42Then all the army officers, including Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatestapproached2Jeremiah 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.3Pray 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 Lordsays and will keep nothing back from you.”
5Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witnessagainst us if we do not act in accordance with everything the Lord your God sends you to tell us. 6Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, 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.”
7Ten days later the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. 8So he called together Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him and all the people from the least to the greatest. 9He said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition, says: 10‘If you stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I have relented concerning the disaster I have inflicted on you. 11Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon,whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him, declares the Lord, for I am with you and will save you and deliver you from his hands. 12I will show you compassion so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your land.’
13“However, if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ and so disobey the Lord your God, 14and if you say, ‘No, we will go and live in Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the trumpet or be hungry for bread,’ 15then hear the word of the Lord, you remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and you do go to settle there, 16then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow you into Egypt, and there you will die. 17Indeed, all who are determined to go to Egypt to settle there will die by the sword, famine and plague; not one of them will survive or escape the disaster I will bring on them.’ 18This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘As my anger and wrath have been poured out on those who lived in Jerusalem,so will my wrath be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You will be a curse and an object of horror, a curse and an object of reproach; you will never see this place again.’
19“Remnant of Judah, the Lord has told you, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Be sure of this: I warn you today 20that you made a fatal mistake when you sent me to the Lord your God and said, ‘Pray to the Lord our God for us; tell us everything he says and we will do it.’ 21I have told you today, but you still have not obeyed the Lord your God in all he sent me to tell you. 22So now, be sure of this: You will die by the sword, famine and plague in the place where you want to go to settle.”
In this chapter, we read the story of an interaction between a remnant of people who were left as they asked Jeremiah to get a word from the Lord for them. They needed wisdom, unsure of what they should do next and where they should go. Jeremiah heard their request and ensured he would take it before the Lord…and that he would tell them anything and everything God told him in response. He would keep nothing back from them (v. 4). The people then said, regardless of what God said, they would do as He said. But how sincere was that?
Verse 7 tells us that after ten days of waiting, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. Think about how long those ten days must have felt! This is a great reminder to us that prophets weren’t like genies who could just spout off prophetic words whenever they felt like it–they had to wait on God to reveal a message to them. In his commentary on the book of Jeremiah Adam Clarke, an 18th and 19th century British scholar, said this:
“It is evident the prophets could not prophesy when they pleased, any more than the disciples of our Lord could work miracles when they wished. The gift of prophecy and the gift of miracles were both dependent on the will of the Most High, and each of them was given only for the moment; and when the necessity was over, the influence ceased.”
The message that God gave to Jeremiah was another example of Jeremiah having to deliver tough news to the people asking to hear from God. If they remained in the land (like He had instructed them to do), they would be shown great mercy. However, if they moved on towards Egypt seeking a false sense of safety and security, they would most certainly die as a result of that. It ultimately came down to a matter of their hearts.
Jeremiah reminded them that they were the ones coming to him asking for next steps, so if they were to go on to Egypt they would be living hypocritically. He knew, based on their track record, that they would be tempted to go their own way and follow their own fleshly desire for comfort. God saw their hearts and He knew their motives. The same is true for us today.
