Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 42-44.

After the murder of the man the Babylonians appointed as governor over Judah, the Jews remaining in Judah came to Jeremiah seeking to know God’s will for them.  In particular, they wanted Jeremiah to ask God where they should go and what they should do.  They swore that they would act in full accordance with whatever Jeremiah told them was God’s will for them.  When Jeremiah brings God’s answer to them it is clear that both God and Jeremiah knew how they would respond…which was by refusing to abide by the answer they received.  Every time I read this I come away with the impression that those who came to Jeremiah had already made up their minds as to what they were going to do before they spoke with him.  Which leads me to wonder why they came to Jeremiah in the first place.

We don’t have any basis to determine why they came to Jeremiah when they had already decided on a course of action.  What we do know is what they did after rejecting what God told them through Jeremiah.  First they accused Jeremiah of lying when he said that God had told them to stay in Judah.  Then, once they were in Egypt, instead of listening to Jeremiah’s messages from God, they resumed making sacrifices and offerings to idols.  So, the people consulted Jeremiah to learn what God’s commands for them were.  But, when he did not tell them what they wanted to hear, they rejected not only Jeremiah, but God as well.  We must be careful when we ask for God’s guidance to listen and obey what He tells us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 42-44.

After the assassination of the governor appointed by the Babylonians the people remaining in the land came to Jeremiah  requesting him to ask God what they should do.  Then when Jeremiah gave them God’s answer some of them accused him of lying.  Note that they did not say he had heard God’s answer incorrectly, they said he was lying.  So, they had gone to Jeremiah seeking God’s guidance, but when they did not like the answer he gave them they did not argue that he misunderstood God.  Rather than make a case that Jeremiah’s understanding of God’s will was wrong, they accused him of acting in bad faith.  Further, the same leaders who had approached Jeremiah in the first place were the ones who did so.  As best I can understand, they were hoping that Jeremiah would agree with their plan to take the remaining Israelites to Egypt and when he did not attacked him.  If they had argued that he said what he did because he was in the service of Babylon it would have at least had the virtue of being one interpretation of events.  Of course, that would have called into question why they went to him in the first place.  The leaders who led the people to Egypt did not make a case for it to be God’s desire that they go to Egypt.  Instead, they attacked the motivations of those who argued for them to stay in the land.  In the same way today, we should be cautious of those who make the case for their preferred actions by attacking the integrity of those who disagree with them rather than by arguing the merits of their course of actions and the liabilities of the opposing course of action.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 42-44.

After the assassination of the governor appointed over Judah by the Babylonians, the people remaining in Judah were afraid that the Babylonian army would return to punish them for it. So, they decided to flee to Egypt.  However, first they went to Jeremiah to ask him to pray to God for guidance as to what they should do.  They phrased their request to Jeremiah as if they had not already decided what to do. The passage does not make clear why they requested God’s guidance, but the response which God gave through Jeremiah makes clear that neither God nor Jeremiah expected them to follow it.  In fact, the reply Jeremiah gave them from God seems to suggest that if they had gone to Egypt without asking for God’s guidance things would have gone better for them there.  I see two lessons for us here.  The more important one being: Ask God for guidance before you decide what to do, and then wait for His answer before deciding.  The second one being: do not ask God for guidance after you have already made up your mind as to what you are going to do.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 42-44.

After the assassination of the governor appointed by the king of Babylon by one of the guerrilla leaders, the remaining leaders consulted with Jeremiah as to what they should do.  They promised that they would do whatever Jeremiah determined that God said they should do.  Despite this fervent promise, when Jeremiah called them back to hear God’s answer, they refused to follow it.  They accused Jeremiah of lying to them under the influence of his long time assistant, Baruch.  They were convinced that Baruch wanted them to be killed by the Babylonians.  No explanation is given as to why they would believe that he wanted that to happen.  Despite refusing to listen to Jeremiah, and blaming Baruch for him giving them “bad” advice, they took both of them with them to Egypt.  Then once they had gotten to Egypt, they began blaming everything which had happened on giving up their idolatry.

We see both of the above behaviors today.  People ask for guidance from God, but don’t really want guidance.  They just want someone to tell them that God wants them to do what they were going to do anyway. When things continue to get worse after they stop doing the things which caused problems to start, people often blame the problems on the fact that they stopped rather than recognize that it takes time for changing your behavior to change the results you experience.  I am really sorry, I cannot find the words to fully communicate my thoughts here.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 42-44.

After the murder of the governor appointed by the Babylonians, the people remaining in Judah were afraid of what the Babylonians would do to them.  Initially, they did the right thing, they went to Jeremiah and asked him to tell them what God wanted them to do.  However, when Jeremiah came back 10 days later and told them that God’s answer was for them to stay in Judah and submit to the king of Babylon, they did not trust him.  Despite having promised that they would do whatever Jeremiah told them God commanded and despite Jeremiah’s warning that tragedy would follow them should they go to Egypt, they chose to flee to Egypt rather than remain in Judah.  This really reminds me of the lesson I took from King Zedekiah’s last consultation with Jeremiah.  How often do we choose to act counter to what we know to be God’s will because we do not truly trust God to care for us?  Because we are afraid of what will happen to us if we do His will?  The lesson here is that the consequences of not doing God’s will are always worse than doing God’s will.