Scripture Daily

Context No. 1290 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Context · Reflection

Jeremiah 44:1-6: in context

1The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who lived in the land of Egypt, who lived at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Memphis, and in the country of Pathros, saying, 2“The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘You have seen all the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem, and on all the cities of Judah. Behold, today they are a desolation, and no man dwells in them, 3because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, to serve other gods that they didn’t know, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers. 4However I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, “Oh, don’t do this abominable thing that I hate.” 5But they didn’t listen and didn’t incline their ear. They didn’t turn from their wickedness, to stop burning incense to other gods. 6Therefore my wrath and my anger was poured out, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as it is today.’

Jeremiah brings God's word to the Jews who have fled to Egypt after Jerusalem's fall. God reminds them of what they have just seen: the desolation of Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, empty and ruined, because of the idolatry that provoked his anger. I sent you my prophets again and again, God says, urging you not to do this abominable thing I hate; but they would not listen or turn from burning incense to other gods, and so my wrath was poured out, and the cities lie wasted, as they are today.

The tragic thing in this passage is a people who will not learn even from the ruins. God points to the desolation of Jerusalem, still smoking, the direct result of idolatry, and appeals to it as evidence: you have seen what your sins brought; do not do it again. And yet, as the chapter goes on to show, the refugees in Egypt are still burning incense to other gods, repeating in Egypt the very sin that destroyed their homeland. They stood among the consequences of idolatry and drew no lesson from them. It is a sobering picture of how hardened a heart can become, able to walk through the wreckage its sin produced and still not turn from the sin. God had also warned them beforehand, sending prophet after prophet, so the desolation came only after long patience and much warning; and now even the desolation itself was not enough to turn them. There is a searching question in this for us. When we see the ruin our own compromises have produced, in our lives, our families, our world, do we learn from the wreckage and turn, or do we walk through it and repeat the very thing that caused it? God's patience sent the prophets; the ruins themselves were meant to teach; and a heart truly set on its idols could learn from neither.

When I stand among the ruins my own compromises have produced, do I learn from the wreckage and turn, or, like the refugees in Egypt, walk through it and repeat the very sin that caused it?

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