Monday: Seeking Divine Guidance
Read Jeremiah 42:1-22. What powerful message is found there, not just for them, but for anyone who seeks guidance from the Lord in prayer?
Fearful of the Babylonians, the people seek out Jeremiah and ask him to pray for them for divine guidance.
Image © Krieg Barrie from GoodSalt.com
They must have known by now that Jeremiah was indeed a prophet of God, and what he said when he spoke in the name of the Lord would come true.
They also vowed they would do whatever God asked or commanded them to do. So, as we read, we see a people who seem to have learned their lesson, who want not only to know what God’s will is, but, more important, to follow it. The words-Whether it is pleasing or displeasing, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God
(Jer. 42:6, NKJV)-were a powerful confession of faith. After all that had happened, it was about time.
Notice the parallel here with Jeremiah’s earlier messages: don’t trust in foreign powers. Trust in the Lord, and He will prosper you and He will deliver you when the time is right. Salvation isn’t from anywhere or anyone else. The foreign powers didn’t help you before, and they won’t help you now.
God has to warn them because He knows the tendency of their hearts: He knows that they are thinking of going back to Egypt (think of the symbolism here) in order to seek the protection they wanted. So, the Lord gave them very clear and specific commands not to do that, that such a course would bring ruin upon them.
Again, such a stark choice, the choice we all have to face: life and peace through faith and obedience to Jesus, or misery and death through lack of faith and lack of obedience. No matter the different circumstances, in the end the issue is the same for all of us. Unlike these people, we don’t always have the warnings given to us so specifically and so clearly expressed, but we have been given the warnings just the same.
Life or death, blessing or cursing. What kind of choices are you making, every day, either for life or for death?
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The remnant in Judah intended to take action which some suspected might not find favor with Jehovah, but hypocritically thought they might give Him a chance to get behind them (Jeremiah 42:19-21). Initially they virtually distanced themselves from the Lord by suggesting He was Jeremiah’s God, but the prophet quickly indicated He was also their God and the answer was for them, not simply for the prophet’s personal edification (Jeremiah 42:1-6).
Prophets, both ancient and modern are God’s mouthpiece, not His confidant. Their message is intended for the Lord’s chosen. Only those who do not consider themselves a part of God’s people may have an excuse not to listen.
Unfortunately some among the remnant cannot handle being overruled, and so they will only accept what is pleasing, not the displeasing reply (Jeremiah 42:6; Zephaniah 3:2).
Yet it is when the saints are corrected and redirected and they submit that they know they have the heart to follow their Master. Otherwise they may really be following their own impressions, while convincing themselves they are trusting the Lord (Proverbs 3:5). To reveal the condition of the heart sometimes Jehovah allows believers to get things wrong and then sends correction.
Certainly it is always a good idea to seek divine guidance. However to limit the scope of divine counsel by deciding beforehand the course one will take and only looking for reinforcement is an unfruitful exercise. By such approach faith or trust is stifled and relationship building, the main purpose of prayer is stalled.
It is wise, not weak to distrust oneself and trust the Creator to correct one’s course, including when reputation is on the line. After all Jehovah is seeking to secure submission, not save reputation and its pride (Acts 5:41). Humility from the beginning makes submission easier.
Every day we are presented with this "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: -Deuteronomy 30:19" May the Lord help us to choose him!
The man that seems to have led out in the approach to Jeremiah - Johanan - is an interesting character.
He was the one that had gone to Gedaliah (the newly appointed governor), and warned him about the plot to kill him. Johanan even offered (privately) to go and kill the man that was intending to kill Gedaliah.(Jer 40:13-15.) But Gedaliah does not believe the warning, or accept the offer, and he dies as a result.
The Governor, Gedaliah, had ADVOCATED SUBMISSION to Babylon (Jer 40:9), and Johanan had tried to support/protect him (and had even tried to avenge Gedaliah's death). I wonder whether Johanan would have been willing to remain in Judah, and to submit to the king of Babylon, if Gedaliah had continued to live.
But now things are different. Johanan leads a company of people to Jeremiah, and asks the prophet to "pray for us... that the Lord thy God may show us the way wherein we may walk..." (Jer 42:2-3). This sounds good, really good, but God shows the prophet the reality behind their request. "Ye dissembled in your hearts, when you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, 'Pray for us...'". (Jer 42:20.)
They dissembled - "dealt deceitfully" in their hearts. They honoured God with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him. (Jer 12:2, Matt 15:8.)
Johanan was soon seconding a statement addressed to Jeremiah : "You speak falsely [you lie!], THE LORD OUR GOD HAS NOT SENT YOU to say, 'Do not go into Egypt...'". Johanan is now among "the proud men" [the "arrogant men" (Tanakh)], and he is finally the one that leads the people (including Jeremiah) into the land of Egypt. All of them, including Jeremiah I believe, finally die in that country. (Jer 43:2, Jer 43:4-7).
So yes, if those that were once strong in advocating for the right, turn, then those people become leaders in a movement designed to fight God.
Right from the time of Abraham their father,the children of Judah and by extension Israel, had always sought for protection from Egypt. Egypt to them has been a kind of refuge. But God does not want it to be like that. He had always wanted them to depend totally on him,and that was part of the reason he had to take them through the wilderness so that they can experience his mighty powers.The question for me is " Are we really seeking God First in anything we do"? We need to understand Gods plans for us and aline our selfs with his. If the children of judah had done this they would not have been in the mess they find them selfs.
I would like to believe that the judeans had already made up their mind,hence the reason they camped at the borders of Egypt its a pity the response from God wasn't the one they expected and they blamed Baruch for turning Jeremiah against them. How often do we find ourselves in the same scenario always looking for a scapegoat
Jesus has given his life for mines and now when the world has to offer me is death or what they called good times (which is death and separation for God). I make the decision to follow the life giver. It is easy to want to go back to what is familiar but remember what God has deliver us from the hand of darkness. Be not entangle by the sins that so easily beset us. The devil want to kill us all. He hate Jesus and it is always the same lie, just a different face.