Egyptian idolatry and the Jewish people (Jeremiah 44 A)

  Truth and Consequences: 

A study in the prophecy of Jeremiah

Chapter 44a

 

 

Lesson Forty-three: Egyptian idolatry 

 

INTRODUCTION

 How often did you actually hear the cry of the upset teacher or parent in your life, “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you 100 times, …”? Was it to clean up after yourself or to put the homework in your backpack or to turn in the assignment into the yellow folder on her desk or… Sometimes we simply forgot, to be fair, due to increased other responsibilities or other concerns rising to the top of our limited thinking. But the teacher or parent is evidencing what Jeremiah, our weeping prophet, must have been thinking in this final warning and prophecy to the Jewish people after 40 years of proclamation. And we have recorded in his and Baruch’s writings, dozens of such warnings, so maybe he had told them 100 times. 

What does someone think who in exasperation declares this “If I’ve told you once…”? I imagine, something like “I really want you to do well. I really want you to heed my warnings. I really want the best for you.” To me, this is not a matter of anger, so much as a matter of desire, a longing for betterness and a hope for a future. When you consider not brushing your teeth tonight, maybe this hope will be realized. When you keep your homework assignment in your locker instead of turning it into the proper location on the teacher’s desk, maybe you will suddenly realize what you didn’t make happen and you will quickly make your way to the locker, open it, find the assignment, and submit it to the authority. 

This is the feeling I’m getting when reading chapter 44 of Jeremiah.

 

Let’s dig in and see what this final pronouncement has to say to us as 21^st Century people. 

Verse 1: this ‘word’ is for “all the Jews” now living in Egypt. Of course, not all the Jews were there. Some remained near Jerusalem and were tending flocks and lands. They were under the scrutiny of people like Nebuzaradan, and perhaps their activity was providing for the occupiers of the land of Judah. Other Jews were already in Babylon, the dreaded enemies of the Jewish people in 586 BCE, who had either been taken captive at the fall of the city and the destruction of the Temple in that year, or the Jewish people who had taken Jeremiah’s advice and surrendered to the Babylonian invaders years before and were making the best of it, living in captivity in Babylon. 

Jeremiah’s word in chapter 44 is not written to those on home soil nor to those held captive in Babylon, but rather to the Egyptian visitors. The warnings of chapters 42 and 43 went unheeded, and the remnant that sought their own way, who sought to save themselves from sure destruction, escaped Judah and travelled south into the land of Egypt. Not a good place for Jews then, and with the memory of the Exodus 900 years earlier, not a good place back then as well. 

Jeremiah lists the cities where he preached, so I’m guessing he travelled a fair bit. Remember, he was under house arrest, by his own people, taken captive to travel to Egypt. Did he actually get to Memphis and the land of Pathros? We’re not sure, but if not, they would have likely had representatives where Jeremiah was speaking, so he could give them godly advice about their future. 

The northeastern Egyptian villages of Tahpanhes and MIgdol, then travelling south to Memphis, the historic capital of Egypt since about 3000 BCE, and then down to the southern sprawl of the land of Pathros. Remember, Upper Egypt is south and Lower Egypt is north and contains the delta of the Nile and famous cities like Alexandria and Rosetta. 

Verse 2, Jeremiah invokes the Lord using two different appellations. First he is the Lord of Hosts. That’s a military term. Hosts (Ts’vaot) means armies.  Speaking of God in this way, reminding the people who are in trauma, in fear, having abandoned their homeland, and who think that God doesn’t see or care, this is Jeremiah’s chutzpah. It’s as if he’s saying, “You thought God’s arm was too short that it couldn’t save you, and thus you sought to save yourself. But God is the general over all the armies of heaven, and you didn’t trust him.” 

Remember, earlier warnings were dismissed by Yochanan and all the commanders of the forces that were with him (42.7ff). God and Jeremiah are saying, “I’ve told you 100 times…”

The 2^nd appellation in verse 2 is “The God of Israel.” For those who are new to our study today, Judah, that is the southern 2 tribes of the divided land, has been Jeremiah’s focus for 4 decades. Why? Because Israel, that is, the northern 10 tribes, was taken into captivity 150 years earlier in 722 BCE, taken by Assyrian forces and then slowly those tribes have trickled back into what we call Samaria and other northern parts of today’s Israel with intermarriage and syncretistic religion. There really was no Israel at that time, at least not until some further repair happens in the Land after the Babylonian exile terminates about 70 years hence.

Thus when Jeremiah tells the Judah remnant that the Lord is the God of Israel, he’s highlighting God’s own faithfulness, and I’m reminded of one of Paul’s lines to his mate and fellow apostle Timothy, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” (2 Tim. 2.13)

We have often lacked the very thing that would keep us in God’s presence, in His care, in His love and that is simply ‘faith.’ So you would think that after a certain amount of time and a certain number of warnings that the Almighty would say, “Enough. I’ve had enough of you people. I’m going to reboot my hard drive. I’m going to wipe the disk of you people and I’m going to start over with others. Maybe the next team will be faithful.” Maybe you have thought that God would be done with you; I certainly have thought that at times. 

But when you think in those terms, you are making you the senior partner of the relationship. You are deciding that your destiny and your relationship with God is based on your performance and your beliefs and your actions and you. That’s exactly NOT what God is saying by using Jeremiah to speak to the escapees in Egypt. He’s saying, “I’m faithful. And I’m the God is Israel, even.” Or as the apostle wrote to the Thessalonians, “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.” (1 Thes. 5.24)

Our relationship with God is based on God, and God’s call, not on our performance. Dear friends, if that doesn’t give you goose bumps or at least a sense of relief, then I’m not a very good communicator. 

Verse 2 continues with the indictment. 

You have seen. All of you. Or in the American south, all y’all have seen. No one can say they didn’t know. You have been eyewitnesses of the ‘calamity’ (Hebrew: ra’ah, that is wickedness or bad stuff) that I HAVE BROUGHT on the cities of Judah and on Jeruslalem. Whoa! Wait a minute. Who is responsible for the fall of Jerusalem? God takes the credit! That cannot be. He told us to build and to dwell and to make the land of milk and honey ours, and, oh, um, to make it his, too. Now he says he pushed us out and caused the desolation which to this day continues to stand in both Older and Newer Testaments as a line in the sand, as a warning, as an historical marker of the Worst Day Ever for the Jewish people. 

Exile, which began for the people of God back in the Garden of Eden, will continue to be the warning and the destiny of all who know God but refuse to live as His people UNTIL Yeshua’s 2^nd coming to make all things right on this earth. 

Note, in God’s commentary that he says “Behold!” meaning “Don’t miss this.” God is getting serious with us at this point. He even exaggerates a bit with the “no one lives there” even though we know some still remain both of the Jewish people and the invaders from Babylon. 

Verse 3 tells us the cause of this calamity. God owns the action of exile, but what is the cause? It’s clear as crystal. Burning incense to foreign gods, foreign in their activity and foreign because no one of us, neither you, they, nor your fathers. There is no historical connection with the Egyptian gods or the foreign gods to whom your people were making offerings in the shadow of the Holy Temple. How ridiculous! With true religion right in front of them, they still chose to commit idolatry. Glaring hypocrisy. Glaring and “in your face” resistance to the plans and the worship of the Living God. God calls it “wickedness” (It’s the same Hebrew word “ra’ah”). I hear the echoes of Romans chapter 1, don’t you? There the apostle Paul said this, with the same heartbreak as Jeremiah, 

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth ¹in unrighteousness, ¹⁹ because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. ²¹ For even though they knew God, they did not ¹honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. ²² Professing to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and ¹crawling creatures. (Romans 1.18-23)

 

What a waste! Keep reading later today in Romans 1 and see the result of their idolatry, and that God had to turn them over to more and more sin and lawlessness. Why? Because they exchanged the glory of God for an image. That’s idolatry. That’s the exact opposite of the First Commandment. And the 2^nd and the 3^rd.  God is #1 and he will not be allowing his people to substitute false or fake gods in his place. That’s what love does. It intervenes. Judgment is God’s penultimate activity to bring us to love. 

Verse 4. God says through Jeremiah that he sent warning after warning after warning through the prophets. 

You know the story that is being told often in our days during the heights of floods the last couple of years, say near Lismore. A man is approached by the SES as the rains are coming, but he refuses the help of the SES. He says, “God will save me.” After several rescue attempts in the face of approaching floodwaters, each time the man keeps telling the would-be rescuers that God will save him. After turning down the last, he drowns in the flood. After his death, the man meets God and asks why God did not intervene. God responds that he sent all the would-be rescuers to the man's aid on the expectation he would accept that help.

Imagine the frustration of God who sent the prophets, who had the people living in the shadow of the worship centre called The Temple, and yet, they still chose fake gods. 

The same burning of incense to fake gods caused the burning anger of God (verse 6) to destroy Jerusalem. Now don’t get me wrong. The people who actually levelled Jerusalem will get theirs in subsequent chapters. 

Verse 7, a new declaration from heaven. Now your sins are yours, there in Egypt, so we don’t really know how long they have been in the territories of the south, but a significant time. Verses 2-6 related to the Judah people’s time in Judah; now the proclamation is against their activities in the land of Egypt. Verse 9, have you forgotten? 

Forgot what? The sins of five teams, your parents, the kings of Judah, the wives of the kings, your own, your own wives. This is comprehensive evil. No one is doing right; nobody has withdrawn from the evil and as a result, God will bring evil on us in Egypt. How could we have repaired this?

Verse 10: be contrite (duk’oo ), fear God, walk in his ways. We did none of those three. And that’s the order of things, too. You can’t walk in his ways without fearing him, and you cannot fear him without being in a humble mode. 

Verse 11-14, the pronouncement of judgment. The verdict is in. And the sentencing is made by the judge. Guilty and guilty. The noun in verse 11 “for woe” is the Hebrew for “evil, again ra’ah” It’s the cut off. None of you escapees from Judah now living in Egypt are going to survive. You will fall by the verse 13 “sword, pestilence and famine.” Natural and unnatural problems will cause us all to die. None will survive, except (verse 14) maybe a few. 

Think about a man named Apollos whom we meet in Acts chapter 18. He was a Jew born in Alexandria several hundred years later than Jeremiah’s prediction. Either some Jews moved to Egypt again under the Ptolemys or running away from Rome or his family might have been one of those who would survive the comprehensive death order from heaven in Jeremiah 44. 

Verse 15 begins the final decree by the people of Judah now living in Egypt. Your honor, may the defendant be able to speak one last time? Yes, the judge says. And this is when you want the Jewish people to line up with Jeremiah’s considered prophecy and to admit, to be contrite, to say some Yom Kippur prayers and admit error, and sin, and ra’ah. But what do we hear?

We hear boasting and confession of how the religion worked back in the day. We had plenty of food and drink. We not only survived; we succeeded. Listen to their admission.

“As for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we are not going to listen to you! But rather we will certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths, by burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, just as we ourselves, our forefathers, our kings and our princes did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then we had plenty of ³food and were well off and saw no misfortune.” (.16-17)

Not only are they are slightly resistant. They are completely defiant and brazen. Think of the adulteress that Agur mentions in Proverbs chapter 30… “This is the way of an adulterous woman: she eats and wipes her mouth, and says, “I have done no wrong.”” (.20)

I’ve done nothing wrong. That’s when your conscience is seared. That’s when all hope for repair is gone. 

Verse 17 is full of misinformation and misapplication of history. When were the Jewish people ‘well off?’ And what was the cause? These escapees are attributing their success to idolatry and the queen of heaven, likely Isis of Egypt or even the Ishtar cults of Mesopotamia. Some today cite Lotto or SportsBet; others their ‘lucky stars’ or such. But God is jealous and wants us to get this right. Our good fortune is not based on luck or happenings, but rather to His sovereignty. 

Verse 18 highlights the blame, the accusation by the Egyptian Jews, on Jeremiah. He’s the cause of our troubles. Or maybe Josiah’s renewals some decades earlier, “we stopped burning…” was taking place in those days. 

Even the women join in the chorus in verse 19 and say they had it better back then. We had it made. 

But Jeremiah holds firm to the end. We will pick this up next week as we cover 44b and 45 together. Where he tells them once, even the 1000^th time, “IF I told you once, I’ve told you 100 times, repent, be contrite, fear God, walk in his ways and listen to him.” 

Gerald Keown says, “It is interesting to note that Jer 29:18–19 presents almost exactly the same picture of Yahweh’s judgment, but in a context that nevertheless holds out hope for the future. The same can be said for Jer 32:29–35, with the added dimension in Jer 32:29 of virtually the same sins against Yahweh as those committed by the Jews who fled to Egypt. Jer 32 concludes with a glowing word of hope and promise on the other side of terrible judgment. In striking contrast, no hope at all is offered to the recipients of the judgment oracle of Jer 44. The Egyptian community seems to carry with it a special level of guilt that annuls any such hope.”

To what or to whom do you attribute thanks when things go your way? To what or to whom do you cling when things are not going your way? Who is Lord of your life? Whether you live as an alien in Egypt in 565 BCE or as a foreigner in Sydney in 2022, the message remains the same, who is God in your life? And will you be 1) contrite, 2) fearing God and 3) walk in his ways? Yeshua is God’s answer for all our considerations about God. 

Want to know who God is? Look at Yeshua. Want to know what God thinks of sin, listen to how Yeshua dealt with sin in the lives of those near by.  What does God think of the alleged queen of heaven? See what Yeshua says about all the others who came before him. 

Friends in a moment, Jimmy is going to offer you a prayer to pray to get right with God. Don’t let this moment slip past you. Receive Yeshua today and stay contrite. That’s real hope. That’s real life. No matter the size of your fridge or the amount of goods in your pantry. 

 

CONCLUSION

God is calling each of us to know him and to walk with him, today and throughout our days. Have you received Yeshua as your messiah and Lord? He is risen from the dead! Have you renounced your sin, your idolatry, your forsaking God and given him First Place in your life? If not, please, do so now, just now, as we pray together. Use your own words, if you want, but yield, surrender, to the Lord of life. 

 

PRAYER

Then please write us (admin@jewsforjesus.org.au) to tell us what you have just done, and we will send you literature and encourage you. You are part of our family; we love and appreciate you. And we want you to enjoy the presence of the Lord who calls, who knows, who blesses and builds us up. 

We hope to see you again next week as we study chapter 45. Until then, Shabbat shalom!

 

>> Nebu (Nabu) is one of the more important minor deities of the Babylonian–Assyrian pantheon. The god Nebo (Akkadian Nabû, "the called") appears in the Code of Hammurabi in the early 2nd millennium b.c. as son of the national god Marduk and tutelary deity of the city Borsippa (to the south of the city of Babylon) and of its temple Ezida. In later documents he is characterized as the divine scribe, writer, and bearer of the "tablets of destiny" that enshrine the decrees of the gods. In accordance with this role, he was considered patron of the scribal art and of human learning.

>> 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barnes, Albert, Commentary on the Old Testament. (Published by many, from 1880 on)

Henry, Matthew, Commentary.

Keown, Gerald, Scalise, Pamela, Smothers, Thomas, Word Biblical Commentary. Book of Jeremiah (Part 2).  1995. 

McConnville, Gordon, Jeremiah, New Bible Commentary. 

Wright, Christopher, The Message of Jeremiah, The Bible Speaks Today. Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2014.

 

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ACTUAL TEXT

 Conquest of Egypt Predicted

 

Jer. 44:1   The word that came to Jeremiah for all the Jews living in the land of Egypt, those who were living in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and the land of Pathros, saying, ² “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen all the calamity that I have brought on Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are in ruins and no one lives in them, ³ because of their wickedness which they committed so as to provoke Me to anger by continuing to burn sacrifices and to serve other gods whom they had not known, neither they, you, nor your fathers. ⁴ ‘Yet I sent you all My servants the prophets, again and again, saying, “Oh, do not do this abominable thing which I hate.” ⁵ ‘But they did not listen or incline their ears to turn from their wickedness, so as not to burn sacrifices to other gods. ⁶ ‘Therefore My wrath and My anger were poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, so they have become a ruin and a desolation as it is this day. ⁷ ‘Now then thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, “Why are you doing great harm to yourselves, so as to cut off from you man and woman, child and infant, from among Judah, leaving yourselves without remnant, ⁸ provoking Me to anger with the works of your hands, burning sacrifices to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you are entering to reside, so that you might be cut off and become a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? ⁹ “Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and 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? ¹⁰ “But they have not become contrite even to this day, nor have they feared nor walked in My law or My statutes, which I have set before you and before your fathers.”’

 

Jer. 44:11   “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am going to set My face against you for woe, even to cut off all Judah. ¹² ‘And I will take away the remnant of Judah who have set their mind on entering the land of Egypt to reside there, and they will all meet their end in the land of Egypt; they will fall by the sword and meet their end by famine. Both small and great will die by the sword and famine; and they will become a curse, an object of horror, an imprecation and a reproach. ¹³ ‘And I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine and with pestilence. ¹⁴ ‘So there will be no refugees or survivors for the remnant of Judah who have entered the land of Egypt to reside there and then to return to the land of Judah, to which they are longing to return and live; for none will return except a few refugees.’”

 

Jer. 44:15   Then all the men who were aware that their wives were burning sacrifices to other gods, along with all the women who were standing by, as a large assembly, including all the people who were living in Pathros in the land of Egypt, responded to Jeremiah, saying, ¹⁶ “As for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we are not going to listen to you! ¹⁷ “But rather we will certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths, ¹by burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, just as we ourselves, our forefathers, our kings and our princes did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then we had plenty of food and were well off and saw no misfortune. ¹⁸ “But since we stopped burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have met our end by the sword and by famine.” ¹⁹ “And,” said the women, “when we were burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and were pouring out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands that we made for her sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”

 

 

Fellow Jews: they keep coming after us

 The reality is that we are ever the scourge of the world. Kanye West let his hair down last week against the Jews, the ADL (anti-Defamation League) reported this 3 days ago:

"Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, has recently used his media presence and social influence to espouse antisemitic tropes about Jewish intimidation, power and control. 

On October 6, Ye joined Fox News’ Tucker Carlson after his decision to wear a “White Lives Matter” shirt at Paris Fashion Week garnered heightened media attention. During the interview, some of which was not aired on Fox that evening, Ye made a series of offensive and conspiratorial claims about Jewish people and Jewish identity. Ye claimed that Jews are actually Black people, saying that when he refers to Jews he means “the 12 lost tribes of Judah, the blood of Christ, who the people known as the race Black really are [sic],” and posited that Planned Parenthood was the product of a collaboration between the KKK and Margaret Sanger “to control the Jew [i.e. Black] population.” He also said that it is impossible for him to be fairly described as antisemitic because as a Black person he is actually a Jew.

Ye also told Carlson that he believed Jared Kushner only arranged peace agreements between Arab nations and Israel “to make money.” At another point, Ye stated that he wished his children had learned about Hannukah instead of “a complicated Kwanzaa,” because Hannukah would at least “come with some financial engineering.”

The next day, Ye shared screenshots of text messages on Instagram insinuating that Jews are using their purported control over his peers in the music industry to intimidate him and defiantly said that “no one can threaten or influence me.” The post has since been deleted.

Ye also said that Jewish people “toyed with” him and that they “tried to blackball anyone who opposes” their “agenda.” This tweet, in which Ye ominously referred to going ‘death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” raising the spectre of violence, was later removed by Twitter."

There is plenty to cry about and to decry. There is much the rest of the world should announce as wrong, but at this point, few non-Jews are joining the multitude of Jewish people who are notifying the goings-ons. 

What about the Labor party in Australia who announced on Monday that they would follow up on their campaign promise to reverse the commitment of the Morrison government to stand with Israel and its capital in Jerusalem? A few years ago then leader Bill Shorten made that a significant statement.

Back in 2019, the Times of Israel reported, https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-australia-heads-to-polls-labor-vows-to-reverse-jerusalem-recognition/ and Monday under new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese Labor followed through. As a result there is no official statement currently on the Australian websites indicating a previous commitment to recognize the capital to be in Jerusalem. 

Does that change anything? It is often shown that an anti-Israel view links with an anti-Semitic one. That's not always the case, but it is often enough that mention seems appropriate. 

The capital of Israel is Jerusalem. When the world will set up there, and when the world's nations will recognize that, this will be significant. Then Zechariah chapter 13 will come into view and we are that much closer to the end of time. 

Rocks tell a story (Jeremiah 43)

  Truth and Consequences: 

A study in the prophecy of Jeremiah

Chapter 43

By Bob Mendelsohn

Given 14 October 2022

 

Lesson Forty two: Rocks tell a story

 

INTRODUCTION

  Rocks leave lasting memories. You might remember that when the Jewish people entered the promise land some 900 years before this episode of Jeremiah 43, that at the place named Gilgal, we made stones into a monument. That’s recorded in Joshua chapter 4. The 12 stones, no doubt, one for each tribe, was a perpetual reminder of several things. One that God had preserved us in the wilderness. Two, that the tribes, albeit scattered already with 2 and a half across the Jordan, were still one people and thus one monument would suffice to re-mind us of one another. Three, Joshua also put 12 stones in the middle of the Jordan River at the place where the ark and the priests and the people crossed, as a reminder to listen to God’s voice and trust him, even when the going gets tough. 

I was reminded of this story, and the subsequent activities at Gilgal, when I read the story of Jeremiah 43 and the placing of stones in the provincial territorial palace of the Pharaoh of Egypt in the 6^th century BCE, and in the days of Jeremiah. Stones have their place, and we are well informed by them, and throughout biblical history, if we are wise. 

Look, you don’t have to explain to indigenous Australians about Uluru, what used to be titled Ayers Rock, and the historic and monumental reality it represents. With all this conversation about rocks, let’s dig in.

We’ll talk more about rocks in a little while, for now, let’s jump into the passage, and see what God has to say to us, as 21^st century people here on this Zoom call.

There are two sections in our study today. First the comprehensive rejection of the Word of God uttered by the weeping prophet, and secondly, the prediction of the failure of the escapees in being able to hide from future conquest. 

First, the rejection. Verses 1-7

Verse one. WE saw that Jeremiah had waited 10 days, after the people who had gathered in Mizpah, from nearby and neighbouring territories, the stragglers, the remnant, the rejects at times, they had come to Jeremiah and asked for some advice. They wanted to know if they continued in their plan to move to Egypt in the south, if that plan would be a safe haven. They asked and they promised that whatever God said to Jeremiah, they would obey. (42.3) 

Remember, Jeremiah had been issuing clear directions to the Jewish people over the 40 years of his public ministry. He had been embroiled in controversy, had been publicly whipped and jailed, he had been mocked and ill-treated with apparent regularity, and yet, the stragglers in Mizpah wanted his advice. Excellent, you think, finally, some people say they have already signed on the dotted line, and all that has to happen is that Jeremiah will finalize the contract and tell them what’s what. 

Last week, he made it clear in chapter 42. After a 10-day cooling off period, he made his announcements. You have two options. One will succeed; the other will be a failure. If you want success, submit to the Babylonians and wave the white flag. Go nor’east, young men. You will find salvation, eventually. For your grandchildren. After 70 years. 

But if you go the way you are headed, you will all die. Totally, and your return to Egypt, from which we left miraculously 900 years ago, will end failure. 

This is not guesswork on my part. You should “clearly understand”

יָדֹ֨עַ֙ תֵּֽדְע֔וּ

The double use of the verb to know, yada, is to emphasize the clarity and the requirement of Jeremiah and thus God, to make a good decision. That’s the backdrop to today’s story. 

Verse one, 

“As soon as Jeremiah had finished speaking…” These people were chomping at the bit; they were ready to call it a day. They had already made up their minds, perhaps the first day, or perhaps the 10^th day, but sometime, for sure, during their waiting period, they had determined that they were exiting Mizpah and headed to Egypt. 

What a waste, you are thinking. Why bother Jeremiah? Why bother God? Why bother yourself in the game of ask/ listen/ decide? I’m reminded of the story at the arrest of Yeshua in the Garden of Gatshemen, on the night of Passover. 

All four Gospels record this episode.  Only John tells us who was responsible.  The boys were with Yeshua and the enemies of the Jews, the Roman soldiers, approached. They wanted to arrest Yeshua and the disciples wanted to prevent that from happening. After all, if the Messiah was going to put the Jews back in their proper place of self-rule and living under the Commands of Torah and the Almighty, then surely the Messiah would not have to succumb to such mockery and improper reception. He would be given honour and dignity, not arrest. The Lukan account includes a question that was asked, 

“When those who were around Him saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?”(Luke 22.49) Did they await the answer?

The Bible tells us in John, 

“Simon Peter then, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear; and the slave’s name was Malchus. ¹¹ So Jesus said to Peter, “Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?” (John 18.10)

Peter took matters into his own hands and didn’t wait for the Lord’s answer. He with the sword defended Messiah. That’s what I remembered when reading this episode from Jeremiah. The people at Mizpah asked the question, but didn’t await the answer, not honestly. They jumped to the geographic conclusion that safety would be in separation from Babylon, so off they were going. 

Verse two, they yell the word “SHEKER” or “LIE”. The trope mark under this word in the Y’siv. It’s a standalone musical notation that almost shrieks in the recitation of the reading. I hear a chorus in an opera with considerable volume shouting “LIAR” and pointing in marked unison. That’s how emphatic this word is in the Hebrew text. 

They didn’t say, “Thanks for your words, but we have decided otherwise after lengthy prayer and consideration.” They didn’t say, “We took a vote and I’m sorry to say you came in 2^nd in the balloting.” What they said, what they shouted, indicated hostility to the one from whom they had sought advice and godly counsel. What a waste! I’ve had many a person seek such advice from me, and almost before I was finished speaking they were already onto the next agenda item and had summarily dismissed my words. What a waste of my time, of their time, and honestly, of God’s time. 

What adjective does God use to describe these folks? Zeidim, arrogant. Yikes, I hope God never uses this word to describe me, or you, or any of our children or children’s children. Humility is the answer; pride and arrogance, they lead to many a fall.

Verse two, they say God didn’t tell us not to go to Egypt. They actually shift the blame to Baruch, the scribe of Jeremiah’s words, who INCITED Jeremiah to lead us astray. To make us stay in Judah’s territory. Think about it, historically, why would be ever go back to our place of slavery, and abandon the home, the promised land? These folks were hoping for military and as we will see next week, idolatrous intervention by the gods of Egypt, to secure safety and the end of the famine in which they were living. Necessity is the mother of invention, but this was wrong invention. They should have obeyed. 

Throughout this book, we have seen truth spoken and consequences for disregarding, for disobeying, for denying the truths of the prophets or of God himself. Shame on us, in our days, if we do the same.

Verse five, the leadership led the people, who had returned from exile, into Mizpah, for protection and security and help, and travelled, taking Baruch and Jeremiah with them. Jeremiah had been allowed freedom by Nebuchadnezzar and now he was captured by his own people. Double sadness.

From verse 8 and following we have (I think) the final word picture that Jeremiah will use to convey the truths of God to his people. It’s the rocks (large stones it says) that Jeremiah is to take in hand, and place in the ground floor of the palace of the Pharaoh. He does this and he does this in front of some men with whom he is walking. 

Jeremiah says that when Nebuchadnezzar comes, he will build his kingdom over this spot, and all your hopes and random false worship and useless praying, will be for naught. Your hiding place will be discovered and you will die. End of story. Full stop. 

Neb will slay those who are to be slain by the sword, others will be taken captive, and others will simply die, in some way. This is comprehensive loss and a full-scale expression of Jeremiah’s conclusion. 

Keown says of the verse 12 passage about the shepherd, 

“The latter portion of v 12 describes Nebuchadrezzar engaged in a “delousing” of Egypt, with a probable reference to the Judean exiles. The shepherd is pictured as “picking clean” his cloak, or removing the vermin that would infest it. Are the Judean refugees the “vermin” that are to be removed?”

Yikes, that’s a wicked depiction of our people. And a direct reminder of the plagues in Egypt a millennium before. 

Friends, what will you do with God’s word in your life? What will you do when God tells you something? 

Later today, two of our faithful are being baptised here in Sydney’s north. I’m so proud of them for hearing God’s word and believing it, and now acting on it today.  

That’s what God wants of each of us, about our faith in Yeshua, about how he wants us to behave, about how he wants us to wait for his word and then be faithful. You get it. 

What will you do today with Jesus?

 

 

CONCLUSION

God is calling each of us to know him and to walk with him, today and throughout our days. Have you received Yeshua as your messiah and Lord? He is risen from the dead! Have you renounced your sin, your idolatry, your forsaking God and given him First Place in your life? If not, please, do so now, just now, as we pray together. Use your own words, if you want, but yield, surrender, to the Lord of life. 

 

PRAYER

Then please write us (admin@jewsforjesus.org.au) to tell us what you have just done, and we will send you literature and encourage you. You are part of our family; we love and appreciate you. And we want you to enjoy the presence of the Lord who calls, who knows, who blesses and builds us up. 

We hope to see you again next week as we study chapter 44. Until then, Shabbat shalom!

 

>> Nebu (Nabu) is one of the more important minor deities of the Babylonian–Assyrian pantheon. The god Nebo (Akkadian Nabû, "the called") appears in the Code of Hammurabi in the early 2nd millennium b.c. as son of the national god Marduk and tutelary deity of the city Borsippa (to the south of the city of Babylon) and of its temple Ezida. In later documents he is characterized as the divine scribe, writer, and bearer of the "tablets of destiny" that enshrine the decrees of the gods. In accordance with this role, he was considered patron of the scribal art and of human learning.

>> 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barnes, Albert, Commentary on the Old Testament. (Published by many, from 1880 on)

Henry, Matthew, Commentary.

Keown, Gerald, Scalise, Pamela, Smothers, Thomas, Word Biblical Commentary. Book of Jeremiah (Part 2).  1995. 

McConnville, Gordon, Jeremiah, New Bible Commentary. 

Wright, Christopher, The Message of Jeremiah, The Bible Speaks Today. Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2014.

 

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ACTUAL TEXT

In Egypt Jeremiah Warns of Judgment

 

Jer. 43:1   But as soon as Jeremiah, whom the LORD their God had sent, had ^afinished telling all the people all the words of the LORD their God — that is, all these words — ² Azariah the ^ason of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are ^btelling a lie! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You are not to enter Egypt to reside there’; ³ but ^aBaruch the son of Neriah is inciting you against us to give us over into the hand of the Chaldeans, so they will put us to death or exile us to Babylon.” ⁴ So ^aJohanan the son of Kareah and all the ¹commanders of the forces, and all the people, ^bdid not obey the voice of the LORD to ^cstay in the land of Judah. ⁵ But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the ¹commanders of the forces took the ^aentire remnant of Judah who had returned from all the nations to which they had been driven away, in order to reside in the land of Judah — ⁶ the men, the women, the ¹children, the ^aking’s daughters and ^bevery person that Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam ²and grandson of Shaphan, together with ^cJeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah — ⁷ and they entered the land of Egypt (for they did not obey the voice of the LORD) and went in as far as ^aTahpanhes.

 

Jer. 43:8   Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah in ^aTahpanhes, saying, ⁹ “Take some large stones in your ¹hands and hide them in the mortar in the ²brick terrace which is at the entrance of Pharaoh’s ³palace in Tahpanhes, in the sight of ⁴some of the Jews; ¹⁰ and say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I am going to send and get ^aNebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, ^bMy servant, and I am going to set his throne right over these stones that I have hidden; and he will spread his ^ccanopy over them. ¹¹ “He will also come and ^astrike the land of Egypt; those who are meant for death will be given over to death, and those for captivity to captivity, and ^bthose for the sword to the sword. ¹² “And ¹I shall set fire to the temples of the ^agods of Egypt, and he will burn them and take them captive. So he will ^bwrap himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself with his garment, and he will depart from there safely. ¹³ “He will also shatter the obelisks of ²Heliopolis, which is in the land of Egypt; and the temples of the gods of Egypt he will burn with fire.”’”

 

Andrew Thorburn and Essendon and City on a Hill

 A guest editorial by Darren Waters of LCM (Lane Cove and Mowbray) Anglican Church in Sydney: (He wrote this to his congregation, and yet this opinion is excellent and shared by me (Bob))

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

This week, Andrew Thorburn resigned as the CEO of the Essendon Football Club (an Aussie Rules team) after just 24 hours in the job because:

1. He is a Christian
2. He serves as Chair of the board of City on a Hill Church.

In all the furore, Thorburn’s grace and commitment to Christ and his Church has shone through. Please read this to the end to see the implications of this issue for us.

City on a Hill is an Anglican Church in the Diocese of Melbourne. It is as mainstream Anglican as Lane Cove and Mowbray Anglican Church. Prior to his appointment, Andrew Thorburn had not made any public statements about his faith. Nor did he make any statements about his views on marriage, gender, abortion, euthanasia or any other topic that segments of our modern society think differently about to mainstream Christianity. Worryingly, his caution and silence did not protect him.

He was given the choice of either resigning from City on Hill Board or resigning as CEO of the Essendon Football Club and in an apparent surprise move, Mr Thorburn chose his church over his football club. The founder of the Purple Bombers (a LGBTIQ+ group of Essendon supporters) said “Andrew made the correct decision for himself and the football club, but I did not expect him to choose the church.” Unchurched people, generally speaking, don't understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus of Nazareth. As such, there are great opportunities to live out Matthew 5:14 - “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.”

However, the two damning pieces of evidence, ensuring Thorburn’s appointment was untenable, have been widely reported across many media platforms.

Firstly, in 2013, the year before Mr Thorburn joined the Church, a pastor from City on Hill preached a nuanced, Biblically faithful and culturally sensitive sermon on abortion. However, in one line he said “Whereas today we look back at sadness and disgust over concentration camps, future generations will look back with sadness at the legal murder of hundreds of thousands of human beings every day through medicine and in the name of freedom.” 

Secondly, in that same year, City on a Hill published an article titled ‘Surviving Same Sex Attraction as a Christian’.  It advised (wisely and lovingly in my opinion) those who “struggle with same-sex attraction” to “speak to a mature Christian whom you trust, so you can receive the support and accountability you will need in the long term to survive these temptations”.  A 2016 sermon (not preached by Mr Thorburn, but by a pastor) stating “practising homosexuality is a sin, but same-sex attraction is not a sin” was also cited as a reason to smear Mr Thorburn’s character. Please remember, this is Biblical truth, spoken to Christians who do not want to act on their temptations in obedience to God. These words are not spoken to unbelievers who have no desire to follow Christ.

The Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews said of these Biblical views preached to a Christian Community:

“Those views are absolutely appalling. I don’t support those views; that kind of intolerance, that kind of hatred, bigotry is just wrong. All of you know my views on these things. Those sort of attitudes are simply wrong, and to dress that up as anything other than bigotry is just obviously false.”

In contrast, Mr Thorburn's public statement of resignation said:

“Let me be clear - I love all people, and have always promoted and lived an inclusive, diverse, respectful and supportive workplace - where people are welcomed regardless of their culture, religious beliefs, and sexual orientation. I believe my record over a long period of time testifies to this. Despite my own leadership record, within hours of my appointment being announced, the media and leaders of our community had spoken. They made it clear that my Christian faith and my association with a Church are unacceptable in our culture if you wish to hold a leadership position in society.”

The difference between grace and condemnation; between 'lived inclusivity' and 'slogan inclusivity' could not be more stark.

Mr Thorburn is a wealthy, white, 57 year old male who is therefore privileged enough to take cover until this chapter is replaced in the news cycle by rising interest rates. He will, in a few  months, freely apply for other positions in less publicly-sensitive organisations. But what about those without that privilege?

We must pray for one another and especially for those Christians who are not as privileged as Mr Thorburn. But we must also pray for Christian children who will face incredible pressure to conform to the world’s views on these ‘hot topic’ issues. They really are in the frontline and so we need to pray for them.

But let’s not pray presumptively. Instead let’s be proactive and rediscover the importance of regularly meeting together to have our lives transformed by God’s Word, God’s people and God’s Spirit. Let's nuture our children assuring them that God’s ways are best for us (and them), and that God is our loving, merciful and gracious Father.

Can I urge you as strongly as possible to make Sunday your priority (for your children’s sake as well as your own)? After the disruptions of COVID restrictions, we need to rebuild and restrengthen the bonds of our church family. This will only occur if we commit to meeting together, praying together, reading the Bible together and loving one another as the sisters and brothers whom Christ made us to be through his amazing sacrifice on the cross.

Blessings,

Darren