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.’
“The Lord has said concerning you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt!’ Know certainly that I have admonished you this day.
For you were hypocrites in your hearts when you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the Lord our God, and according to all that the Lord your God says, so declare to us and we will do it.’
And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, or anything which He has sent you by me.
Now therefore, know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to dwell.”
43:2-“You speak falsely! The Lord our God has not sent you to say, ‘Do not go to Egypt to dwell there.’
But Baruch the son of Neriah has set you against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death or carry us away captive to Babylon.”
Look at their hypocrisy, they waited 10 days to hear from God.
And yet they already had their mind made up to go to Egypt!!
The preacher who was a pastor of a small church and a bigger church was interested in him, his wife asked him what was he going to do, he replied, “You start packing and I start praying!” Sound like he had his mind made up!
See most people don’t want information from God, they want confirmation!
We want God to agree with, what we want to do, we want to buy, who we want to marry, where we want live, how we want to live, where we want to work!
We want Him to put His stamp of approval on what we think is best!
But He does not do that, doesn’t matter how religious we may act, (That’s what they were doing, pretending to do the right thing) He is not fooled!!!
Don’t you just hate it when someone ask you, your opinion, they tell you their situation, then ask what should they do and you think about, pray about and then they go and do what they are ready had their mind made up to do (you know that, because they kind of hinted or told that’s what they wanted to do in the first place).
Verse 7-So they went to the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the Lord. And they went as far as Tahpanhes
God knows what is going to happen in Egypt, because God was already going to bring His judgment down upon not only that country but other countries as well, and He was going to use Babylon to do it!
Instead of running away from disaster, they are running right in to disaster!!
A woman wants to marry a man, and yet God sends her all the signals not to marry him (Friends, family, his old relationships) and she tells everyone:
“He’s changed!” or “You don’t know him like I do!” “But he treats me so good!”
Then one day she looks at him, with his stained up wife beater t-shirt on, his long toe nails and greasy hair, and then there’s smells and sounds that shouldn’t be coming out of any human being, as he sleeps in his recliner.
She sighs and says, “They might have been right!”
Now I am using some humor to get the point across…
God already knows what is ahead of you, don’t you think you should listen to Him?
