Jeremiah

Jeremiah Index

Jeremiah Chapter 42

 

  • Jeremiah 42:1 Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even unto the greatest, came near,
  • 2 and said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we pray thee, our supplication be presented before thee, and pray for us unto Jehovah thy God, even for all this remnant; for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us:
  • 3 that Jehovah thy God may show us the way wherein we should walk, and the thing that we should do.
  • 4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto Jehovah your God according to your words; and it shall come to pass that whatsoever thing Jehovah shall answer you, I will declare it unto you; I will keep nothing back from you.

Here we see people going to Jeremiah to ask him to seek the Lord, for they desired to know what to do at this point. They feared the Babylonians and didn't know what to do. As we shall see as we study later, some of us seek to find the word of God but if it doesn't line up with what we want, we dismiss it as nothing. Some of us wait until we are desperate instead of seeking Him when things are going great.

  • Jeremiah 42:5 Then they said to Jeremiah, Jehovah be a true and faithful witness amongst us, if we do not according to all the word wherewith Jehovah thy God shall send thee to us.
  • 6 Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of Jehovah our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of Jehovah our God.

We are so quick to make promises to obey God if He will answer us, but if God requires something we don't like, how quick are we ready to turn on the one who brings us the word and accuse him of false prophecy.

  • Jeremiah 42:7 And it came to pass after ten days, that the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah.

Notice that the word of God didn't come for ten days. This may be where many of us in this modern instant quick fix generation may fail. We do not wait on God. We are so quick to want instant answers and then we go about doing things our own way and getting into messes that we have to cry to God to get us out of. If we would only wait on God and seek Him first, we might avoid a lot of trouble.

I'm not talking about sitting around and waiting on God as an excuse for laziness and not doing nothing. I'm talking about really seeking God for direction instead of jumping into the first solution that we or some one else thinks of without first consulting God and waiting upon Him.

  • Jeremiah 42:8 Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,
  • 9 and said unto them, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present your supplication before him:
  • 10 If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you.

God's message to them was the same as He instructed before. Stay put. Abide here. They were not to flee in fear and go to Egypt for help thinking they would be safer there.

This reminds me of something I saw on the weather channel once. A family fled their home for fear of a tornado. They took refuge in a place that was unsafe and nearly lost their lives because of it. After they returned home, they noticed that the house was untouched. They would have been safer to abide at home.

  • Jeremiah 42:11 Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith Jehovah: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.

God promised to make sure the king of Babylon would not harm them. I might add here that the king of Babylon would have had no power at all over Judah if they had of repented at the first warning and turned back to God when Jeremiah gave his first prophecy. .

  • Jeremiah 42:12 And I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land.
  • 13 But if ye say, We will not dwell in this land; so that ye obey not the voice of Jehovah your God,
  • 14 saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell:
  • 15 now therefore hear ye the word of Jehovah, O remnant of Judah: Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, If ye indeed set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there;
  • 16 then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which ye fear, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, whereof ye are afraid, shall follow hard after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die.
  • 17 So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there: they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.
  • 18 For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: As mine anger and my wrath hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my wrath be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt; and ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no more.
  • 19 Jehovah hath spoken concerning you, O remnant of Judah, Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have testified unto you this day.

If they did not believe the word of God and fled to Egypt, what they feared would come upon them there.

  • Jeremiah 42:20 For ye have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for ye sent me unto Jehovah your God, saying, Pray for us unto Jehovah our God; and according unto all that Jehovah our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it:
  • 21 and I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah your God in anything for which he hath sent me unto you.

God knew their hearts. He knew they had no intention of obeying His voice if He gave it. Maybe this may be why some of our prayers are not answered. Perhaps we have no intention of doing what God says if He did answer them. Many of us want to seek God hoping He will give assent and justify what we already desire to do.

  • Jeremiah 42:22 Now therefore know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither ye desire to go to sojourn there.

God knew that in their heart that was their intention all along to go to Egypt. I think they just wanted Jeremiah to agree with them make them feel better about what they were about to do.

How many of us, when we need advice, actually go to those to whom we know will say what we want to hear? Do we really want God's will? Do we really care about what God has to say?

Many wanted the Messiah to come back in the days when Christ walked the earth. They were tired of being ruled by the Roman Empire and they wanted the Messiah to come and destroy the Roman army and bring in a new world order where Israel would be free. They did not want someone to come and tell them they had to repent of sin.

This is why the Messiah, Jesus Christ, was rejected. He came preaching the gospel, not setting up an earthly kingdom. He told them they must repent and be born again to enter the kingdom of Heaven. They did not want to hear that so they rejected His message and had Him crucified. Little did they realize that the crucifixion ushered in salvation for all the human race. That was the payment for sin that the human race needed to be saved and inherit eternal life.

The message Christ came to give is not much different than Jeremiah's message. REPENT. CHANGE. Turn back to God. Some people want God to heal their sick, make life better and come into their lives but not if they first have to repent of sin. The repentance message is the one rejected because they do not want to admit they have sinned much less get rid of sin.

The Jews stumbled at the message of the gospel because they were looking for an earthly conqueror, not a savior from sin.

We see many today that want earthly things and are not interested in saving their souls and getting rid of sin. We see sin even invading the church because we have stopped warning and preaching against sin and repentance.

Why do many religions cause more trouble and hatred than love and peace?  Because those who practice those religions whether it is Christian or non-Christian is still a slave to sin. 

A religion that does not free from sin, is just a religion. If we hate anyone, we are not free from sin. If we kill people who disagree with our religion, political views or whatever, we are not free from sin. 

Jesus Christ is not another religion. At least not the Jesus Christ the bible speaks of. This Jesus Christ came to save us from our sins. When we come to Christ, repenting of sin, we are made free from sin. If you see someone molest a child and call himself a Christian, he is not free from sin.  He needs to repent and get victory over sin. Sin kills and destroys. There is power in the gospel of Jesus to set us free from sin. This power is called the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit. He comes into our lives to teach, comfort, correct and give us power to witness. We can be free from sin. We don't have to be in bondage to sin after coming to Jesus Christ. 

We can't receive Christ without repenting of sin. Repent means more than just saying, I'm sorry.  Repentance means to change. To be different. To hate sin and desire to be free from sin. If one sins after receiving Christ, go back to our knees and repent until we get victory over sin. We must not allow it to take root and grow again. That is what Jesus Christ came to take away and we must not allow Satan to plant any seed of sin within our hearts again. Resist the devil and He will flee, draw close to God and He will draw close to you. 

Repent and be born again is the message we are failing to preach. Jesus came to take away sin, not save us in our sin. Jesus came to give us a new life, a new beginning and a new way. We are to live in holiness and godliness. We must not listen to those who say that we are only human and we can't help sinning. That is why Jesus came, to help us stop sinning. Sin cannot inherit the kingdom of God so sin has to be cleansed by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. He came that we can be free from sin.

  • Romans 6:15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid. 
  • 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 
  • 17 But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered; 
  • 18 and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness. 
  • 19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification.

If we are to receive Christ and still sin then why was the bible written to teach us the ways of God? Why would Jesus die on the cross to pay for our sins if we were to continue in them after we are saved. This should not be. What were we saved from if we continue in sin?

  • Romans 6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin; 
  • 7 for he that hath died is justified from sin. 
  • 8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him; 
  • 9 knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death no more hath dominion over him. 
  • 10 For the death that he died, he died unto sin once: but the life that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 
  • 11 Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. 
  • 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof:

"Born again, free from sin, I'm happy night and day. Makes me shout, there's not doubt, I know I've been born again." Taken from a old song by the Everly Brothers. 

Definition of sin - Transgression of the law. 

Be not as those men who were seeking Jeremiah to agree with them, not because they really desired to know the will of God. They were not really seeking God's will and God knew that. If you really desire to be free from sin you can and you can be filled with God's Spirit now and have eternal life later. .If you are seeking God to justify your sinful lifestyle then you won't be free from that sin and you won't inherit eternal life. 

Christ makes us free from the law of sin and death. Come to Christ, yield to Christ and sin will not reign over you. This is not religion, this is salvation, Eternal Life, and everlasting joy. 


Jeremiah 43

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