Year 2, Week 15, Day 5 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 15, Day 5

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Jeremiah 42-43.

Today’s reading continues the fourth segment of the Book of Jeremiah. This fourth segment (chapters 34-45) corresponds to the second segment (chapters 21-29) in that each segment contains messages and incidents that are historically oriented with dates and other historical markers. Today’s reading continues the description of life back in the region of Judah in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Jerusalem, and the Babylonian takeover of the area. Jeremiah 42 notes the struggles that the remaining community of Israelites experience in the region of Judah as Johanan requests Jeremiah to seek the LORD: “Let our plea for mercy come before you, and pray to the LORD your God for us, for all this remnant—because we are left with but a few, as your eyes see us— that the LORD your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing that we should do” (Jeremiah 42:2-3). The remaining Israelites want to know if they should remain in the region or leave. The LORD clearly instructs them to remain as He specifically warns them against going to Egypt: “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: If you set your faces to enter Egypt and go to live there, then the sword that you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to Egypt, and there you shall die” (Jeremiah 42:15b-16). But Jeremiah 43 records that the Israelites did the opposite of what the LORD told them to do taking Jeremiah with them: “So Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces and all the people did not obey the voice of the LORD, to remain in the land of Judah. But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces took all the remnant of Judah who had returned to live in the land of Judah…also Jeremiah the prophet” (Jeremiah 43:4-6).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was the demonstration of Israel’s common impulses throughout its history. Johanan and the remaining Israelites express a resolve to obey the LORD doing whatever He commands: “Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the LORD your God sends you to us. Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God” (Jeremiah 42:5-6). This confident assertion of obedience is a long-cherished claim: "Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do” (Exodus 24:3). The LORD called Johanan and the remaining Israelites out for their willfulness against His instructions: “And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God in anything that he sent me to tell you. Now therefore know for a certainty that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live” (Jeremiah 42:21-22). This confrontation is reminiscent of earlier times: “The LORD your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 1:30-32). The present generation of Israelites mirrored the earlier generations.

Johanan and the remaining Israelites are convinced that fleeing to Egypt will be a much safer arrangement: “Johanan the son of Kareah and all the insolent men said to Jeremiah, “You are telling a lie. The LORD our God did not send you to say, Do not go to Egypt to live there…And they came into the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the LORD” (Jeremiah 43:2,7). Israel had a long-held penchant for Egypt: “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt” (Numbers 14:2b-4). Israel misremembered Egypt to be a place of safety and abundance. Their misremembering of life in Egypt was coupled with their misremembering the LORD’s promise: “For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling, and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore you shall flee away” (Isaiah 30:15-16a).

Jeremiah reminds the Egypt-bound caravan that the LORD who sent Babylon to judge Judah is able to get the Babylonians to Egypt as well: "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant…He shall come and strike the land of Egypt, giving over to the pestilence those who are doomed to the pestilence, to captivity those who are doomed to captivity, and to the sword those who are doomed to the sword” (Jeremiah 43:10-11). The safest place on earth is not a location seemingly far from danger, but wherever the LORD promises to protect His people: “Do not fear the king of Babylon…for I am with you, to save you and to deliver you from his hand. I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land” (Jeremiah 42:11-13).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe