His work, His strange work...

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? Jeremiah 12:1.

The prophet asks a very pertinent question! it was true back then as it is today, truly there is no new thing under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1.9. But, God has a plan! Isaiah gives us great insight into it;

For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, He shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that He may do His work, His strange work, and bring to pass His act, His strange act. Isaiah 28:21.

Many think the wicked to be having a "whale of a time" as it were, that there is no judgment, and that all will be well in the end. Even many professing Christians in our day are no doubt irked about the fact that the wicked are 'progressing' in this age and that everything is going contrary to how they think it should be. They know that the powers that be (Romans 13.1) are passing increasingly ungodly laws, and cannot make sense of these things.
But these things pose no problem to the pre-millennial believer, for he knows that Antichrist must come first, then the Lord Jesus shall slay him with the breath of His mouth, " 2 Thessalonians 2.8.

The way of the wicked has to prosper in order for the Antichrist to come to power!

Increasingly in our day the Gospel message is being met with greater hostility than ever before, people have so much, and a great many 'pleasurable' activities to smother the sound thereof. As was the case with Pharaoh (a forerunner of the Antichrist), when he saw there was respite, he hardened his heart (Exodus 8.21); is it not true that there is MUCH more than a temporary respite if one responds to the Gospel call? It is true that God first hardened Pharaoh's heart (Exodus 7.13), but why did He do this? Well, even a simpleton like me can see that if He had softened Pharaoh's heart, then whence cometh the great deliverance with a stretched out arm? For God had previously said I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments (Exodus 6.6)!
God raised up Pharaoh up solely to bring to pass His act, His strange act, Romans 9.17 (RV) says of Pharaoh; for this very purpose did I raise thee up, that I might shew in thee my power, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. And then the apostle continues with his treatise on election.

Of the Assyrian (another forerunner of the coming Antichrist) God used him as the rod of mine anger, and though he performed his own 'freewill', it was being used to fulfill God's purposes! For God declares; Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so. Isaiah 10. 5-7. Likewise with Nebuchadnezzar that other great despot, who accredited his greatness to the might of his power (Daniel 4.30), after his subsequent humiliation he "sang a totally different tune", for he said all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, what doest thou? Daniel 4.35.

The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever He will. Proverbs 21.1. If the kings heart is in the hand of the LORD, how much more his subjects?
THINK on these things!

B.W. Newton the learned 19th century Bible expositor paraphrased much of what I have written above when he discovered pre-millennial truth, in the following succinct words:

"The moment I saw the awful future and viewed the now approaching close of our Dispensation in the light of God's Word, I saw the fearfulness of my error. The Bible became like a new book to me. I saw that Evil was advancing - not Good."

p. 498  BABYLON & EGYPT THEIR FUTURE HISTORY AND DOOM

B.W. NEWTON.