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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
When Jeremiah had finished telling the
people all the words of the Lord their God—everything the Lord had sent him to
tell them— Azariah, son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the
arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The Lord our God has not sent
you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to settle there.’ But Baruch, son of
Neriah, is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Babylonians, so they
may kill us or carry us into exile to Babylon.”
So Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the
army officers and all the people disobeyed the Lord’s command to stay in the
land of Judah. Instead, Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the army officers led
away all the remnant of Judah who had come back to live in the land of Judah
from all the nations where they had been scattered. They also led away all
those whom Nebuzaradan, commander of the imperial guard, had left with Gedaliah,
son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan—the men, the women, the children and the
king’s daughters. And they took Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch, son of Neriah,
along with them. So they entered Egypt in disobedience to the Lord and went as
far as Tahpanhes.
Jeremiah 43:1-7
This ends today’s reading
from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
In
yesterday’s devotion, drawn from the closing verses of Jeremiah 42, we found
the prophet Jeremiah giving the Jewish remnant of Mizpah a proposition from
God. You’ll recall that the Jews, fresh off a rescue from the hands of the
murderous Ishmael, had fixations on heading to Egypt, fearing retribution from
King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon who had appointed the governor that Ishmael had assassinated
along with several Babylonian soldiers that were killed. But before they left
Judah, they approached Jeremiah and asked him to pray to God, asking for where
He wanted them to go and what He wanted them to do. They swore their obedience
to whatever God told them, whether favorable or unfavorable, but as we will see
in the opening verses of Jeremiah 43, the people really didn’t mean the oath
they swore to because in the end translation they would reject anything outside
of what they really wanted to hear.
First,
let’s review what they heard for here was the basic essence of God’s
proposition:
The
people were not to go to Egypt but rather remain in Judah and settle there. God
assured them through Jeremiah that they need not fear King Nebuchadnezzar
because God would assure he would show them the same compassion He gives. If
the Jewish remnant trusted God and obeyed what He told them to do, then He
would assure their protecting and success.
However,
if they did not heed His proposition and chose to go to Egypt, they would
perish there either by sword or famine or plague, never again returning to
Judah. God promised His people would become curse and an object of reproach.
Now,
I don’t know about you but if it were me, I think I would listen to God and do
what He said to do.
The
members of the Jewish remnant were not me for as we see in today’s scripture
passage, the remnant really had no interest in hearing anything except what
they wanted to hear and that was permission for them to go to Egypt. That was
where they wanted to go to do what they wanted to do. Asking God for His
direction was nothing more than a ruse.
Look
again at these words from Jeremiah 43:
When
Jeremiah had finished telling the people all the words of the Lord their
God—everything the Lord had sent him to tell them— Azariah, son of Hoshaiah,
and Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are
lying! The Lord our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to
settle there.’ But Baruch, son of Neriah, is inciting you against us to hand us
over to the Babylonians, so they may kill us or carry us into exile to
Babylon.”
So
Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the army officers and all the people disobeyed
the Lord’s command to stay in the land of Judah. Instead, Johanan, son of
Kareah, and all the army officers led away all the remnant of Judah who had
come back to live in the land of Judah from all the nations where they had been
scattered. They also led away all those whom Nebuzaradan, commander of the
imperial guard, had left with Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan—the
men, the women, the children and the king’s daughters. And they took Jeremiah
the prophet and Baruch, son of Neriah, along with them. So they entered Egypt
in disobedience to the Lord and went as far as Tahpanhes. Jeremiah 43:1-7
Note
here that it didn’t take long for Jeremiah to meet rebuttal from the remnant
from Mizpah. For scripture tells us that after the prophet had finished “telling
the people all the words of the Lord their God”, all the “arrogant men” which
included Johanan and Azariah told Jeremiah:
“You
are lying! The Lord our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt
to settle there.’ But Baruch, son of Neriah, is inciting you against us to hand
us over to the Babylonians, so they may kill us or carry us into exile to
Babylon.”
It’s
obvious that the people had no notion to go back to Judah. Of interest, the
people placed more trust in the fear of what their future might hold than in
the One who held their future in His hands.
How
often do we do the same?
We,
like the Jewish remnant of Mizpah, think we know everything that is going to
come, unwilling to even accept the possibility that God could bring us a favorable
outcome, no matter how the odds may appear stacked against us.
Yes,
the Babylonians had attacked Judah, destroyed Jerusalem, and taken all the
other Jews captive but that didn’t mean the same would happen to them. In fact,
God has promised them it wouldn’t happen if they were obedient to what He was
telling them to do.
God
promised, and yet, His people didn’t place their faith in His word and way.
Instead, they opted to go where they wanted to go to do what they wanted to do.
Again,
sounds like many professing believers today.
Well,
as we read, Johanan, all the army officers, and all the people “disobeyed the Lord’s
command to stay in the land of Judah” and “entered Egypt” taking Jeremiah and
Baruch along with them. They had balked at God’s proposition and in doing so,
challenged God to bring the consequences He promised.
As
we will soon see, that was a huge mistake bit let’s get back to today’s
devotion and what the Lord is trying to teach us today. For as believers, we
have a choice to make in the way we live and conduct ourselves in relationship
to God.
On
one hand, we can choose to live in complete obedience to Him, listening
intently to what He says while placing our own will and desires aside, going wherever
He calls us to go and complying with everything He asks us to say and do.
Or
we can act like we’re interested in what God has to say when we’re really not,
receiving His word with no intent to do what He asks us to do unless it
complies with what we want to do. If it conflicts with our wishes, then we
simply will reject what the Lord wants and instead do whatever we want to do,
just like the Jewish remnant from Mizpah.
As we will see in our ongoing study of the Book of
Jeremiah, there really is only one proper choice to make and that is being
completely obedient to God, even when it goes contrary to what we think we
should do. For to deny Him is to say you don’t trust Him and that is always
going to get you into trouble.
Do
yourself a favor and set your faith attitude so that the only thing you hear
that matters when it comes to life guidance is the words that come from the
mouth of the Lord.
Trust
me when I say you will never run the risk of going wrong if you do it.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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