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Jeremiah 40-43

Jeremiah 40-43

Over that last several weeks we have been leading up to the fall of Jerusalem. God had promised it due to the rebellion of the people of Judah in their worship of false gods. In the course of the siege of Jerusalem by Babylon Jeremiah has been calling on the people to go out to Nebuchadnezzar and surrender so that they would live. All those who stayed in the city would be killed. This made the king and others angry so he was thrown into a cistern and later taken out and put into prison. But as God had promised the fall of Jerusalem did happen. It is kind of anticlimactic as it is recorded in 2 Kings 25, 2 Chronicles 36 and in Jeremiah 39. In the Jeremiah account it simply says that in the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the city was penetrated. After such a long siege that is usually how a city falls. Zedekiah escapes to the plains but is capture and taken to Nebuchadnezzar who kills his sons in front of him the blinds him and takes him prisoner to Babylon. Jeremiah had prophesied that just like he did the fall of Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar took all the people who were not killed in the fall of the city and those who had surrendered to him previously off to Babylon. Jeremiah was taken along with them but Nebuchadnezzar had put him under the charge of Nebuzaradan his general telling him to do whatever Jeremiah wanted him to do. After a short trek Nebuzaradan took the chains off of Jeremiah and told him he could go wherever he wanted. If he wanted to go to Babylon it would be fine and if he went back it would be ok. But he does strongly suggest that he go back to Gedaliah the governor assigned to Judah by Nebuchadnezzar. That is what Jeremiah does.

Nebuchadnezzar had left all the poorest of people in Judah to tend the crops and he gave them land which most of them had never had before so they would be loyal to him and Israelites who had left Judah when Babylon invaded came back because there was a chance for a new start. Gedaliah told the people not to fear Nebuchadnezzar but to go ahead and work the land and God would make them prosper. Of course that is what Jeremiah had already prophesied. But things just can’t be that simple. A man by the name of Ishmael was in league with the Ammonites and he killed Gedeliah. Johanan and others ran him back to Ammon and decided it was time to go to Egypt. Before we go any further remember that God had told the people of Jerusalem and Judah that to be obedient to Him they had to submit to Nebuchadnezzar His servant. So, leaving Judah wasn’t really what God meant by submitting to Nebuchadnezzar.

Johanan and the other leaders find Jeremiah and entreat the Lord for guidance. Jeremiah 42:1-3 1Now all the captains of the forces, Johanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, came near 2and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Please, let our petition be acceptable to you, and pray for us to the Lord your God, for all this remnant (since we are left but a few of many, as you can see), 3that the Lord your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing we should do.” That sounds promising. They have seen the error of their ways and all they want to do is what God wants them to do. So Jeremiah agrees to tell them everything God tells him. Then they say this in verse 5-6 5So they said to Jeremiah, “Let the Lord be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not do according to everything which the Lord your God sends us by you. 6Whether it is pleasing or displeasing, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.” Again, that sounds promising. But I will have to interject here that as a pastor I wish I had a nickel for every time I have heard something like that. I do not doubt the sincerity but there is a history much like what we will see in the people from Judah and Jerusalem.

Jeremiah goes to the Lord and comes back with an answer in 10 days. What do you think the answer is? Jeremiah 42:9-12, 19 9and said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before Him: 10‘If you will still remain in this land, then I will build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up. For I relent concerning the disaster that I have brought upon you. 11Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not be afraid of him,’ says the Lord, ‘for I am with you, to save you and deliver you from his hand. 12And I will show you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and cause you to return to your own land.’ 19“The Lord has said concerning you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt!’ Know certainly that I have admonished you this day. … I guess God didn’t change His mind and the people have their answer. The Lord goes on and warns the people through Jeremiah that they would all die if they go to Egypt.

After all they had seen, the warnings, the calls to repentance and then the actual fall of Jerusalem then the people coming to Jeremiah saying they would do anything the Lord told them that the people would listen to the Lord through Jeremiah. But not so, they accused Jeremiah of lying to them and they even kidnapped him and took him with them to Egypt. I’ll come back to what happened in Egypt later but there is something that really stood out to me in this story. When the people said they wanted to do whatever it was that God wanted them to do what they really meant was; “We want to be obedient to God as long as what He wants is what we want.” These people who had seen God do what HE said He would do still didn’t get it. They wanted what they wanted and it made no real difference to them what God’s will was. In fact in verse 20 Jeremiah calls them hypocrites for sending him to ask of God what His will was.

But let’s be honest. How many of us do the same thing on a regular basis? “I just want to grow in the Lord and be His servant (as long as I don’t have to commit to reading the Bible everyday).” “I just want to be His witness to the world (as long as I don’t have to talk to anyone different than me, or like me).” “Lord I’ll go wherever You send me (as long as I don’t have to get to far away from my kids, or grandkids, or family in general).” “Lord, I’ll go into all the world (as long as it isn’t a dangerous place).” “Lord you have blessed me with so much I just want to give to people in need (as long as they are working people and it doesn’t change my lifestyle).” I could go on with this but I think you get the idea; sometimes our commitment to God is hypocritical. Not always, nothing is always, but sometimes we mistake our will for God’s will and think nothing else can be true. “God can’t really want me to do that”…whatever that is.

We are called, as followers of Jesus, to seek His will over our own. Romans 12:2 Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may know what is the good and excellent aand perfect will of God. If He is our Lord then we are to surrender our will to His will. Paul said it this way in Galatians 2:20 20I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Here is the problem with all of that, you ready? It is hard, it is always difficult to lay aside what you want for what someone else wants and just because it is Jesus doesn’t make it any easier. However we know that His will is always best. His will grows us into mature believers. His will leads to life and not death. The people of Judah knew the truth but they wanted what they wanted. How about you? Let’s pray.