Year 2, Week 16, Day 1 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 16, Day 1

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Jeremiah 44-46.

Today’s reading completes the fourth segment of the Book of Jeremiah and begins the fifth segment. The fourth segment (chapters 34-45) corresponds to the second segment (chapters 21-29) in that each segment contains messages and incidents that are historically oriented with dates and other historical markers, while the fifth segment (chapters 46-51) corresponds to the first segment (chapters 2-20) in that they are collections of judgments against Judah (in the case of the first segment), but also judgments against the nations (in the case of the fifth segment). Jeremiah 44 tells of the final warnings by Jeremiah to those Israelites who defied the LORD and fled to Egypt: "I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, so that none of the remnant of Judah who have come to live in the land of Egypt shall escape or survive or return to the land of Judah” (Jeremiah 44:13-14). Jeremiah 45 briefly records a word of encouragement to Baruch: “And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not, for behold, I am bringing disaster upon all flesh, declares the LORD. But I will give you your life as a prize of war in all places to which you may go” (Jeremiah 45:5). Jeremiah 46 is a word of judgment against Egypt: “Behold, I am bringing punishment upon Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh and Egypt and her gods and her kings, upon Pharaoh and those who trust in him. I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their life, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his officers” (Jeremiah 46:25-26).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading is the hardened defiance that the Israelites who fled to Egypt voiced to Jeremiah: “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). The Israelites spoke clearly—they are not listening to the LORD. Of course their confession is only a verbal confession of what had been the operational status of their hearts for some time: “Why do you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, making offerings to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to live, so that you may be cut off and become a curse and a taunt among all the nations of the earth? Have you forgotten the evil of your fathers, the evil of the kings of Judah, the evil of their wives, your own evil, and the evil of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? They have not humbled themselves even to this day, nor have they feared, nor walked in my law and my statutes that I set before you and before your fathers” (Jeremiah 44:8-10). They had stopped listening to the LORD a long time ago as their hearts were bent toward the worship of idols. A lack of humility before the LORD forged a resistance to hear.

The Israelites had refused to trust, worship, and obey the LORD, but they had not altogether stopped trusting, worshipping, and obeying. They simply switched whom they would trust, worshipped, and obeyed: “But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster” (Jeremiah 44:17). Their deep devotion to their false gods was rooted in the conviction that they were better off in the hands of their idols. In fact, their problems increased when they stopped their devotion to the false gods: “But since we left off making offerings 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 44:18). If only—so they say—they had ignored Jeremiah’s exhortation to worship the LORD and not idols, no troubles would have befallen them. But their interpretation of what was unfolding was way off. Sinful idolatry distorts the mind’s ability to understand reality: “you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart” (Ephesians 4:17b-18).

Jeremiah refutes their twisted view of what was behind their troubles. The difficulties that they had and were at the present experiencing was not because they let their false gods down, but because they offended the One True God: “The LORD could no longer bear your evil deeds and the abominations that you committed. Therefore your land has become a desolation and a waste and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day. It is because you made offerings and because you sinned against the LORD and did not obey the voice of the LORD or walk in his law and in his statutes and in his testimonies that this disaster has happened to you, as at this day” (Jeremiah 44:22-23). Jeremiah confronts them with the dire consequences of their continued devotion to their idols: “Therefore hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt…This shall be the sign to you, declares the LORD, that I will punish you in this place, in order that you may know that my words will surely stand against you for harm: 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, who was his enemy and sought his life” (Jeremiah 44:26,29-30). Their decision to flee to Egypt will not keep them safe, for their false gods would not protect them from the judgment of the LORD, who is about to dispatch Babylonians to Egypt just as sure as He did to Judah.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe