“16 Then Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him led away all the survivors from Mizpah whom he had recovered from Ishmael son of Nethaniah after he had assassinated Gedaliah son of Ahikam: the soldiers, women, children, and court officials he had brought from Gibeon. 17 And they went on, stopping at Geruth Kimham near Bethlehem on their way to Egypt 18 to escape the Babylonians. They were afraid of them because Ishmael son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had appointed as governor over the land.
42
1 Then all the army officers, 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 and said to him, “Please hear our petition and pray to the Lord your God for this entire remnant. For as you now see, though we were once many, now only a few are left. 3 Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.” 4 “I have heard you,” replied Jeremiah the prophet. “I will certainly pray to the Lord your God as you have requested; I will tell you everything the Lord says and will keep nothing back from you.”
5 Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the Lord your God sends you to tell us. 6 Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the Lord our God.”
7 Ten days later the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. 8 So he called together Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him and all the people from the least to the greatest. 9 He said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition, says: 10 ‘If you stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I am grieved over the disaster I have inflicted on you. 11 Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him, declares the Lord, for I am with you and will save you and deliver you from his hands. 12 I will show you compassion so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your land.’
13 “However, if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ and so disobey the Lord your God, 14 and if you say, ‘No, we will go and live in Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the trumpet or be hungry for bread,’ 15 then hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and you do go to settle there, 16 then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow you into Egypt, and there you will die. 17 Indeed, all who are determined to go to Egypt to settle there will die by the sword, famine and plague; not one of them will survive or escape the disaster I will bring on them.’ 18 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘As my anger and wrath have been poured out on those who lived in Jerusalem, so will my wrath be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You will be an object of cursing and horror, of condemnation and reproach; you will never see this place again.’
19 “O remnant of Judah, the Lord has told you, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Be sure of this: I warn you today 20 that you made a fatal mistake a when you sent me to the Lord your God and said, ‘Pray to the Lord our God for us; tell us everything He says and we will do it.’ 21 I have told you today, but you still have not obeyed the Lord your God in all he sent me to tell you. 22 So now, be sure of this: You will die by the sword, famine and plague in the place where you want to go to settle.”
43
1 When Jeremiah finished telling the people all the words of the Lord their God—everything the Lord had sent him to tell them— 2 Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The Lord our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to settle there.’ 3 But Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Babylonians, so they may kill us or carry us into exile to Babylon.”
4 So Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers and all the people disobeyed the Lord’s command to stay in the land of Judah. 5 Instead, Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers led away all the remnant of Judah who had come back to live in the land of Judah from all the nations where they had been scattered. 6 They also led away all the men, women and children and the king’s daughters whom Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard had left with Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah. 7 So they entered Egypt in disobedience to the Lord and went as far as Tahpanhes.
8 In Tahpanhes the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 9 “While the Jews are watching, take some large stones with you and bury them in clay in the brick pavement at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace in Tahpanhes. 10 Then say to them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I will send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will set his throne over these stones I have buried here; he will spread his royal canopy above them. 11 He will come and attack Egypt, bringing death to those destined for death, captivity to those destined for captivity, and the sword to those destined for the sword. 12 He will set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt; he will burn their temples and take their gods captive. As a shepherd wraps his garment around him, so will he wrap Egypt around himself and depart from there unscathed. 13 There in the temple of the sun in Egypt He will demolish the sacred pillars and will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.’””
Trust with obedience is the path of life. Take it. The alternative leads to death. That’s the claim of this sermon and we’re jumping right in tonight: Trust with obedience is the path of life. Take it. The alternative leads to death.
We will study this in two points. First: running to Egypt. Second: Egypt cannot save. In 41:16-43:7, we see Johanan and the people running to Egypt. In 43:8-13, we see that Egypt cannot save.
First: running to Egypt. Last Sunday we studied life under Gedaliah with its abundant wine and summer fruit. We saw how that good life was brought to an end by the assassination of Gedaliah by Ishmael. We don’t hear anything more about Ishmael after we read that he and eight of his men ran for their lives to the Ammonites. We don’t know the rest of his story. God does.
God wants us to turn our attention to Johanan. We know that because Scripture turns its attention from Ishmael to Johanan. This isn’t just history. It is history with an instructive purpose. God wants you thinking about Johanan and the path he took.
After Gedaliah was murdered and he had chased Ishmael out of the area, Johanan was the de-facto leader. He decided it would be best to get as many people out of Judah as possible because the Babylonians were doubtlessly going to retaliate for what Ishmael had done to Gedaliah, the Babylon-installed governor, and those Babylonian soldiers.
Now you might be wondering why Johanan didn’t send messengers explaining the situation to Babylon. He had, after all, done his best to hold the governor’s murderer accountable. Why just run? Well, imagine that you were an American soldier living in a Japanese prisoner of war camp when the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Would you be concerned about Japanese soldiers taking their rage out on you? You better believe you would. Retaliation is usually indiscriminate. People who didn’t commit the offense often bear the brunt of the wrath. That’s why Johanan started moving the people to Egypt.
Jeremiah was one of the people Johanan rounded up to bring to Egypt. About ten miles into the journey, near Bethlehem, Johanan thought it would be wise to inquire of the Lord about this escape to Egypt. We aren’t told why. Perhaps it was because the people were terrified about what was going on. Maybe Johanan thought a bit of religion would calm their nerves. We don’t know.
Johanan and the other military men said to Jeremiah, “Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.” Notice that Jeremiah, in verse 2, is referred to as, “the prophet.” It’s almost as if we are meeting Jeremiah for the first time. Perhaps that was the case for Johanan. The fact that he called the Lord “your God” to Jeremiah in verse 2 doesn’t lead us to believe he had robust faith.
Jeremiah promised to ask the Lord for wisdom regarding this flight to Egypt, but he warned Johanan that they might not like what the Lord had to say; verse 4, “I will tell you everything the Lord says and will keep nothing back from you.” Jeremiah suspected that Johanan and his collegues already had their minds made up to go to Egypt—they were after all already ten miles into the journey—and that they were just looking for a divine stamp of approval. That’s often what we want when we ask for quote-unquote advice. As Calvin put it, “those who consult do not for the most part wish to learn what is right, [they just want] others [to] fall in with their own inclinations.”
You can see that the leaders sensed Jeremiah’s suspicion. That’s what led them to say, in verse 5, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the Lord your God sends you to tell us.” That’s why they doubled down on their willingness to listen to the Lord in verse 6, “Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the Lord our God.”
Jeremiah might say with Hamlet, “thou dost protest too much.” These military men were adamantly defending their willingness to obey the Lord because Jeremiah had hit a nerve by calling it into question.
The word of the Lord didn’t come to Jeremiah for ten days. This doubtlessly increased the tension as Johanan waited for Babylon to come. Dealing with God, however, is not an exact science. Johanan couldn’t manipulate the Lord no matter how much he wanted to do so.
After ten days, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. The prophet called everyone together so the whole community could hear the word together. He began by reminding them that they had sent him to speak to the Lord on this matter; “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition, says.” Before giving them the word of the Lord, Jeremiah was reminding them that they were bound by it. They were bound by it because they were the Lord’s people. They were bound by it because they had said, “Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the Lord our God.”
The message that came after ten days was that the Lord was determined to do them good. “If you stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down.” Jeremiah was called by God to give messages about who would be built up and who would be torn down. The Lord was determined to build these people up. All they needed to do was what Jeremiah had been telling them to do all along. They just needed to submit Babylon. They needed to trust God. As 42:11 puts it, “Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him, declares the Lord, for I am with you and will save you and deliver you from his hands.” This was unexpected grace. An opportunity to trust/obey in your new situation always is. The people thought the Gedaliah option was gone because of what Ishmael had done. They could have it back—the wine and summer fruit. All they needed to do was trust the Lord and stay in the land.
The people were afraid to do that because of Babylonian reprisals. Jeremiah was saying that they needed to stop thinking so much about Nebuchadnezzar. They needed to start thinking about the Lord. Maybe that’s you tonight—stop thinking so much about what you fear. Start thinking about the Lord. The Lord is in charge of everything—including Nebuchadnezzar; verse 12, “I will show you compassion so that he [meaning Nebuchadnezzar] will have compassion on you and restore you to your land.” That’s Proverbs 21:1, “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever He will.”
This was astounding news. This was better than they could have hoped for. If they trusted and obeyed, it would go well for them. If, however, they distrusted and disobeyed it would go very badly for them. That’s what comes next. This is a classic way of life/way of death choice. Moses used that regarding keeping the commandments. The Psalmist used that regarding meditating on the word of the Lord. Jesus used that regarding his own teachings.
The way of life is always trust and obedience. The way of death is always distrust and disobedience.
Johanan could trust the Lord and obey Him by remaining in the land and submitting to Babylon. It would then go well with him and the people. Going to Egypt was the way of death; verse 17, “all who are determined to go to Egypt to settle there will die by the sword, famine and plague; not one of them will survive or escape the disaster I will bring on them.”
We’ve heard that triad—sword, famine, and plague—over and over again throughout this book. This is covenant curse language. This is what the people were threatened with if they refused to repent of their sin. This is what they were threatened with if they refused to surrender to Babylon. They didn’t and they received sword, famine, and plague. They were still in covenant with God and they could continue to distrust and disobey and suffer more of the same; that’s verse 18, “As my anger and wrath have been poured out on those who lived in Jerusalem, so will my wrath be poured out on you when you go to Egypt.”
It is the same choice repeatedly in the book of Jeremiah. It’s the same choice repeatedly throughout Scripture. It’s the same choice repeatedly throughout life. You can trust God. You can live as if you are loved by God. That’s obedience. Anything else ends up in disobedience because it is distrust. You and I are constantly choosing between those two. It just looks different in different situations, but the choice is always between trusting/obeying and distrusting/disobeying and the consequences are life-giving or deadly.
That choice was now inescapably clear to everyone, which is what 42:19-21 are all about, ‘O remnant of Judah, the Lord has told you, “Do not go to Egypt.” Be sure of this: I warn you today that you made a fatal mistake when you sent me to the Lord your God and said, “Pray to the Lord our God for us; tell us everything He says and we will do it.” I have told you today, but you still have not obeyed the Lord your God in all He sent me to tell you.’
Now a heart that longed to obey the Lord would have responded to those words, ‘I warn you today that you made a fatal mistake when you sent me to the Lord your God and said, “Pray to the Lord our God for us; tell us everything He says and we will do it,”’ by saying, “but we will do what the Lord said! We will trust! We will obey!” and then that soul would trust and obey.
That’s not what we see as chapter 43 opens. They told Jeremiah—it’s more likely that they actually shouted—verse 2, ‘You are lying! The Lord our God has not sent you to say, “You must not go to Egypt to settle there.” But Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Babylonians, so they may kill us or carry us into exile to Babylon.’
Those are simply excuses for their refusal to trust and obey. As Calvin put it, “had they been asked whether they acted rightly they might have raised a thousand arguments as excuses… impiety then is always full of rashness and audacity.”
They accused Jeremiah of lying—which not coincidentally is the same word in the Hebrew that Jeremiah always used to talk about the false prophets—because they had no real argument as to why they shouldn’t trust and obey. They pulled the equivalent of calling Jeremiah “Hitler” in an online discussion within the first minute of the conversation because they had no answer as to why they shouldn’t trust and obey. They then descended into more absurdity by accusing Baruch of being a Babylonian agent.
You see this nonsense all over the gospels as well. What Calvin said of Johanan and company could have been said of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Pilate regarding their decision to crucify Jesus, “had they been asked whether they acted rightly they might have raised a thousand arguments as excuses… impiety then is always full of rashness and audacity.” You read the same sort of nonsense in the rejections of Jesus throughout the book of Acts. You see it today when a friend doesn’t want to trust and obey. When we refuse to trust the Lord and obey we offer a thousand excuses.
Now in the case of Johanan it is more glaring because he had asked to know what he should do. His response shows how double minded he is. “When you ask,” writes James, “you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”
This is one of the reasons that Jesus hammers sincerity so consistently. That’s what almost his entire Sermon on the Mount is about. He knows that we deceive ourselves regularly. Johanan thought he really would obey what Jeremiah said. He found out that he wouldn’t. Jesus wants us to be properly suspicious of ourselves. He wants us to see that need his constant help to walk the way of life and that to think otherwise is spiritually dangerous. That’s why he starts off with, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” as in blessed are those who see themselves for as spiritually weak and needy as they are, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Johanan didn’t listen. He didn’t trust. He didn’t obey. He went with what he thought could save, but Egypt cannot save. That’s our final point. Johanan took Jeremiah against his will to Babylon. It’s hard to overstate the tragedy of this all. It could have gone well for God’s people if only Johanan would have listened, but he didn’t and now everyone, including Jeremiah would pay a price, but, of course, we’ve already seen that throughout this whole book. If only the people would have responded to Josiah’s reforms. If only Zedekiah would have surrendered to Babylon. If only… if only… if only. That’s where unrepentant sin will lead you.
Johanan brought the people to Taphanhes. There Jeremiah enacted a living parable just as he did when he smashed that pottery in the valley that became Gehenna. The message here is that this this prophecy will surely happen. This “palace of Pharaoh” from verse 9 was probably, as Jack Lundbom explains it, “a government building manned by soldiers and other officials whose job it was to guard Egypt’s northern frontier.”
Jeremiah put large stones in its pavement to symbolically mark Nebuchadnezzar’s throne. Johanan thought Egypt was safe from Babylon’s reach. Ironically, Johanan took the people to the very place Nebuchadnezzar was heading next. Babylon came soon after this prophecy and Taphanhes, being a border town, would have been one of the first to fall.
If Johanan would have trusted and obeyed, he would have lived and brought life to those people. He didn’t and so he brought death. Johanan didn’t see what was going on. He didn’t see that he truly was disobeying the Lord by disregarding His word. He didn’t see that He was opposing God. He didn’t see that he couldn’t run from the consequences because he couldn’t run from God; verse 10, “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I will send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.” Johanan thought he was running from Babylon. He was actually running God’s salvation. He was distrusting. He was disobeying. It led to death. It always does when left unchecked.
Egypt could not save. It couldn’t save itself. Their temples were burned. Nebuchadnezzar carried away their gods as a sign of his victory. It would be easy for him; that’s the end of verse 12, “he will depart from there unscathed.”
Johanan thought Egypt would be a safe place. The fact is that there was and is no safety outside the Lord. Trust/obedience is the only safe way forward in any situation. “What is your only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own but belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.” These chapters show you that truth on the stage of history.
This is the last we hear about the remnant in the land. Jeremiah had prophesied that the future lay with those went into exile to Babylon. They were the good figs. What we’ve studied these past two weeks bears that out. The attention of the canon shifts to the faithful in exile, to Daniel and Esther.
This is the last we hear about Jeremiah. We don’t know anything further about his life. The man was dragged to Egypt by people who claimed to want to hear from the Lord but yet never wanted to listen.
They didn’t recognize that this word would lead to life and so they chose death. That’s how it goes. “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” The path of distrust and disobedience has always been the overwhelming response in Jeremiah’s day, in Jesus’ day, and in our day.
Choose the alternative. “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” That’s quivering trust on the inside and following in Jesus’ steps on the outside. That’s the path of life. Take it. Amen.