Scripture Daily

Context No. 1255 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Context · Reflection

Jeremiah 42:13-22: in context

13“‘But if you say, “We will not dwell in this land,” so that you don’t obey the LORD your God’s voice, 14saying, “No, but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we will see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there we will dwell;”’ 15now therefore hear the LORD’s word, O remnant of Judah! The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says, ‘If you indeed set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to live there, 16then it will happen that the sword, which you fear, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are afraid, will follow close behind you there in Egypt; and you will die there. 17So will it be with all the men who set their faces to go into Egypt to live there. They will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. None of them will remain or escape from the evil that I will bring on them.’ 18For the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘As my anger and my wrath has been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you, when you enter into Egypt; and you will be an object of horror, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you will see this place no more.’ 19“The LORD has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah, ‘Don’t go into Egypt!’ Know certainly that I have testified to you today. 20For you have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the LORD our God; and according to all that the LORD our God says, so declare to us, and we will do it.’ 21I have declared it to you today; but you have not obeyed the LORD your God’s voice in anything for which he has sent me to you. 22Now therefore know certainly that you will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.”

The frightened remnant left in Judah after the fall of Jerusalem comes to Jeremiah with an earnest-sounding request: pray to the LORD for us, tell us where to go and what to do, and whatever he says, we will obey. Jeremiah prays, and God's answer is clear: stay in this land and do not go down to Egypt, for the sword and famine you fear will follow you there and you will die. But it becomes plain, in Jeremiah's stern reply, that the people had already made up their minds to go to Egypt before they ever asked. You have deceived yourselves, he tells them; you sent me to inquire of God promising to obey, and now that his answer is not what you wanted, you will not obey it.

The tragedy here is a familiar kind of self-deception: asking God's will while having already decided what you want to do. The remnant came to Jeremiah with all the right words, pray for us, tell us God's will, we will do whatever he says, and Jeremiah names it for what it was, deceiving themselves. They did not really want to know God's will; they wanted God to bless the decision they had already made to flee to Egypt. And when his answer contradicted their plan, the fine promise to obey evaporated. It is one of the common ways we deceive ourselves before God, seeking his guidance not to be led but to be endorsed, asking what he wants while quietly determined to do what we want, and then treating his word as advice to be weighed rather than a command to be followed. The test of whether we are truly seeking God's will is whether we are willing to obey it before we know what it is. The remnant said they were; they were not, and Jeremiah exposes the lie. To ask God's guidance with a decision already locked in is not seeking him at all; it is seeking a blessing on our own way.

When I bring a decision to God, am I genuinely willing to obey whatever he says, even against what I already want, or do I ask his will while secretly hoping only to have my own plan endorsed?

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