Jeremiah

Chapters Forty-two through Forty-five

Introduction

Let's read the first three verses of chapter forty-two:

Jeremiah 42:2 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),

Jeremiah 42:3 "that the LORD your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing we should do."

The Jews wanted to receive counsel from the Lord. We will see, though, that when Jeremiah returned to them with the Lord's counsel, rather than receive it they rejected it. Look at verses four and seven of chapter forty-three:

Jeremiah 43:7 ...So they went to the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the LORD. And they went as far as Tahpanhes.

Rather than receive God's counsel, they rejected it - to their own ruin.

It still happens today! Christians who come seeking to receive counsel from the Lord often leave rejecting His counsel - to their own ruin.

Why would anyone reject rather than receive God's counsel? Jeremiah gives you a clue as to why this happens. In verse twenty of chapter forty-two he said,

The Jews who came seeking God's counsel were "hypocrites in their hearts." They rejected God's counsel because their hearts were in the habits of hypocrisy.

What are the habits of heart hypocrisy? We will discover some of them as we read through the text. And we will also discover the habits of hearts that hearken to the Lord's counsel. We will see: #1 The Habits That Lead Your Heart Into The Hypocrisy Of Rejecting God's Counsel, and #2 The Habits That Lead Your Heart Into The

Happiness Of Receiving God's Counsel.

#1 The Habits That Lead Your Heart Into The

Hypocrisy Of Rejecting God's Counsel

Let me bring you up to date on what is happening in these chapters. The Jews had come under the control of Babylon. The Babylonians had appointed Gedeliah as governor over Jerusalem and all of Judah. Despising Babylonian rule, a Jew named Ishmael murdered Gedeliah and several Babylonian officials, then fled towards Ammon with Jewish captives. Johanan and Jezaniah, with their forces, had caught up with them and set the captives free. Now, for fear of what the Babylonians might do, they themselves were fleeing towards Egypt. Chapter forty-one ends,

Jeremiah 41:17 And they departed and dwelt in the habitation of Chimham, which is near Bethlehem, as they went on their way to Egypt,

Jeremiah 41:18 because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had murdered Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had made governor in the land.

As chapter forty-two opens, the Jews are seeking to receive God's counsel on whether to continue towards Egypt or to return to Jerusalem:

Jeremiah 42:2 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),

Jeremiah 42:3 "that the LORD your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing we should do."

The Jews said to Jeremiah, "pray for us to the Lord your God..." This is a habit that leads your heart into the hypocrisy of rejecting God's counsel: Lack of communion with Jesus.

You can call Jesus your friend and God your Father. I hear a lot about the fear and reverence of God today. There is a revival of the Reformation concept of God as austere and severe, not to be too easily entreated.

I much prefer Jesus' teaching that you are to come to God as children! When Jesus said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven," it was because His disciples were forbidding the children from disturbing Him. Beloved, you can call God Abba, which means "daddy." Don't create a distance between yourself and God that Jesus has bridged. Within the sphere of reverence and fear, you are to run to your Daddy's lap and constantly interrupt Him!

Jeremiah 42:5 So they said to Jeremiah, "Let the LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not do according to everything which the LORD your God sends us by you.

Jeremiah 42:6 "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."

The people said they would obey "whether it is pleasing or displeasing." The literal reading of "pleasing or displeasing" is good or evil; they would obey God's counsel whether it was good or evil.

Here is another habit that leads your heart into the hypocrisy of rejecting God's counsel: Lack of confidence in Jesus. The Lord's counsel for you is never evil! Earlier in Jeremiah God said,

Any boundaries the Lord sets are good. You can have the utmost confidence in His care and concern for your life, both now and in the future.

Jeremiah 42:8 Then he called Johanan the son of Kareah, all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,

Jeremiah 42:9 and said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before Him:

Jeremiah 42:10 'If you will still remain in this land, then I will build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up. For I relent concerning the disaster that I have brought upon you.

Jeremiah 42:11 'Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not be afraid of him,' says the LORD, 'for I am with you, to save you and deliver you from his hand.

Jeremiah 42:12 'And I will show you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and cause you to return to your own land.'

Jeremiah 42:13 "But if you say, 'We will not dwell in this land,' disobeying the voice of the LORD your God,

Jeremiah 42:14 "saying, 'No, but we will go to the land of Egypt where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor be hungry for bread, and there we will dwell';

God wanted His people to be content in the land as a testimony of His mercy towards them. His mercy towards them would then be an example to the Babylonians. They weren't content to remain in the land; they wanted to better themselves in Egypt.

This is another habit that leads your heart into the hypocrisy of rejecting God's counsel: Lack of contentment with Jesus. You don't always want to be God's example of contentment, do you? Yet God wants you to learn to be content in all circumstances - whether you are abased or abounding.

Jeremiah 42:16 'then it shall be that the sword which you feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; the famine of which you were afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there you shall die.

Jeremiah 42:17 'So shall it be with all the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to dwell there. They shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. And none of them shall remain or escape from the disaster that I will bring upon them.'

Jeremiah 42:18 "For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'As My anger and My fury have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will My fury be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And you shall be an oath, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.'

Jeremiah 42:19 "The LORD has said concerning you, O remnant of Judah, 'Do not go to Egypt!' Know certainly that I have admonished you this day.

Jeremiah 42:20 "For you were hypocrites in your hearts when you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, 'Pray for us to the LORD our God, and according to all that the LORD your God says, so declare to us and we will do it.'

Jeremiah 42:21 "And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, or anything which He has sent you by me.

Jeremiah 42:22 "Now therefore, know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to dwell."

They had determined to obey God only if His will agreed with their desires. This is another habit that leads your heart into the hypocrisy of rejecting God's counsel: Living carnally, for your own desires...

Jeremiah 43:2 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 43:3 "But Baruch the son of Neriah has set you against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death or carry us away captive to Babylon."

It is often true of those who reject God's counsel that they justify their decision by blaming the messenger...

Let's jump ahead for a moment and take a look at life in Egypt, in chapter forty-four:

Jeremiah 44:2 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'You have seen all the calamity that I have brought on Jerusalem and on all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are a desolation, and no one dwells in them,

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 whom they did not know, they nor you nor your fathers.

Jeremiah 44:4 'However I have sent to you all My servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, "Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate!"

Jeremiah 44:5 'But they did not listen or incline their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods.

Jeremiah 44:6 'So My fury and My anger were poured out and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as it is this day.'

God pointed out that they had seen others before them dealt with in discipline, yet they themselves committed the same sins. This is another habit that leads your heart into the hypocrisy of rejecting God's counsel: The lack of comparison. You think yourself unique, a special case, different than others you have seen God deal with...

Jeremiah 44:8 'in that you provoke Me to wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have gone to dwell, that you may cut yourselves off and be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?

Jeremiah 44:9 'Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, the wickedness of the kings of Judah, the wickedness of their wives, your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

Jeremiah 44:10 'They have not been humbled, to this day, nor have they feared; they have not walked in My law or in My statutes that I set before you and your fathers.'

Jeremiah 44:11 "Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'Behold, I will set My face against you for catastrophe and for cutting off all Judah.

Jeremiah 44:12 'And I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to dwell there, and they shall all be consumed and fall in the land of Egypt. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine. They shall die, from the least to the greatest, by the sword and by famine; and they shall be an oath, an astonishment, a curse and a reproach!

Jeremiah 44:13 'For I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence,

Jeremiah 44:14 'so that none of the remnant of Judah who have gone into the land of Egypt to dwell there shall escape or survive, lest they return to the land of Judah, to which they desire to return and dwell. For none shall return except those who escape.'"

For centuries the Jews were prone to adopt the pagan culture around them, and this they did again in Egypt. This is another habit that leads your heart into the hypocrisy of rejecting God's counsel: The lack of consecration.

Jeremiah 44:16 "As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you!

Jeremiah 44:17 "But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to 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 we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble.

Jeremiah 44:18 "But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine."

Jeremiah 44:19 The women also said, "And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes for her, to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands' permission?"

Heaven has no queen. Today Mary is regarded by millions as the queen of heaven. She is not the queen of heaven, and to call her that is idolatry of the worst possible kind.

The Jews temporarily prospered in Egypt. They saw their prosperity as evidence that they had chosen the right counsel after all.

This is another habit that leads your heart into the hypocrisy of rejecting God's counsel: Looking at circumstances. Often your circumstances do seem to improve when you go against God's will and Word... But it is only temporary, and it is only temporal.

Jeremiah 44:21 "The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the LORD remember them, and did it not come into His mind?

Jeremiah 44:22 "So the LORD could no longer bear it, because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you committed. Therefore your land is a desolation, an astonishment, a curse, and without an inhabitant, as it is this day.

Jeremiah 44:23 "Because you have burned incense and because you have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD or walked in His law, in His statutes or in His testimonies, therefore this calamity has happened to you, as at this day."

Jeremiah 44:24 Moreover Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women, "Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt!

Jeremiah 44:25 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: 'You and your wives have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands, saying, "We will surely keep our vows that we have made, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her." You will surely keep your vows and perform your vows!'

Jeremiah 44:26 "Therefore hear the word of the LORD, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: 'Behold, I have sworn by My great name,' says the LORD, 'that My name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, "The Lord GOD lives."

Jeremiah 44:27 'Behold, I will watch over them for adversity and not for good. And all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end to them.

Jeremiah 44:28 'Yet a small number who escape the sword shall return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah; and all the remnant of Judah, who have gone to the land of Egypt to dwell there, shall know whose words will stand, Mine or theirs.

Jeremiah 44:29 'And this shall be a sign to you,' says the LORD, 'that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that My words will surely stand against you for adversity.'

Jeremiah 44:30 "Thus says the LORD: 'Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those who seek his life, as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy who sought his life.'"

Gals, I'm sorry to have to say it, but the women were causing problems! The husbands were held accountable, but it was the wives who were the driving force behind the worship of the queen of heaven. This is another habit that leads your heart into the hypocrisy of rejecting God's counsel: Lack of compliance with God's design and order, especially for the family and the roles of husband and wife.

We have touched upon some of the habits that lead your heart into the hypocrisy of rejecting God's counsel. Now we want to look at,

#2 The Habits That Lead Your Heart Into The

Happiness Of Receiving God's Counsel

The Jews were like counselees who reject God's counsel. In chapter forty-five you encounter a counselee who receives God's counsel:

Jeremiah 45:2 "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch:

Baruch was Jeremiah's secretary. These verses are out of chronological order, but they are in logical order. As you read them, you see Baruch in what we would call a spiritual depression, needing God's counsel:

In God's answer to the heart cry of Baruch are three habits that lead your heart into the happiness of receiving God's counsel: Searching, sovereignty, and surrender.

Let God search your heart

Look at verse three again:

God knows the heart of every man, of every woman, of every child. Yet David in the Psalms writes,

God searches your heart - but you must permit Him to give you the results of His search! You can easily spot a person who has given God permission to reveal their heart. They are gracious, merciful, and forgiving; they are humble; they are ready to extend to others what God has extended to them.

Let God be sovereign

That's a funny phrase - Let God be sovereign. If He is sovereign, He is whether you let Him or not, whether you like it or not.

God is sovereign... But you don't always let Him be sovereign in this sense: You fail to recognize His sovereignty over all the circumstances of your life.

God said to Baruch,

God was and would be sovereign in all He had said He would do. Baruch had only to recognize God's sovereignty.

You have only to recognize God's sovereignty to receive His counsel!

Live in surrender

This reminds you of Jesus words,

Baruch was to simply surrender to God's will and ways. In doing so he would be spiritually satisfied.

Surrender yourself to the will and ways of God. You, too, will experience spiritual satisfaction. In losing your life you will find it.

Conclusion

There is never anything wrong with God's counsel! It is the habits of your heart that dictate whether you will receive or reject God's counsel.

Let God search you, for He already has; let God be sovereign, for He already is; then live in surrender to His will and His ways.