Jeremiah 12:10
Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
The verse is a solemn denunciation of sin that expresses sorrow of heart over transgression and makes a touching appeal to return to God, which the mass of the people do not heed. The many pastors who destroy the vineyard and tread the portion under foot are popular ministers who please people with fine preaching and social life while leaving sin unwarned. Because those pastors lack courage to tell people their true condition and lack faith to lead them to Christ, sin remains unrepented, no sinners are saved for years, people join the church as a club and live inconsistent unconverted lives unlike New Testament Christians, and are lost.
The desolation and wilderness describe the great apostasy, representing the spiritual barrenness and error of the apostate church. They also represent the outward poverty and desolate condition of God's people during centuries of superstition. That poverty and refuge in remote places at times helped preserve the faithful, and through all these conditions God preserved His people.