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Home , Jeremiah 40

117) END OF ’S MINISTRY ; Jeremiah 40-44 August 30

This entry, which is worth one day of reading, covers topics such as INSINCERE PRAYING, SEEKING APPROVAL INSTEAD OF WISDOM, and JUSTIFICATION OF SIN. Historically, this entry covers the time that Jeremiah was taken into by the rebellious Hebrews who still hadn’t learned the lessons from the fall of .

King Nebuchadnezzar had left behind a leader, , who was supposed to govern the small remnant left in . This man promised the remnant that all would go well with them and that everyone would be taken care of. When Gedaliah was told that someone was planning to assassinate him, he naively didn’t believe it would happen. Sure enough, it did. Ishmael and his treacherous friends also murdered 70 other men as well, seemingly for no reason. There was utter lawlessness. This group then became afraid of revenge from , so they fled to Egypt. On their way, they stopped and asked Jeremiah what God’s message to them might be. They promised to do whatever God said (42:5-6). Ten days later, when God sent word to Jeremiah, the answered that God clearly wanted them to stay in Judah and not to go to Egypt. He promised them safety if they stayed, but warned them of death by the sword if they continued on their way to Egypt. Amazingly, the Hebrews forgot their promise of obedience and instead called Jeremiah a liar. Let’s look at the two positions side by side.

CHAPTER 42 – ASKING FOR DIRECTION FROM GOD

1 Then all the army officers, including Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest approached 2 Jeremiah the prophet and said to him, "Please hear our petition and pray to the LORD your God for this entire remnant. For as you now see, though we were once many, now only a few are left. 3 Pray that the LORD your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do." 4 "I have heard you," replied Jeremiah the prophet. "I will certainly pray to the LORD your God as you have requested; I will tell you everything the LORD says and will keep nothing back from you." 5 Then they said to Jeremiah, "May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the LORD your God sends you to tell us. 6 Whether it is favourable or unfavourable, we will obey the LORD our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the LORD our God."

CHAPTER 43 – AFTER HEARING DIRECTION FROM GOD (TEN DAYS LATER)

1When Jeremiah finished telling the people all the words of the LORD their God— everything the LORD had sent him to tell them- 2 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.' 3 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."

4 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. 5 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. 6 They also led away all the men, women and children and the king's daughters whom Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard had left with Gedaliah son of , the son of , and Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah. 7 So they entered Egypt in disobedience to the LORD and went as far as .

Now before getting too judgmental on the Hebrews, let’s think of times where we prayed insincerely or asked for advice when we really only wanted approval. Sometimes, just like a famous fictional character once said, “We can’t handle the truth!” Why? Cause we don’t want to repent. I have been there myself…Let’s hear the message from the Apostle Paul: I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)

God wants us to live in such a way that our thinking is becoming more and more like his thinking and that we are so in tune with Him that we will learn how to discern what His will for us is! We can only do this when we grow in our spirituality, by spending time with God in prayer, in the word, and with spiritually minded people.

In counselling, we say that if someone says one thing and does or says the opposite later, it is “incongruous”. That is how some of us live our lives. We say that we are a Christian, we say that we want to obey God, but then we act just like the Hebrews of Jeremiah’s day. Don’t be an “incongruous Christian”…let’s pray sincere prayers and ask for God’s wisdom and will, not for approval.

Chapter 44 is a bizarre chapter to me. This is an example of what happens when we really get unspiritual. Not only did the people sin as described above, but then they tried to justify themselves in ways that are unbelievable! They acted like all of their problems happened because they obeyed Jeremiah earlier and stopped praying to the Egyptian so- called “Queen of Heaven”. Good grief! They really didn’t learn anything over the past 30 years! Jeremiah was forced to prophecy more doom and destruction to them…how sad! I am sure that Jeremiah was truly disheartened by this time. At least he could dream about the future coming of the Messiah. Let us make sure that we are not like these Hebrews at their worst – people who blame others for their misfortune, and then justify their sin on top of everything else. God help us to learn what we need to learn from these sad chapters and to rejoice during the return of the remnant. [email protected]