Which Way Should We Go?
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[Jeremiah 41:16-43:13]
When I was 10 or 11 years old I ran away from home. I was mad at my parents for the usual things—too many chores and not enough allowance—so I decided to leave with a friend of mine who felt the same way.
We got about a half mile away before realized we’d made a terrible mistake. We didn’t have food or money or a plan other than leaving. So when we heard the police sirens we ran home.
Turns out police weren’t looking for us and nobody even knew we were gone. We were so relieved and I told myself I’d never runaway again. I never did.
Faced with a Choice
Isreal was faced with a choice— should we leave or should we go?
By the time we get to chapter 41, they had already decided to go.
They left, stopping in Geruth Chimham, which is near Bethlehem, in order to make their way into Egypt, away from the Chaldeans. For they feared them because Ishmael son of Nethaniah had struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land.
They were afraid of the Babylonians, and understandably so. They were now refugees. They had seen horrible things including the deaths of friends and family. Gedaliah was dead and crazy Ishmael had retreated but was still out there somewhere. The remnant was getting smaller and they were afraid the Babylonians would seek revenge for Gedaliah’s death.
Something had to be done.
They thought the solution was to get out and go back to Egypt. Run away. Even though God had led them out of Egypt going back was starting to look pretty attractive to them.
So they left, but while they’re on their way to Egypt they had second thoughts.
Then all the commanders of the armies, along with Johanan son of Kareah, Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, approached the prophet Jeremiah and said, “May our petition come before you; pray to the Lord your God on our behalf, on behalf of this entire remnant (for few of us remain out of the many, as you can see with your own eyes), that the Lord your God may tell us the way we should go and the thing we should do.”
It’s good to ask God for directions but many times it’s too little to late. See, they were asking after they had already pretty much made up their minds. So that’s a problem.
Another problem is that they didn’t seem interested in praying for themselves. They wanted Jeremiah to pray on their behalf, which is fine, and Jeremiah was happy to do it. But it was also an indication of a lack of a personal relationship with God.
Most people are happy to have someone pray to God on their behalf. I’ve never had any one Christian or non-Christian refuse to let me pray for them. What could it hurt? But having someone else pray for you is different than praying to God yourself.
Martyn Lloyd Jones says, “There is nothing that tells the truth about us as Christian people so much as our prayer life.”
So that’s why Paul tells us in Hebrews 10:19-22 “Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus… let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith...”
But even though the Israelites don’t pray themselves, their request for prayer is a good one— “Tell us the way we should go and the thing we should do.”
Their attitude seemed right.
And they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we don’t act according to every word the Lord your God sends you to tell us. Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will obey the Lord our God to whom we are sending you so that it may go well with us. We will certainly obey the Lord our God!”
Amen! There’s much to commend in these verses. We should pray for guidance and listen to what God says and then vow to do whatever God says, no matter what.
It sounds like someone had been paying attention in Sunday School but then God answered them.
God’s Answer
Ten days later God gave them an answer but it wasn’t the answer they were hoping for.
God essentially said “stay in Judah and have peace or go to Egypt and die.” Well, they were already on the road to Egypt.
They’d have to admit they were wrong and turn around to go back in order to receive God’s promise of protection and provision.
It should have been an easy decision but their mind was already made up. All they could see in Judah was a lack of food and scary soldiers everywhere. So even though Jeremiah told them otherwise, Egypt seemed like a much better option to them because food was plentiful and no-one was trying to kill them.
Or so they thought...
Jeremiah 42:13–17 (CSB)
“But if you say... we’ll go to the land of Egypt where we will not see war or hear the sound of the ram’s horn or hunger for food, and we’ll live there,’ then hear the word of the Lord... the sword you fear will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine you are worried about will follow on your heels there to Egypt, and you will die there...
See, from a human point of view the desire to go to Egypt made sense. There was just one problem, God could see more clearly than they could and going to Egypt wasn’t his will.
So, in order to obey God, the Israelites had to live by faith. They had to trust that God knew what he was talking about but they just couldn’t do it. Instead, they did a risk assessment and came to the conclusion that the safest thing to do was disobey God.
We do the same things. We choose the “safer” path of keeping our money instead of giving it to the poor. We make the “safer” decision and avoid talking about the gospel. Everyday, we make decisions not based upon faith but upon what seems to make the most sense to us.
The truth is obeying God is always the safest decision while disobeying God is the riskiest choice imaginable.
Headed to Egypt
Despite their promise to do whatever God said, they did what they wanted to do. They’re like that friend who ask you for an honest opinion and then gets upset when you give it.
I guess they just never really figured that God’s plans could be different from theirs. So when they asked for prayer, they didn’t really want God’s advice they wanted God’s blessing for what they had already decided to do.
So off they went to Egypt.
Denying God’s Word
They denied God’s word in two ways. First, they rationalized their disobedience by thinking the Word of God really wasn’t the word of God.
Jeremiah 43:2 (CSB)
...all the other arrogant men responded to Jeremiah, “You are speaking a lie! The Lord our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to stay there for a while!’
Lies! God didn’t really say that! Many people have predetermined ideas of what God’s word sounds like and when they hear something they don’t like they say that’s not God.
For example, some say, God is only loving, he would never punish sin. Or, God is a Republican and he would never say something that sounds like a Democrat.
Second, they denied God’s word was by saying it was only the word of men.
Jeremiah 43:3 (CSB)
Rather, Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Chaldeans to put us to death or to deport us to Babylon!”
Remember Baruch? He’s Jeremiah’s scribe and assistant. So they said, it’s just the word of Baruch. We aren’t going to die in Egypt, that’s just Baruch’s opinion.
People today do similar things with Paul’s writings. They say, it’s just cultural or that difficult teaching is only Paul’s opinion so if we disobey it we aren’t really disobeying God.
But the Bible itself doesn’t give us this option. Reject all of God’s word if we dare or embrace it all. There’s no middle ground.
All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,
The whole Bible is inspired by God.
Above all, you know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
It’s all or nothing with scripture. It’s either all inspired or none of it is. Reject it if you must, but rejecting God’s word is the worst mistake a person can make. Where else are we going to learn about our sin and need for a Savior? Where else are we going to learn about Christ dying on the cross for sinners and about the resurrection?
Even if we reject God’s word it has a way of catching up with us.
You Can Run But You Can’t Hide
Johanan and all the army officers disobeyed God’s word and led everyone away to Egypt. But they didn’t get very far.
Jeremiah 43:7 (CSB)
They went to the land of Egypt because they did not obey the Lord. They went as far as Tahpanhes.
Tahpanhes was on the edge of Egypt so they hadn’t made it very far before Jeremiah gave them another word from the Lord, this time it’s an object lesson.
God told Jeremiah to take some large stones and bury them at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace in Tahpanhes.
and tell them, ‘This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will place his throne on these stones that I have embedded, and he will pitch his pavilion over them.
Let these stones be reminder to you of what God said would happen. You can run but you can’t hide. Fleeing to Egypt won’t do them any good. It will only make things much worse. Nebuchadnezzar will come and attack Egypt and God’s people are going to suffer all over again.
He will come and strike down the land of Egypt—those destined for death, to death; those destined for captivity, to captivity; and those destined for the sword, to the sword.
It’s perilous to think we know better than God. Rejecting his ways will always catch up with us, sooner or later. Proverbs 14:12 says “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.”
What happened to Jeremiah?
Jer 43:6 tells us us that Jeremiah was led away, too. Jeremiah went to Egypt along with everyone else.
I don’t think he did so willingly because God had clearly told everyone to stay in Judah and if anyone would have obeyed God it would have been Jeremiah, but even if he went against his will Jeremiah didn’t waste the opportunity to continue serving God’s people.
And this is a good reminder that even when God’s people disobey, God doesn’t completely abandon us. Yes, there will be consequences when we sin. But if we are in Christ our sin isn’t what will ultimately define us.
Jeremiah’s going with them is also a good reminder not to jump ship when fellow Christians sin. Sometimes Christians will say, “The church isn’t meeting my needs anymore,” or “I don’t like the pastor. The music doesn’t minister to me. There is nothing for the children. I don’t care for the snacks. Everything seems so dead.”
But if Jesus can put up with us, can’t we try to put up with each other?
So, which way should we go? We should follow Jesus and Jesus is with his people, the church.