Listening to God

Listening to Dad

When my wife and I were in our mid-twenties, we got to the point where we’d been married for a year or two, we both had full time jobs, and so we started thinking about purchasing our first home.

So we got some advice about how much we could borrow and then we set out looking at all of the houses in our range.

Now, as you might imagine, houses tend to fit into one of two categories. There’s the ready-to-move-in house. There might be the odd job or two, but nothing too substantial.

Then there’s the fixer-upper. Significant work will be required, and relatively quickly after moving in.

When you’ve got a spending limit, the ready-to-move-in houses on your budget tend to be quite modest. The fixer-upper on the other hand, well… you can get something a bit more interesting on the same budget.

I remember one such house we looked at. For it’s price, it was quite big. It was in a nice neighbourhood. It felt like a home that we could make our own.

So when you’re in your mid-twenties and don’t know what decision to make when looking to buy your first home - what do you do?

Dad!!!

That’s right you call your Dad.

Now part of me really wanted to buy this house. I wanted my Dad to say - it’s alright son, you can fix those problem no worries.

So I got him to have a look. Actually, just to be sure, I had my father-in-law as well.

We looked around. We went around and we opened the electricity meter - ummm, why is all this warning tap all over everything in here. That doesn’t look good.

In the lounge room, the carpet had this big burn mark in the shape of an iron.

Now Dad - it’ll be alright, won’t it?

Now, I didn’t need to seek my Dad’s approval. I was an independent adult. My wife and I were able to make that decision regardless of what our parents said.

But now that we sought their opinion, will we listen - or will I go with my heart and say this is a good house in a good neighbourhood?

Well, let me keep you in suspense to the end of my message, because this raises an interesting thing that often happens with many of us - that is, we sometimes ask for advice, but what we actually want is someone to just agree with us.

This is what we’re going to find as we come to our second last message in our series on Jeremiah.

God’s people are going to call out to God, but they just want God to agree with their plans.

And so as we go through the account of what is happening, I want us to be thinking about the times when we ask God for guidance - and I want us to be thinking about how we can make sure that we actually listen to the answer, and not just twist things to fit our own ideas.

Context

Well, let’s see where things are up to in this part of Jeremiah.

So, Jerusalem has finally fallen.

Things have been building to this point throughout the book of Jeremiah.

At first came the call to change their ways. But they didn’t listen.

The Babylonians rose in strength. And in 597 BC, Jeremusalem suffered a big defeat, with ten thousand of the best and brightest being taken into exile. But many remained in Jerusalem with Zedekiah now king.

But there was a bigger defeat coming.

Jeremiah 39 describes this defeat.

In the ninth year of Zedekiah, the seige from Babylon began. This siege lasted almost three terrifying years. It was then in the eleventh year of Zedekiah that finally they broke through the walls.

The city lay in ruins.

Even more people were taken into exile. Now it really was only a remnant of people that were left.

Interestingly, however, Jeremiah was treated really well in all of this. Apparently word must have got to Babylon that there was this guy in Jerusalem prophesying what Babylon was going to do, and even more than that, telling them to submit to these foreigners. I suspect that had something to do with his favourable treatment.

If you read at the start of Jeremiah 40, they even give him a choice of whether to come to Babylon or not - and I suspect it would have been tempting for him to go - after all, with the favourable treatment he’s getting, it could actually work really well for him. But despite the city now being in tatters, Jeremiah decides to stay.

A new governor

Well, the city might be in ruins, but as we’ll see now, it’s also in political chaos as well.

You see, while we have just seen the last of the kings of Israel, Jerusalem is about to get a governor.

This governor is actually appointed by the Babylonians, and while you might get sceptical of that, it actually seems like a good choice. His name is Gedaliah, and he just so happens to be the grandson of Shaphan. Now I made a veyr brief passing remark in my message last week and you’ll be forgiven if you missed this detail, but we actually saw another one of Shaphans grandsons last week.

Last week it was Micaiah who was the one who heard the warning and got the other officials to hear it as well.

Well, as I mentioned in passing last week, Shaphan had been the secretary who had encouraged King Josiah a few generations ago to do a bunch of good reforms in the temple.

So we know that Gedaliah comes from good stock, and the way he governs seems to be very much in line with the advice that had been coming from Jeremiah.

Warning of Assassination

Unfortunately, if we’re going to pick a fault with him, it’s that he is perhaps to naive.

You see, while Gedaliah might be governing in such a way that aligns with what Jeremiah has been saying, this is not exactly what everyone thinks.

There’s a group, led by someone called Ishmael, who don’t like this one little bit.

It seems clear what’s happening. You see, in essence, the new governor is just saying - let’s settle down and just go with what’s happening.

Ishmael on the other hand is saying - no! We’ve got to fight!

He’s seen the devastation that’s happened, and he’s had enough. They might have been reduced to a rubble, but he hasn’t lost his fight.

Ishmael starts eyeing off Gedaliah.

Someone called Johanan son of Kareah, who will feature very shortly, warns Gedaliah that Ishmael plans on assassinating him. He even suggests a way of taking out Ishmael to prevent this, but if you look at the last verse in chapter 40, you’ll see Gedaliah not believing the plot.

Unfortunately, Gedaliah was being naive, and in chapter 41, Ishmael does assassinate him.

As I mentioned before, this city might have already been in ruin, now even those who are left are acting in a way that brings even more chaos.

Well, Ishamel acts like a bit of a tyrant, but Johanan son of Kareah who had been loyal to Gedaliah a moment ago, he stands up in a better way. Eventually, he gets more numbers supporting him, and Ishamel is forced to escape out of Jerusalem.

Johanan restores things somewhat - well, at least, as much as possible given that they are still living in the devastation caused by Babylon.

But then Johanan surveys the scene. Jerusalem does not feel safe. He still feels nervous about Bablyon.

He’s just had a big internal struggle with Ishmael, his fellow countrymen.

The decision seems pretty obvious. Let’s take the group that has formed around him down to Egypt where they can be safe and just keep out of trouble.

It makes sense. If you ask me, it makes logical sense and I can completely understand his reasoning.

Asking God

Well, this brings us to our chapter for today - Jeremiah 42.

And if you stopped at verse 6, you’d have to say it sounds mighty good the way they are going about this.

You see, they recognise that what they are doing shouldn’t be done without inquiring of the Lord.

And so, they go up to Jeremiah because they recognise him as a prophet - one of the only prophets to actually have their prophies come true, so that’s something.

And so they say: “Please hear our petition and pray to the Lord your God for this entire remnant. For as you now see, though we were once many, now only a few are left. Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.”

Well, they should certainly be commended on such a request. This is exactly what they should be doing.

And Jeremiah agrees - yep! I’ll do it!

He even adds (and I’m not sure if he’s being a little cheeky here or not): “I will tell you everything the Lord say and will keep nothing back from you”.

Verses 5 and 6 cap off this great request in a really lovely way. They agree to do whatever God will say. They even say they’ll obey regardless of whether it is a favourable or unfavourable outcome.

Isn’t it great that things are going so well now, particularly after all the mess I described earlier.

God’s response

Well, Jeremiah brings this request before God. The next day… he hears nothing.

The next day… nothing again. In fact, for about a week and a half, there’s nothing.

But then, on the tenth day, God finally speaks.

Actually, if I pause right here, this is not my main point, but it is something worth considering - God doesn’t always respond immediately after we make a request. Sometimes there’s a delay and we might not always know why that delay occurs, but don’t give up just because God doesn’t answer straight away.

But, let’s get back to what God actually says: (from verse 10)

Jeremiah 42:10–12 “‘If you stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I have relented concerning the disaster I have inflicted on you. Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him, declares the Lord, for I am with you and will save you and deliver you from his hands. I will show you compassion so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your land.’”

Now, when I hear that from my perspective, I think - well, that sounds pretty cut and dried to me. Of course you’d stay in Jerusalem. God’s saying it’s going to go well. That there will be safety. That God is going to be with them.

And just to make this a bit more cut and dried, God then tells them what will happen if they do go to Egypt. They’ll be met by the sword. They’ll face famine. It will be a disaster.

So what do they do?

Well, given their assurance that they will do whatever God tells them - well, they go anyway.

You need to go into chapter 43 to find their rationale. It’s right there in Jeremiah 43:2: “You are lying!” They say to Jeremiah.

You see, they figure that Baruch has orchestrated a plan to have them all handed over to Babylon.

Now on one hand, this is a completely stupid way of thinking - Jeremiah has proved trustworthy the whole time. Everything he’s said has come true.

But then again, you can see where their paranoia has come from.

Remember, us sitting here with a few millenia between us might be able to see it clearly, but here are people who have just witnessed the Babylonians completely devastate Jerusalem and treat their people appallingly. They’ve got reason to not trust the Babylonians.

You see, here’s the thing… remember Johanan and his group said they would do anything God said.

Well, there’s kind of an unstated assumption behind such a commitment. That is, they’ll do whatever God says because of course God is going to agree with their plans. Of course God is going to have common sense and see the ridiculousness of the altnerative to their plan.

So it’s pretty safe to say they’ll do what God says - because that’s what they were going to do anyway.

This is why, when God does say something different, it’s only natural to assume that someone is interfering with the message.

Our assumptions

Now, let’s just transpose this idea to us.

Is it possible that sometimes when we ask for guidance from God, what we’re actually asking is for God to affirm our plan?

Quite possibly, maybe even likely, you’re not doing it on purpose. After all, I suspect when Johanan and his group said they would do whatever God said they probably thought they meant it.

You see, it’s very easy for us to assume that God’s thinking about this the same way we are.

Let’s say for example this idea goes through your mind that you should volunteer for Sunday Kids.

It sits there for a little while and you wonder whether it’s from God or not.

But then you convince yourself, well, it can’t be from God. And you list all these reasons why it’s a bad idea. You even reason that because no one has directly approached you, well, it can’t have been God telling you to do it.

Now, in this scenario, have you listened to God or have you been making your own mind up? Well, it is possible that you’re right and that volunteering for Sunday Kids is not where you should be.

But what if you were to say to God - challenge my assumptions. For example, let’s say one of your assumptions was that because you are too busy, you couldn’t possibly do it. Give that assumption to God and ask: am I just making an excuse because this will take me out of my comfort zone?

But let’s give another example. We face the question of - how much money should I give the church for the offering?

Many use the rule of thumb of ten percent, which is the literal definition of a tithe. But is that before tax or after tax? And if you’re a self-funded retiree, how does that work?

So we say to God - okay, give me some guidance… how much should I give?

If you’ve asked this question, that’s great! But, were you like Johanan and his group and after asking, just doing what you want anyway.

You see, we’re pretty good at arguing - well, God would want me to save that money.

God wants me to be happy, so I’m justified in spending that money on myself.

And besides, the church is just being greedy in wanting more and more of my money.

What decision are you facing at the moment. It’s one thing to ask God about it. It’s another thing to listen to the answer.

The big barrier that I want to highlight from this passage, is that our assumptions can get in the way and we need to challenge those assumptions.

Johanan and his group assumed that staying in Jerusalem would make them a target of Babylon. When the Lord told them to stay, that didn’t challenge the assumption, they instead challenged the messenger who was speaking the word of God.

Discerning what God is saying to us is hard at the best of times, but when we have poor assumptions, it makes it even harder.

Conclusion

So let me come back to the story of my wife and I wanting to buy our first home. Our assumption had been that this house was going to be just right for us and that fixing the problems wouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Now to be honest, both my father and father-in-law didn’t say definitely not but they helped us to see the challenges.

Our assumptions were challeneged. The problems were bigger than we realised.

We didn’t buy that house. Actually, we put off buying a house and went to Bible College instead - but that’s another story.

Unfortunately, Johanan didn’t challenge his assumption. What’s more, they took Jeremiah with them.

Jeremiah never leaves Egypt once taken down there.

The sad part about this is that these leaders made a decision based on a bad reading of what God was saying, and they brought others down with them.

We need to be careful to not just ask God for guidance but listen as well.

Let me pray...