Jeremiah

Jeremiah Chapter 44

• Jeremiah 44:1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews that dwelt in the land of Egypt, that dwelt at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Memphis, and in the country of Pathros, saying,
• 2 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah; and, behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwelleth therein,

God reminds those that fled into Egypt of what became of Judah because they did not listen to the warnings of His prophets. They were a stubborn, stiff-necked and in rebellion. This finally led to desolation. Man, this sounds like the many today.

• Jeremiah 44:3 Because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, and to serve other gods, that they knew not, neither they, nor ye, nor your fathers.

Here it shows the depths to which they had fallen away from God. Remember God saw their bondage to slavery while they were in Egypt. He saw how they were treated. He saw how Pharaoh at one time tried to decrease their number by slaying all male children in the days when Moses was a baby.

God in His mercy used Moses to deliver the children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt. He showed many miracles and even parted the Red Sea so that they could be free from slavery and free to serve God. The people begin to complain and sin in the wilderness before coming into the land of promise. God gave them the law to show them how serious sin is and point them to the future Messiah who would deliver them from sin. Their formal sacrifices and offerings for sin in the wilderness pointed toward that future perfect sacrifice that was to come.

God gave them food to eat and water to drink. God then gave them a good land to dwell in. He instructed them not to intermarry with the people that lived around that land. The people of the surrounding nations served idols and God did not want them to defile themselves by compromising their faith and mingling with those who served other gods.

God showed His love and care countless times over and over. Yet unbelief settled in time after time. Unbelief and doubt leads to the other sin of idolatry. They looked at how other nations worshipped idols and began to desire to be like the other nations. So after sending prophets to warn and plead with the people to repent and turn back to the right way, God finally allowed the evil nation of Babylon to overcome them so they could finally see what that nation was really like.

They lost their freedom and were brought under bondage. Sin may look good and desirable for a while but the end results are evil, poverty, destruction, misery, slavery, suffering, disease, and everlasting punishment in Hell. 

Even after these events God still offered a remnant of those not carried away to Babylon the privilege of remaining in their own homeland if they accepted the rule of the Chaldeans and did not flee to Egypt but trust in God to take care of them. Again, they did not listen and that is where they are in this chapter.

• Jeremiah 44:4 Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.
• 5 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods.
• 6 Wherefore my wrath and mine anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as it is this day.

God's word will always come to pass no matter how many people go around preaching opposite to the truth. No matter how many go about putting down and bad-mouthing preachers that preach repentance and holiness, that does not change the fact that holiness and faithfulness to God is the truth no matter who says it is not.

I've heard it many times when one preaches judgment, others will say, "Oh God wouldn't do that." Yet if we fall away from God after knowing His ways of righteousness, we will bear the judgment of God if we fail to repent.

We see from Daniel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Revelation, Jude, and all through the bible that reward is for the obedient and judgment is for those that sin and do not repent. Sin is sin. God made a way to be free from sin and if we neglect that way, we will suffer judgment. He didn't make a way for us to be forgiven and still sin all we want and be saved. He made a way for us to be FREE from sin and BORN AGAIN. A new creature in Christ.

• Jeremiah 44:7 Therefore now thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your own souls, to cut off from you man and woman, infant and suckling, out of the midst of Judah, to leave you none remaining;

When we sin, we hurt our own souls. The soul never dies and the soul is what is saved or lost. Only the body dies at natural death. The soul lives on either in heaven or hell. Hell is a place of eternal torment and separation from God. Hell was created for the fallen angels and Satan. Satan desires to take every created human being with him to hell. It is Satan that hinders all he can from being saved by faith in Jesus Christ.

Satan does not want us to escape hell. We don't have to listen to Satan. It was the deception of Satan using fear that caused these men to flee into Egypt when Jeremiah warned them to remain in their own land and God would take care of them. Satan does not want us to trust God because he knows that trusting God will bring us eternal life and the salvation of our souls.

• Jeremiah 44:8 in that ye provoke me unto anger with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, whither ye are gone to sojourn; that ye may be cut off, and that ye may be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?
• 9 Have ye forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives which they committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?
• 10 They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.
• 11 Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah.
• 12 And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed; in the land of Egypt shall they fall; they shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine; they shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine; and they shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.
• 13 For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence;
• 14 So that none of the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or be left, to return into the land of Judah, to which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none shall return save such as shall escape.
• 15 Then all the men who knew that their wives burned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great assembly, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,
• 16 As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of Jehovah, we will not hearken unto thee.

"We will not hearken," is one of the saddest words in the bible. This is what we hear today. We will not listen, we will not obey, we do not believe, please go away. We may not have to say the words, we say them by our actions.

Even though they saw with their own eyes the prophesy Jeremiah gave about the invasion of Babylon coming to pass, they still didn't heed Jeremiah's prophecy to them about remaining in their own land and not fleeing to Egypt for help. They fled anyway not realizing that Babylon would be taking over Egypt as well and then they all would be consumed.

Sin is a type of Egypt. Being in sin is being in bondage like the Israelites were once in bondage to the Egyptians.

Just as God used Moses to deliver them from Egypt, God sent Jesus to save us from the bondage of sin. Faith in Jesus brings a repentance or turning from sin and trusting in Jesus for salvation. God becomes our God and we are no longer in bondage to sin. Oh how great salvation through Jesus can be if we let Him into our lives. It is a real change, not just a religion.

To be "born again" is a new way, a new life that is free from sin. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us. We can become filled with the Spirit and refilled many times. God never leaves us alone. Once a person enters this new life through faith in Jesus Christ, he or she is a new creature in Christ. It is like being free from the bondage of slavery.

To want to return and serve other gods which bring nothing is strange indeed. But we see from verse 17 that the Israelites did just that.

• Jeremiah 44:17 But we will certainly perform every word that is gone forth out of our mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.
• 18 But since we left off burning incense to the queen of heaven, and pouring out drink-offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.
• 19 And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink-offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink-offerings unto her, without our husbands?

We see here the danger of seeking material things. They believed that as long as they poured out offerings to the queen of heaven, they lived good lives but when they stopped, the good stopped. Actually the opposite is true but we sometimes fail to see that because in times of testing, the devil makes us think that it is better to ignore God and serve other gods. In this day and age the other gods are not idols necessarily but pursuing other things and ignoring God, although some do use images in their worship of God which is forbidden by the scripture in both old and new testaments. 

• Jeremiah 44:20 Then Jeremiah said unto all the people, to the men, and to the women, even to all the people that had given him that answer, saying,
• 21 The incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, ye and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not Jehovah remember them, and came it not into his mind?
• 22 So that Jehovah could not longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which ye have committed; therefore is your land become a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day.
• 23 Because ye have burned incense, and because ye have sinned against Jehovah, and have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah, nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; therefore this evil is happened unto you, as it is this day.
• 24 Moreover Jeremiah said unto all the people, and to all the women, Hear the word of Jehovah, all Judah that are in the land of Egypt:
• 25 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Ye and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and with your hands have fulfilled it, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her: establish then your vows, and perform your vows.
• 26 Therefore hear ye the word of Jehovah, all Judah that dwell in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by my great name, saith Jehovah, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, As the Lord Jehovah liveth.
• 27 Behold, I watch over them for evil, and not for good; and all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them.
• 28 And they that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, few in number; and all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose word shall stand, mine, or theirs.
• 29 And this shall be the sign unto you, saith Jehovah, that I will punish you in this place, that ye may know that my words shall surely stand against you for evil:
• 30 Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy, and sought his life.

As a result of choosing what they thought was the good life instead of being faithful to God, they lost everything. God will always take care of those that are faithful to Him. There may be times to testing and trials and things may seem to go wrong but God will reward faithfulness.

Our attitude should be to trust Him no matter what. To seek things above, not here below.

• Matthew 6:31 Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 
• 32 For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 
• 33 But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 
• 34 Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

In the same chapter of Matthew but in previous verses before those above is this:

• Matthew 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal: 
• 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 
• 21 for where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also.

If only we could get the whole world to see this. The true riches are in Heaven where we will live eternally if we accept God's plan of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. This life here is temporary. It passes away so quickly. If we live just for this day, we will lose our souls. If we are without Christ at the time of our physical death, we will lose our souls. This does not have to be. Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. God made a way for you to be free from sin. The bible says, you must be born again. This is done through believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. DC

• Acts 4:12 And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved.

Jeremiah 45