Jeremiah 42-44

Jeremiah 42

1-21 Jeremiah Advises Survivors Not to Migrate

• Commanders, with Johanan (son of Kareah), Azariah (son of Hoshaiah), and all the people approach Jeremiah to inquire of God what they should do and where they should go.
• Jeremiah promises to pray to God on their behalf; he will keep nothing from them.
• Listen to the humble approach these people take. It's such a great statement, I'm going to quote it in full. Notice how the people say they are sending Jeremiah to God on their behalf. He won't be talking into thin air; he'll be going into the presence of God. He's their emissary to God.

May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to everything that the LORD your God sends us through you. whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, in order that it may go well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.

• After ten days, the word of the LORD comes to Jeremiah. Not an instant message!
• Jeremiah calls Johanan, the commanders and all the people (from the least to the greatest) and conveys God's word to them:
• If you remain in the land, 1) I will build you up, not pull you down; 2) I will plant you and not pluck you up; 3) I am sorry for the disaster I have brought upon you. This is like a father apologizing for the need to discipline his child, like a physician cutting out a cancerous tumor, knowing the rest of the body will suffer for it.
• Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, for I will protect you.
• But if you abandon the land to go to Egypt, 1) the sword you fear will overtake you, 2) the famine you dread will follow you, 3) you will have no remnant or survivors, 4) I will pour out my wrath on you as I have poured out my wrath on Jerusalem, and you shall see this place no more
• Jeremiah adds: You asked me to inquire of the LORD, and I have.
• You promised to do whatever he told you, so don't follow your former patterns of disobedience. If you do, be aware that you "shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go and settle."

Jeremiah 43

1-13 Taken to Egypt, Jeremiah Warns of Judgment

• Azariah, Johanan and "all the other insolent men" accuse Jeremiah of lying.
• They insist that Baruch (son of Neriah) is inciting Jeremiah against them so they will be captured by the Chaldeans. Obviously the leaders did not mean what they said when they came to inquire of God. They were just wanting Jeremiah's endorsement of what they had already planned to do.
• Johanan and all the commanders take the remnant of Judah -- everyone whom Nebuzaradan had left with Gedaliah, including Jeremiah and Baruch – and to Tahpanhes in Egypt.
• God tells Jeremiah to take some large stones and bury them in the clay pavement at the entrance to Pharaoah's palace and to let the Judeans see him do it.
• Then he is to declare: The LORD of hosts will send Nebuchadnezzar, and he will set his throne above those stones.
• He will 1) ravage the land of Egypt, 2) kindle fires in Egyptian temples; 3) take Egypt captive; 4) pick Egypt clean.
• He will give pestilence to those destined for pestilence, captivity to those destined for captivity, and the sword to those who are destined for the sword.

Jeremiah 44

1-30 Denunciation of Persistent Idolatry (God's word to Jeremiah for the Judeans living in Egypt at Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and the land of Pathros)

• You've seen the disaster I brought on Jerusalem because of their idolatry, even though I told them it was an abomination to me.
• Why do you still provoke me to anger, doing such harm to yourselves? Do you not have any fear?
• I will bring disaster on all of you, to bring Judah to an end. None of you who fled to Egypt will survive to return to the land of Judah, though you will long to go back.
• All the men who were aware that their wives had been making offerings to other gods, and all the women -- all the people of Pathros -- answer Jeremiah.
• Another amazing quote in verses 15-19, the complete opposite of what the people vowed in Jeremiah 42. Here, the women are involved. They all openly defy Jeremiah and God. They not only act out their defiance, they openly boast about it. They think their troubles started when they stopped giving homage to the "queen of heaven." Is there any wonder God is giving them up?
• Jeremiah: Your attitude is why these disasters have come upon you.
• Thus says the LORD: Go ahead and worship the queen of heaven, for my name will no longer be known among you.
• I will deliver Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, into the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar just as I delivered Zedekiah into his hands.