OK.....lots going on here.....Ishmael is from the line of David and thinks he should be in charge instead of a Babylonian governor, so he assasinates Gedaliah.......can't do much without a king and no loyalty to God. The 80 men had come to worship....note that the seventh month was the Feast of the Tabernacles and they were bringing grain offerings. Now keep in mind that Jeremiah has been freed....he elected to stay with people that hated him and didn't want to hear what he had to say, rather than going to Babylon where he would have been a great deal more comfortable. Johanan heard about Ishmaell's crimes (he was already on his way to Egypt to escape the Babylonians) and released the captives that Ishmael had taken..they went on to Egypt together, with the previous captives a bit chicken and afraid of the Babylonians because Ishmael had assasinated the Babylonian minion.
Now the people led by Johanan, ask Jeremiah to pray for them and he does. The word from God is that they should stay in the land and God will care for them. He specifically says not to go to Egypt, or things will be very bad for them. The people don't want to hear it and go to Egypt. God is especially mad because they had asked for prayer, gotten an answer and disobeyed anyway. The remnant didn't trust God to save them and believed more in their idols......oooooo.....this is very bad to mess with God in this way!!!! Jeremiah is forced to move to Egypt. God says that He is to give a sign that He was going to punish: He is going to hand Pharaoh Hophra over to his enemies that seek his life. History record that Pharaoh Hophra is killed by one of his generals, who was then crowned in his place. Think about this logic...they were going back to Egypt...the place that God delivered them from in the Exodus.....God told them never to go back there again.....the people had strayed so far from God that their thinking wasn't even clear. Has this ever happened to you? None of us are immune to this.....going right back into captivity.....
Remember Baruch? He was the scribe that served Jeremiah...He gets bummed out and God says for Baruch to quit his pity party....if he focuses on God rather than his circumstances, he'll be OK.
Look what comes up from the depths of the sea.
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u ho....boy were they told.....:"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."
ReplyDeleteThey may can fool others that they are doing right and have their heart in the right place, but they can't fool God on what is in their heart. Busted!
and we see in Ch. 43 that when they hear what they do not want to hear....they get ugly and mean...
then in ch. 44 they get right sassy...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." I mean, to just flat out say you are not doing what God has said because you do not want to.....how stupid is that !!These people just don't get it and pay attention to all that has happened before when God is not obeyed...
Baruch was faithful, even though he caught a lot of grief by working with jeremiah, but the lord let him know he would be Ok because of his loyalty and faithfulness...45:5But I will give your life to you as a prize in all places wherever you go."
You go, Girl! Excellent commentary!!!!! You'll be doing your own blog before too long!!! I am proud of you!!!!!!!!!!!
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