The document summarizes a lesson about the final chapters of the book of Jeremiah. It describes how a remnant of Judah refused to obey God's command to not flee to Egypt, instead accusing Jeremiah of lying. God then used Jeremiah to symbolically prophesy that Egypt would not protect them. The remnant stubbornly insisted on continuing their idolatry, believing it was obeying God that brought disaster rather than their own sins.

1. Lesson 12

2. key Text:
“ ‘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’ ”
Jeremiah 42:5

3. This lesson brings
us toward the end of the
saga of Jeremiah the pro-
phet. However, this is not
an “and they lived happily
ever after” ending. In a
sense, one could summa-
rize this week’s study, and
even a good portion of
the book of Jeremiah, by
saying that what we see
here is an example of the
limits of grace.
That is, grace will not save those who utterly refuse to accept it. No
matter how much the Lord spoke to them, offering them salvation,
protection, redemption, peace, and prosperity, all but a tiny and
faithful remnant scorned and rebuffed God’s offer.

4. And what of Jeremiah?
His was a life and work
that from all human
appearances seemed
futile! The “weeping
prophet” had plenty to
weep about. Even after
everything he warned
about came to pass,
the people still clung to
their sins and paganism
and rebellion, openly
defying the prophet to
his face and scorning
the Word of the Lord to
them.
How we need to be careful ourselves. Grace is
grace because it’s given to the undeserving, yes;
but it’s not forced on anyone. We must be
willing to accept it.

5. Gedaliah was appointed as governor of Judah (Jeremiah 40:6-12).
Ishmael killed Gedaliah and captured the remnant
(Jeremiah 40:13-41:10).
Johanan delivered the remnant and asked Jeremiah to
consult God (Jeremiah 41:11-42:6).
God replied: Return to Judah and submit to Babylon
(Jeremiah 42:7-22).
Johanan refused to obey God and went to Egypt
(Jeremiah 43:1-7).
Jeremiah prophesied at Egypt (Jeremiah 43:8-13).
Judah’s rejection and arrogance (Jeremiah 44).
A little remnant remained at Judah after Jerusalem was destroyed.
Their story is told in Jeremiah 40 to 44.

6. “Then Jeremiah went to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, to Mizpah, and
dwelt with him among the people who were left in the land.” (Jeremiah 40:6)
The king of Babylon left some faithful
people, the poor and a small group of
soldiers in Judah.
All captains who remained there came
before Gedaliah to obey him. But the
Ammonites bribed a traitor: Ishmael
(Jer. 40:14).
Ishmael killed Gedaliah and the Babylonian
soldiers. Then, he led the people to
Ammon. One of the captains–Johanan–
chased him and delivered the remnant
(Jer. 41:14).
The people was afraid of Babylon’s reprisal
if they came back to Mizpah (Jer. 41:17-18).

7. Though the reasons
for the assassination
weren’t given, the
fact that it had been
done by someone of
the “royal family and
of the officers of the
king” (Jer. 41:1, NKJV)
suggests that these
elitists still had not accepted the idea that the chosen nation needed
to submit to Babylonian rule. Because Gedaliah had been put on the
throne by the king of Babylon (see Jer. 40:5), these people might have
seen him as a treasonous puppet who was disloyal to the nation and
who therefore had to be eliminated along with his court.

8. “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.” (Jeremiah 42:6)
“and said to Jeremiah the prophet, ‘Please, let our petition be acceptable to
you, and pray for us to the Lord your God, for all this remnant (since we are
left but a few of many, as you can see), that the Lord your God may show us
the way in which we should walk and the thing we should do.’” (Jeremiah 42:2-3)
The people’s dilemma was either to go to
Egypt or to return to Mizpah. They decided
to ask God for advice through Jeremiah.
The people committed to obey God as they
parents did when leaving Egypt
(Exodus 24:7).
“If we take Christ for our guide, He
will lead us safely. The veriest
sinner need not miss his way.”
E.G.W. (God’s Amazing Grace, September 13)

9. They also vowed
they would do wha-
tever God asked or
commanded them
to do. So, as we
read, we see a peo-
ple 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. “God has given us the power of choice; it
is ours to exercise. We cannot change our
hearts, we cannot control our thoughts,
our impulses, our affections. We cannot
make ourselves pure, fit for God’s service.
But we can choose to serve God, we can
give Him our will; then He will work in
us to will and to do according to His good
pleasure. Thus our whole nature will be
brought under the control of Christ.”
E.G.W. (The Ministry of Healing, cp. 11, pg. 176)

14. “That Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, Johanan the son of
Kareah, and all the proud men spoke, saying to Jeremiah,
‘You speak falsely! The Lord our God has not sent you to
say, “Do not go to Egypt to dwell there.”’” (Jeremiah 43:2)
They pretended to seek divine guidance, but they actually
wanted God to agree with their plans; that is, going to Egypt.
They tried to justify their decision by accusing Jeremiah of
lying to them, and being influenced by his scribe Baruch.
When sinners are not willing to
correct their ways, reasoning no
longer acts. If the Word doesn’t
match their desire, they don’t
listen to it anymore.
If you want to be guided by God,
you must be willing to go
wherever He leads you to, and to
do whatever He asks you to do.

15. Read Jeremiah 43:1–7.
What did they do?
When God’s Word
does not agree with
our intentions or desi-
res, we tend to have
doubts about its divine
origins. Likewise, the
people and the lea-
ders had doubts about Jeremiah. Apparently, in Israel, only the
circumstances had changed, but the people remained the same in
their thinking and in their heart. They excused themselves from
their vow by attacking the prophet Jeremiah. However, they did not
want to attack the aged Jeremiah directly. So, they blamed Baruch,
his friend and sometimes scribe, and turned their wrath against
him, claiming that he had turned the prophet against them.

16. “Take large stones in your hand, and hide them
in the sight of the men of Judah, in the clay in
the brick courtyard which is at the entrance to
Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes.” (Jeremiah 43:9)
God used symbols to give a new
message to the disobedient people.
The country where they sought
refuge would not protect them.
They would be attacked again there.
In 568 BC, a civil war was taking
place in Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar set
up his camp on the land where
Jeremiah had hidden big stones
with mud.
The only true protection in this
world is to obey God. He is the only
safe way.

17. How exactly Jeremiah
was to bury stones at
the entrance to Pharaoh’s
house, we aren’t told.
The point, however, was
clear: even the mighty
pharaohs were no match
for the Lord, and He
would fulfill His word
just as He had said.
The refugees who thought that they would find protection and safety by
going to Egypt were as wrong as those who, as we saw earlier, thought
that they could find protection and safety by having Egypt come to them
(Jer. 37:7, 8). The Egyptian gods were useless, figments of warped imagi-
nations; these gods were pagan abominations that kept the people in
abject ignorance of truth. The Israelites should have known, as we should
now know, that our only true protection and safety is in obeying the Lord.

18. “As for the word that you
have spoken to us in the name
of the Lord, we will not listen
to you!” (Jeremiah 44:16)
Some years later, the Jews were doing
the same abominable things in Egypt
as they did in Jerusalem.
They defied God’s word through
Jeremiah. He didn’t repent from their
sins but boasted about them.
They stated that as they worshipped
idols during Manases’ reign, they “had
plenty of food, were well-off, and saw
no trouble.” (Jeremiah 44:17).
Since they didn’t receive their
punishment at that exact time, they
thought that bad things happened
because they stopped sinning!

19. What startling
answer did they
give to Jeremiah
when confronted
by their sins?
(Jer. 44:15–19).
The hardness of their hearts and the deception that
had overtaken them are astonishing. Basically, they
looked Jeremiah in the face and defied him and what
he spoke to them in “the name of the Lord.”

20. The rationale was sim-
ple: in the early days,
before the reforms of
Josiah, when they were
heavily steeped in wor-
shiping pagan gods,
even burning incense to
the “queen of heaven”
and pouring out drink
offerings to her, things
went well for them.
They were materially well off and dwelt in safety. However, it was
only after the reforms of Josiah (which were too late) that calamity
struck. So, why should they listen to Jeremiah and all his warnings?

21. Jeremiah’s response
(Jer. 44:20–30) was,
No, you don’t under-
stand. It was precisely
because you did all
these things that these
calamities have come
upon you.
Worse, your stubborn
refusal to change means
that even more calamity will come, and the safety you thought
you would find in Egypt is a deception and a lie, just like the
pagan gods you worship. In the end, you will know the truth,
but it will be too late.

22. “Rebellion and apostasy
are in the very air we
breathe. We shall be
affected by them unless
we by faith hang our
helpless souls upon
Christ.”
E.G.W. (Lift Him Up, January 7)

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