We Will Not Listen! Have you ever seen someone headed in a direction that you know is self- destructive? Have you tried to persuade them not to go the way they are going? You listen to their reasons and their fears and try to persuade them of a better way. And nothing you say can persuade them. At best, they know you care about them, but they refuse to consider what you are saying. Sadly, some of us have lived long enough to see our worst fears realized. Our friends pursue the toxic relationship. The unhealthy lifestyle destroys their health. They squander their money on ill-considered investments, or excessive consumption, or the casino. We wonder why they won’t see sense. Why won’t they listen? I’m not sure I can answer that for any given situation. As Pascal said, the heart has its reasons that reason knows not thereof. Instead, I want to ask us to search our own hearts to consider if we are listening to the word of God that comes to us. In our passage, Jeremiah confronts a situation of people who won’t listen. It’s a continuation of the passage Jeff preached on last week. Let’s do an overview of Jeremiah 44, part of which was read for us today. If you have your scripture handy, you may want to follow along with me. Overview: Jeremiah 44 As you recall, Johanan and a group of Jews decided to disobey Jeremiah’s previous message from God to them to remain in Judah and submit to the Babylonians. Disregarding Jeremiah, they go to Egypt and for some perverse reason, take Jeremiah with them. This passage opens with the Jews having settled in several of the key cities in the delta region of Egypt. Migdol may be translated as “fortress.” Others went further upriver, choosing distance over the apparent security of these major delta cities. For some reason, a number are gathered when God gives Jeremiah another word. He says, “This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to you.” This is not Jeremiah’s opinion. I’ve sometimes said when I am studying the Bible with someone that if we agree on the meaning of a text, but if the person disagrees and refuses to act on what it says, their disagreement isn’t with me but with the Lord. First, Jeremiah reviews the past. They all have seen the devastation that arose from the Babylonian invasion, that was the result of worshiping false gods and burning incense to them. God had sent them repeated messages from other prophets and Jeremiah warning them about where they were headed. Why does God warn? He wants them to listen and turn, just like we do when we warn a friend we love of what will happen if they don’t change their ways. It says, “they did not listen or pay attention, they did not turn.” And what the prophets said would happen did happen. Then Jeremiah turns to the present. Notice that even here God has not given up on them although they cut themselves off from their people. He asks a series of questions that basically say, “haven’t you learned anything? They are doing the same thing that brought destruction on Judah, worshiping the Queen of Heaven, the goddess Ishtar thought to be the goddess of both love and war. Perhaps they thought she would prosper and multiply them and protect them The Lord’s message is that they will perish and not multiply from famine and plague, and the sword will find them there. They won’t be a remnant, only a few stragglers with a woeful tale Their response is stunning. In Nineveh the king calls the people and even the animals to repent when Jonah proclaims their imminent destruction. Here, the people say, “We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord.” Instead they double down and say they will keep doing what they are doing. They even come up with a false narrative that it was because they didn’t worship Ishtar that they were destroyed. Jeremiah responds that any prosperity they had was because God endured their evil until it was clear nothing would turn them. Then God left them vulnerable to the Babylonians, withdrawing his protection. He then says, you’ve made vows to worship the Queen of Heaven. Go ahead and keep them. But know that God has also sworn a vow, that this remnant will not live to invoke God’s name. Normally, scripture speaks of God watching over his people for good. Instead, here he watches over them for harm, refusing to save them from the sword of Babylonian invasion or famine or plague. They will see whose word, whose vow will stand. He concludes with a sign. Pharoah Hophra had been a sometime friend of Judah. He’d come to their aid when Babylon invaded—and then withdrew. He likely permitted the remnant to settle and they put hope in him. The sign is that Hophra would be assassinated by enemies, which occurred in 570 BC. What we learn about listening. Right at the center of this passage (v.16) is this stunning declaration: “We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord.” What might we learn from their refusal to listen? 1. It was built on ignoring what they knew of God. Mark Twain once remarked, “It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.” Are there promises of God we refuse to trust or commands we refuse to heed? Are there areas of life he says are his that we refuse to yield? 2. When we refuse the truth, we embrace alternate truths. G.K. Chesterton observed, “When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.” That’s what Judah did in believing that it was the worship of Ishtar, the Queen of Heaven that made them safe and prosperous when in fact it exposed them to the Babylonian invasion without the protection of the only God who could save them. 3. Often when we refuse to listen to God, we retreat to an idealized past or idealized rulers rather than trust God with the uncertainties of our present situation and future. Even in the wake of the devastation that happened to Judah, the message of Jeremiah was that God had not forgotten them as a people. If they remained in the land of Judah or invested in Babylon, submitting not only to Babylon, but to God’s will for them, he would restore them. The flight of this remnant from Judah represented both trust in another earthly ruler, and perhaps an idealization of their past captivity in Egypt. Where are we tempted to idealize earthly leaders or hope in a return to some idealized normal of the past? The pandemic has turned life upside down for all of us. Are we just hoping to get back to normal or are we listening for God’s new normal for us? 4. Our refusal to listen can affect those around us. Apparently, the cult of Ishtar had a strong attraction for women. Verse 19 notes that the husbands knew about the cakes they baked and the incense and wine offerings they made and went along with all this. Probably whole families were caught up in this. The men join with the women in the answer to Jeremiah, “We will not listen.” My comment here is not about women but simply that when we refuse to listen to God, whether we are man or woman, young or old, it will influence those around us. It may draw them away from God. Or it will cause them pain. This all sounds severe, but I want to remind you of the patience of God, who keeps sending prophets, keeps sending messages. Evil king after evil king, invasion after invasion, and even in the devastation, to exiles and remnants, even when they disobey and go to Egypt. We can all think of plenty of examples of people who just won’t listen. But I wonder about us. Is there a place where we are saying, “I will not listen to the message of the Lord?” What are the messages you’ve been ignoring? How have we surrounded ourselves with alternate truths? What are you and I trusting instead of the Lord? Some idealized past we hope can be restored? Some earthly figure who promises help? And are there those who are being affected or influenced by our refusal to listen? In the words of our Centering Song this morning: Will you not listen? Why will you not listen?