February 23, 2010 (Jeremiah 41-45, Habakkuk 1-3)

The Judean officials went to Jeremiah and asked him to "Beg the Lord your God to show us what to do and where to go." Jeremiah told them he would, and said that he would tell them everything God told him and would hide nothing from them. Here was there response:

^{Jeremiah 42:5} Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord your God be a faithful witness against us if we refuse to obey whatever he tells us to do! ⁶ Whether we like it or not, we will obey the Lord our God to whom we are sending you with our plea. For if we obey him, everything will turn out well for us.”

Remember that response from them....

The Bible goes on to say that ten days later, God gave his response to Jeremiah. That was a reminder that God does not always answer us right away. And God's response was to tell them that they were to stay right where they were. They were not to flee to Egypt to escape the Babylonians, but they were to stay put and God would be merciful to them by making the Babylonian king kind. He would make it so that the Babylonian king would let them stay there in their land.

Remember, they said they would do whatever God said? Well, here is their response now:

Jeremiah 43:¹ When Jeremiah had finished giving this message from the Lord their God to all the people, ² Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the other proud men said to Jeremiah, “You lie! The Lord our God hasn’t forbidden us to go to Egypt! ³ Baruch son of Neriah has convinced you to say this, because he wants us to stay here and be killed by the Babylonians or be carried off into exile.” ⁴ So Johanan and the other guerrilla leaders and all the people refused to obey the Lord’s command to stay in Judah. ⁵ Johanan and the other leaders took with them all the people who had returned from the nearby countries to which they had fled. ⁶ In the crowd were men, women, and children, the king’s daughters, and all those whom Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had left with Gedaliah. The prophet Jeremiah and Baruch were also included. ⁷ The people refused to obey the voice of the Lord and went to Egypt, going as far as the city of Tahpanhes.

So, you can imagine how that turned out for them. God again speaks through Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 44:10 To this very hour you have shown no remorse or reverence. No one has chosen to follow my word and the decrees I gave to you and your ancestors before you.

¹¹ “Therefore, this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am determined to destroy every one of you! ¹² I will take this remnant of Judah—those who were determined to come here and live in Egypt—and I will consume them. They will fall here in Egypt, killed by war and famine. All will die, from the least to the greatest. They will be an object of damnation, horror, cursing, and mockery. ¹³ I will punish them in Egypt just as I punished them in Jerusalem, by war, famine, and disease. ¹⁴ Of that remnant who fled to Egypt, hoping someday to return to Judah, there will be no survivors. Even though they long to return home, only a handful will do so.”

So now, surely, they will repent and do what God says, right?

^{Jeremiah 44:16} “We will not listen to your messages from the Lord! ¹⁷ We will do whatever we want. We will burn incense and pour out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven just as much as we like—just as we, and our ancestors, and our kings and officials have always done in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem.

And although I haven't read far enough to find out about their punishment, I know it is coming. God always does what He says He will do, unless they decide to repent.

Habbakuk is another prophecy about how God will raise up the Babylonians to destroy his people for their sin. Habbakuk can't understand it, because the Babylonians are known for their cruelty and evil. He asks:

Should you be silent while the wicked
swallow up people more righteous than they?

Why would He allow these evil barbarians destroy His own people who are more righteous than they? He asked these questions of God and then waited for His answer. God gave him a lengthy answer, but it can all be summed up in this:

^{Habbakuk 2:20} But the Lord is in his holy Temple.
Let all the earth be silent before him.”

God will do what He sees fit. If He chooses a people more wicked than His own to bring discipline to His people, so be it. And who is to say He will not bring al-Qaeda to get our attention?