So, You Want to go Back to Egypt?

Jeremiah 42:1-22 

1 Now all the captains of the forces, Johanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, came near 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), 3 that the LORD your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing we should do."

4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, "I have heard. Indeed, I will pray to the LORD your God according to your words, and it shall be, that whatever the LORD answers you, I will declare it to you. I will keep nothing back from you."

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. 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."

7 And it happened after ten days that the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah. 

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, 9 and said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before Him: 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. 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. 12 And I will show you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and cause you to return to your own land.'

13 "But if you say, 'We will not dwell in this land,' disobeying the voice of the LORD your God, 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'— 15 Then hear now the word of the LORD, O remnant of Judah! Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'If you wholly set your faces to enter Egypt, and go to dwell there, 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. 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.'

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.'

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. 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.' 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. 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."

The remnant of Judah was forbidden to go back to the bondage of Egypt as if to be saved from Babylon, willing to exchange a temporary exile for a permanent enslavement to the sins of idolatry and rejection of God’s sovereign word given through Jeremiah and the prophets before him.  The military leaders first begged the man of God to pray for the few of them who remained for the direction of their live, how to walk and what to do.  Jeremiah took them at their word and prayed for God’s word for them and promised to tell them exactly what he was told.  He would not hold back if it was unpleasant or contrary to their expectations.  The remnant then agreed and called the LORD as the witness to their covenant to do according to his word.  They agreed to please and obey God no matter what, and so sent him to hear and bring His message back, whether it would be pleasing or displeasing to their ears.  Ten days later God spoke the words to Jeremiah; they had to wait a week and a half for the answer!  Prosperity was only guaranteed if they stayed in the land and did not fear Babylon and flee to Egypt where they had escaped bondage by God’s miraculous deliverance, by the way, as an implied reason for the warning.  God would show mercy and move the king of Babylon to let His people go in time (not in four hundred years but in a mere seventy) and return them back to the land they were given after their exodus from Egypt’s bondage before where they presently sat.  The warning was given as an alternative to trust and obedience, however (Jude 1:5).  If they ran from faith in God’s word to seek the protection of Egypt who had previously enslaved them just because of their military might, the sword and famine were reserved for them all.  Running in fear and wanting to ensure their provision and protection from anyone other than their LORD would result in extreme consequences.  None would escape His wrath if they rejected His salvation.  Only the results of sin’s wages would be reaped and the nations around them would mock them and fear the God they rejected.  The message to admonish them was clear, “O remnant of Judah, Do not go to Egypt!”  If they did then their hypocrisy would be exposed by their asking Jeremiah to pray for them as they covenanted with God to follow and worship him by trust and obedience.  They said “tell us what You want, Lord, and we will certainly do it!”  But the question remained, “So, you want to go back to Egypt?” as the song goes.  God warned them of the hypocrisy of empty promises to appear religious but doing the opposite of what they promised to do.  The wages of sin is death and only obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ can ultimately deliver us.  No empty altar call promise means anything or has any effect of not sincere and based on true conviction and conversion to be able to follow through on following Him according to his word.  May we never offer such false promises to God for salvation as we consider the results of rejection and disbelief of disobedience to the gospel (Romans 6:23, John 6:29).  He wants our lives and trust in His loving mercy in grace which we cannot earn and from the alternative from which we cannot hide or escape any other way (Acts 4:12).  Our only shelter and hope are in Him.  May we never forget and run to the bondage of Egypt as we await deliverance from this present evil age (Galatians 1:4) of Babylon at His return.