Year 9, Day 96: Jeremiah 43

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Today we hear the inevitable conclusion from yesterday’s chapter.  The people don’t hear Jeremiah.  They don’t want to stay under Babylonian control.  They want to do what is right in their own eyes.  They want out from under the Babylonians, whom God has put upon them.  While they might not say it this way, effectively they just want out from under God’s hand.

I find it interesting to see this unfold after hearing the words yesterday.  In Jeremiah 42, the people said that they would listen to Jeremiah.  They would do what the Lord requires of them.  Today, though, we hear that was just a set of words.  They aren’t interested in obeying God.  They are interested in seeming like they are obeying God as long as God is doing what they want.

Here is another problem with human begins.  We often pay lip service the things while our heart heads in a different direction.  It is easy to say words of loyalty or truth; it is another thing completely to live them.  We don’t care for living out truth as much as we care for saying it.

The people do what they want.  They people head to Egypt.  The even compel Jeremiah to go with them!  They have learned nothing in the process of exile.

God knows this, too.  He also knows that he had been planning on bringing the Babylonians to Egypt to teach them a lesson as well.  God reveals to the Hebrew people that they have removed themselves from a place of peace to a place of unrest!  While they could have lived in relative peace under Babylonian watchfulness, they will instead get to live through another invasion, another time of war, and more unrest. 

This is the fruit of their own will.  They have done what they thought was right instead of being obedient to God.  They have made their bed, now they will sleep in it.

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