggle and suffering. Solomon said that for everything there is a season. Life has its ups and downs, but especially when we’re personally in “a down” it can feel like life is mostly made up of downs. Proverbs 14:10 says, “The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy.” Each of us carry burdens in this life that are hard to bear, and hard for others to empathize with. They cause anxiety, disturb our sleep, invade our minds at inopportune times, and can leave us with feelings of loneliness and inadequacy. And many, when faced with these burdens in life, will come to a point where it feels like maybe it’s just better to give up. Perhaps you’ve felt that at one time or another.
The prophet Jeremiah was a prophet of God in a very difficult time in Judah’s history. Sin was rampant in the land, and few were willing to listen to the voice of God (Jeremiah 11:6-8). Jeremiah was tasked with telling these people that God was soon going to bring down punishment on them and their land (11:9-11), and for that reason Jeremiah had endured attempts on his life (11:18-19) by those unhappy with his message. Jeremiah had difficulty understand why he, a righteous man following the will of God, had to endure the mockery and violence committed against him by wicked and evil men who themselves lived lives of ease and comfort (12:1-4).
Here was God’s answer: “If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?” (Jeremiah 12:5)
God was basically saying to Jeremiah, if you’re having trouble now, how are you going to survive when things really get rough? Up to this point Jeremiah had been racing men in a safe country, but God wants Jeremiah to race horses in the thickets of the Jordan. Jeremiah feels like he’s at the end of his rope right now, but God asks, “how will you run with horses?”
Running with horses is an interesting metaphor on several levels. First, it is an impossibility for a man to compete with horses. Horses have more speed and endurance than people do when it comes to running. Even the fastest man alive cannot compete with an average horse. So maybe at first, God’s desire for Jeremiah to compete with horses sounds like God is wanting the impossible out of Jeremiah. And in one sense, God is. Jeremiah cannot run with horses without some supernatural aid.
Second, depending on how you interpret this statement of God, your whole attitude can shift about what God really wants for you. If you see God wanting you to run with horses as the over-exacting demands of a mean God who wants more and more from you, then this can sound like an awful thing. But imagine for a moment, if you could have the stamina and ability to run with horses and keep up—imagine a wide plain and you’re among a team of wild horses, and as they run into the horizon, you run along with them. Would that not be a thrilling, exhilarating experience? Only in your wildest dreams could something like that happen… and God wants that for you… but he also says there is a process to get there. You have to endure the little first, before you can endure the greater.
In Zechariah 13:9 God says, “I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’” To purify a metal requires passing through a great heat, over and over again, to extract impurities. The testing God places his people through has an end purpose—to purify us like silver and gold. The Hebrews author puts it this way: “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives…For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (12:5-6, 11) The pain we go through in life can be thought of as discipline from the Lord. It is meant to prepare us for something greater. When going through it, it certainly doesn’t always feel good, but the end result is the peaceful fruit of righteousness. That is why James tells us, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (1:2-4) We are not to count trials as joy because they are easy to go through, but as children of God, we can know there is something meaningful on the other side of suffering that is ultimately for our good.
Christ is our ultimate example of this. Peter says, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” (1 Peter 3:18) Christ endured the most grievous suffering knowing that through it, he might bring us to God. Ultimate suffering leads to ultimate good, but Christ had to go through it. Knowing this, and knowing that God has told us that the trials we go through in this life are sanctifying us, preparing us for things greater, then we should be able to confidently affirm “since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves in the same way of thinking” (1 Peter 4:1).
Are you growing weary of racing against men? Renew your mind and remember that God has greater planned for you than this current suffering. You are to run with horses.
