God, What Should I Do?

What Has Happened:

Johanan warns Gedaliah that the Ammonites have sent Ishmael to kill him.

But Gedaliah doesn’t believe him.

Johanan offers to go kill Ishmael in secret, (I have a shovel and a alibi, maybe he didn’t say it like that but you get the point ) but Gedaliah refuses.

Ishmael not only kills Gedaliah, but others as well!

Now Johanan and the others are fearful of the Chaldeans and Babylon, who had placed Gedaliah in authority!

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Johanan Request:

Verse 2-3-and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Please, let our petition be acceptable to you, and pray for us to the Lord your God, for all this remnant (since we are left but a few of many, as you can see), that the Lord your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing we should do.”

They are trying to put all the responsibility of what God says, upon Jeremiah!

Jeremiah’s reply:

Verse 4-Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard. Indeed, I will pray to the Lord your God according to your words, and it shall be, that whatever the Lord answers you, I will declare it to you. I will keep nothing back from you.”

Jeremiah turns the table on them and reminds them that God, is their God too and they have come to him, (he didn‘t go to them) asking him to see what God wants them to do and he is going to tell them all that God says, he will not hold back anything!

The People’s Answer:

Verse 5-6-So they said to Jeremiah, “Let the Lord be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not do according to everything which the Lord your God sends us by you.

Whether it is pleasing or displeasing, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.”

There is a glimmer of hope, they are referring to God, as their God and they are making the statement that they will do whatever God wants, whether they like the answer or not!

The responsibility of the preacher is get alone with God and receive the message and then preach the message, all that God has said, and the congregation is suppose to receive the message and apply the message to their life. Whether they like the message or dislike the message, in other words, some messages makes us feel good and some messages steps on our toes, and we see a need for change!!

God’s Answer:

Verse 7-22-And it happened after ten days that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.

Then he called Johanan the son of Kareah, all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,

and said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before Him: ‘If you will still remain in this land, then I will build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up. For I relent concerning the disaster that I have brought upon you.

Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not be afraid of him,’ says the Lord, ‘for I am with you, to save you and deliver you from his hand.

And I will show you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and cause you to return to your own land.’ “But if you say, ‘We will not dwell in this land,’ disobeying the voice of the Lord your God, saying, ‘No, but we will go to the land of Egypt where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor be hungry for bread, and there we will dwell’—Then hear now the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah! Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘If you wholly set your faces to enter Egypt, and go to dwell there, then it shall be that the sword which you feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; the famine of which you were afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there you shall die.

So shall it be with all the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to dwell there. They shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. And none of them shall remain or escape from the disaster that I will bring upon them.’

“For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘As My anger and My fury have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will My fury be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And you shall be an oath, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.’