Pray Thru the Bible

God Speaks

41 But in midautumn of that year, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and grandson of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family and had been one of the king’s high officials, went to Mizpah with ten men to meet Gedaliah. While they were eating together, ² Ishmael and his ten men suddenly jumped up, drew their swords, and killed Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon had appointed governor. ³ Ishmael also killed all the Judeans and the Babylonian soldiers who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah.

⁴ The next day, before anyone had heard about Gedaliah’s murder, ⁵ eighty men arrived from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria to worship at the Temple of the Lord. They had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes, and cut themselves, and had brought along grain offerings and frankincense. ⁶ Ishmael left Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went. When he reached them, he said, “Oh, come and see what has happened to Gedaliah!”

⁷ But as soon as they were all inside the town, Ishmael and his men killed all but ten of them and threw their bodies into a cistern. ⁸ The other ten had talked Ishmael into letting them go by promising to bring him their stores of wheat, barley, olive oil, and honey that they had hidden away. ⁹ The cistern where Ishmael dumped the bodies of the men he murdered was the large one dug by King Asa when he fortified Mizpah to protect himself against King Baasha of Israel. Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with corpses.

¹⁰ Then Ishmael made captives of the king’s daughters and the other people who had been left under Gedaliah’s care in Mizpah by Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard. Taking them with him, he started back toward the land of Ammon.

¹¹ But when Johanan son of Kareah and the other military leaders heard about Ishmael’s crimes, ¹² they took all their men and set out to stop him. They caught up with him at the large pool near Gibeon. ¹³ The people Ishmael had captured shouted for joy when they saw Johanan and the other military leaders. ¹⁴ And all the captives from Mizpah escaped and began to help Johanan. ¹⁵ Meanwhile, Ishmael and eight of his men escaped from Johanan into the land of Ammon.

¹⁶ Then Johanan son of Kareah and the other military leaders took all the people they had rescued in Gibeon—the soldiers, women, children, and court officials whom Ishmael had captured after he killed Gedaliah. ¹⁷ They took them all to the village of Geruth-kimham near Bethlehem, where they prepared to leave for Egypt. ¹⁸ They were afraid of what the Babylonians would do when they heard that Ishmael had killed Gedaliah, the governor appointed by the Babylonian king.

42 Then all the military leaders, including Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, approached ² Jeremiah the prophet. They said, “Please pray to the Lord your God for us. As you can see, we are only a tiny remnant compared to what we were before. ³ Pray that the Lord your God will show us what to do and where to go.”

⁴ “All right,” Jeremiah replied. “I will pray to the Lord your God, as you have asked, and I will tell you everything he says. I will hide nothing from you.”

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.”

⁷ Ten days later the Lord gave his reply to Jeremiah. ⁸ So he called for Johanan son of Kareah and the other military leaders, and for all the people, from the least to the greatest. ⁹ He said to them, “You sent me to the Lord, the God of Israel, with your request, and this is his reply: ¹⁰ ‘Stay here in this land. If you do, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you. For I am sorry about all the punishment I have had to bring upon you. ¹¹ Do not fear the king of Babylon anymore,’ says the Lord. ‘For I am with you and will save you and rescue you from his power. ¹² I will be merciful to you by making him kind, so he will let you stay here in your land.’

¹³ “But if you refuse to obey the Lord your God, and if you say, ‘We will not stay here; ¹⁴ instead, we will go to Egypt where we will be free from war, the call to arms, and hunger,’ ¹⁵ then hear the Lord’s message to the remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and live there, ¹⁶ the very war and famine you fear will catch up to you, and you will die there. ¹⁷ That is the fate awaiting every one of you who insists on going to live in Egypt. Yes, you will die from war, famine, and disease. None of you will escape the disaster I will bring upon you there.’

¹⁸ “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Just as my anger and fury have been poured out on the people of Jerusalem, so they will be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. You will be an object of damnation, horror, cursing, and mockery. And you will never see your homeland again.’

¹⁹ “Listen, you remnant of Judah. The Lord has told you: ‘Do not go to Egypt!’ Don’t forget this warning I have given you today. ²⁰ For you were not being honest when you sent me to pray to the Lord your God for you. You said, ‘Just tell us what the Lord our God says, and we will do it!’ ²¹ And today I have told you exactly what he said, but you will not obey the Lord your God any better now than you have in the past. ²² So you can be sure that you will die from war, famine, and disease in Egypt, where you insist on going.”

43 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 military 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.

⁸ Then at Tahpanhes, the Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, ⁹ “While the people of Judah are watching, take some large rocks and bury them under the pavement stones at the entrance of Pharaoh’s palace here in Tahpanhes. ¹⁰ Then say to the people of Judah, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will certainly bring my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, here to Egypt. I will set his throne over these stones that I have hidden. He will spread his royal canopy over them. ¹¹ And when he comes, he will destroy the land of Egypt. He will bring death to those destined for death, captivity to those destined for captivity, and war to those destined for war. ¹² He will set fire to the temples of Egypt’s gods; he will burn the temples and carry the idols away as plunder. He will pick clean the land of Egypt as a shepherd picks fleas from his cloak. And he himself will leave unharmed. ¹³ He will break down the sacred pillars standing in the temple of the sun in Egypt, and he will burn down the temples of Egypt’s gods.’”

44 This is the message Jeremiah received concerning the Judeans living in northern Egypt in the cities of Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis, and in southern Egypt as well: ² “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: You saw the calamity I brought on Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah. They now lie deserted and in ruins. ³ They provoked my anger with all their wickedness. They burned incense and worshiped other gods—gods that neither they nor you nor any of your ancestors had ever even known.

⁴ “Again and again I sent my servants, the prophets, to plead with them, ‘Don’t do these horrible things that I hate so much.’ ⁵ But my people would not listen or turn back from their wicked ways. They kept on burning incense to these gods. ⁶ And so my fury boiled over and fell like fire on the towns of Judah and into the streets of Jerusalem, and they are still a desolate ruin today.

⁷ “And now the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, asks you: Why are you destroying yourselves? For not one of you will survive—not a man, woman, or child among you who has come here from Judah, not even the babies in your arms. ⁸ Why provoke my anger by burning incense to the idols you have made here in Egypt? You will only destroy yourselves and make yourselves an object of cursing and mockery for all the nations of the earth. ⁹ Have you forgotten the sins of your ancestors, the sins of the kings and queens of Judah, and the sins you and your wives committed in Judah and Jerusalem? 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.”

¹⁵ Then all the women present and all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to idols—a great crowd of all the Judeans living in northern Egypt and southern Egypt—answered Jeremiah, 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. For in those days we had plenty to eat, and we were well off and had no troubles! ¹⁸ But ever since we quit burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and stopped worshiping her with liquid offerings, we have been in great trouble and have been dying from war and famine.”

¹⁹ “Besides,” the women added, “do you suppose that we were burning incense and pouring out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven, and making cakes marked with her image, without our husbands knowing it and helping us? Of course not!”

²⁰ Then Jeremiah said to all of them, men and women alike, who had given him that answer, ²¹ “Do you think the Lord did not know that you and your ancestors, your kings and officials, and all the people were burning incense to idols in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ²² It was because the Lord could no longer bear all the disgusting things you were doing that he made your land an object of cursing—a desolate ruin without inhabitants—as it is today. ²³ All these terrible things happened to you because you have burned incense to idols and sinned against the Lord. You have refused to obey him and have not followed his instructions, his decrees, and his laws.”

²⁴ Then Jeremiah said to them all, including the women, “Listen to this message from the Lord, all you citizens of Judah who live in Egypt. ²⁵ This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘You and your wives have said, “We will keep our promises to burn incense and pour out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven,” and you have proved by your actions that you meant it. So go ahead and carry out your promises and vows to her!’

²⁶ “But listen to this message from the Lord, all you Judeans now living in Egypt: ‘I have sworn by my great name,’ says the Lord, ‘that my name will no longer be spoken by any of the Judeans in the land of Egypt. None of you may invoke my name or use this oath: “As surely as the Sovereign Lord lives.” ²⁷ For I will watch over you to bring you disaster and not good. Everyone from Judah who is now living in Egypt will suffer war and famine until all of you are dead. ²⁸ Only a small number will escape death and return to Judah from Egypt. Then all those who came to Egypt will find out whose words are true—mine or theirs!

²⁹ “‘And this is the proof I give you,’ says the Lord, ‘that all I have threatened will happen to you and that I will punish you here.’ ³⁰ This is what the Lord says: ‘I will turn Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, over to his enemies who want to kill him, just as I turned King Zedekiah of Judah over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.’”

45 The prophet Jeremiah gave a message to Baruch son of Neriah in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, after Baruch had written down everything Jeremiah had dictated to him. He said, ² “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch: ³ You have said, ‘I am overwhelmed with trouble! Haven’t I had enough pain already? And now the Lord has added more! I am worn out from sighing and can find no rest.’

⁴ “Baruch, this is what the Lord says: ‘I will destroy this nation that I built. I will uproot what I planted. ⁵ Are you seeking great things for yourself? Don’t do it! I will bring great disaster upon all these people; but I will give you your life as a reward wherever you go. I, the Lord, have spoken!’”

Source: New Living Translation: BibleGateway.com

We Respond

[TBR-233: Jeremiah 41-45 (August 21, 2023)]

Reflection: Consider the following questions regarding Jeremiah 41-45:

1. What does this chapter tell me about God?

2. What does this chapter tell me about the human beings He created?

Here is one possible answer to each of these questions. Ask the Holy Spirit if there are any others for you personally to ponder.

Jeremiah 41

1. God sees the deceptive evil motives and actions of people like Ishmael son of Nethaniah and will avenge them at His appointed time.

2. Fear of suffering may lead people to take foolish actions like going to Egypt instead of going to Babylon as God directed.

Jeremiah 42

1. God has ultimate rewards for those who follow His instructions (even if they seem to go against human reason), but dire consequences for those who insist on following their own “instincts.”

2. Often people want God to tell them what to do, but their actions show that they have no intention of doing what He says.

Jeremiah 43

1. When necessary, Father God will use ungodly people like Nebuchadnezzar to discipline His disobedient children.

2. People who refuse to obey the voice of the LORD cannot distinguish between who is lying and who is telling the truth.

Jeremiah 44

1. God watches over His people and deals with them (for good or bad) according to how they carry out His commands.

2. Apart from God, people will do what is convenient, self-serving, and self-protective. God will strongly oppose such behavior.

Jeremiah 45

1. God corrects even His faithful servants when they are overwhelmed and discouraged but rewards them with life now and forever. 

2. People who are carrying out God’s assignments for them can be worn down by the opposition they experience.

Prayer:

3. How might I pray regarding Jeremiah 41-45?

Dearest all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful, and loving God and Heavenly Father, You see the deceptive evil motives and actions of people in Jeremiah’s day and ours and will avenge them at Your appointed time. Fear of suffering has and is leading people in my nation to take foolish actions instead of doing as You direct. Sometimes, doing what You say in the Bible or by Your Spirit in our inner being goes against human reason. But You promise ultimate rewards for those who follow Your instructions regardless of the difficulty. We face dire (even eternal) consequences if we insist on following our own “instincts.” I admit that I often want You, God, to tell me what to do, but my actions show that I have no intention of doing what You say because I think that I know best. When necessary, Father God, You do use ungodly people or untoward circumstances to discipline Your disobedient children, but even that is meant to strengthen us and our trust in You. At times I cannot distinguish between who is lying and who is telling the truth. Could it be because I am refusing to obey Your voice, LORD? You watch over Your people and deal with us (for good or bad) according to how we carry out Your commands. Apart from You, LORD God, people will do what is convenient, self-serving, and self-protective. You strongly oppose such behavior. You want us to depend on You, to do what is right in Your eyes, to serve You, and to protect other people, especially the most vulnerable in society. Please correct me when my attitudes or actions are wrong. I want to be Your faithful servant, but sometimes I get overwhelmed and discouraged. I trust that You will reward my faith in Christ with life now and forever. I ask You to bless people who are faithfully carrying out Your assignments for them. We can be worn down by the opposition we experience. Holy Spirit, enable us all to bring glory to the LORD. AMEN

Action: (Ask God, the Holy Spirit, if He wants you to work on one of the suggestions below or something else more personal that He points out.)

4. What action does the LORD want me to take in response to Jeremiah 41-45? With the help of God’s Holy Spirit:

• I will pray and ask the Holy Spirit to give me the courage to stand up for something I know is right according to God and His word or against something that is against Him and His ways. Then I will do so and praise God for whatever happens. 
• I will examine myself by asking, “Will I do what God says or will I do what I think or feel is right for me?”
• I will ask God to show me who is telling the truth or lying in a particular situation. Then I will take appropriate action as He directs. 
• I will look for ways to encourage God-honoring people who are being overwhelmed by opposition (ex. a missionary, pastor, or public figure I know).

Share: I plan to share what I’ve learned with __________.