A sermon from Brent Kercheville.
What do you do when God’s word is not your will? What do you do when God’s answer to your prayer is not the answer you wanted to receive from him? Jeremiah and the people have gone through great tragedy and judgment. The Babylonians have destroyed the city of Jerusalem and destroyed God’s temple. But these actions were directed by God as judgment on the people from rejecting him. Throughout the book of Jeremiah we have heard the warnings of God’s impending judgment for sins. But the people would not listen to God’s message. Rather than hearing the warnings, they tortured and persecuted God’s messenger, Jeremiah. Because of Jeremiah’s faithfulness, Jeremiah’s life has been spared (cf. Jeremiah 39:11-14). Jeremiah 40 opens with this recap of the events that have transpired.
Grace To The Broken (Jeremiah 40)
The word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah and the captain of the guard proclaims that this destruction was God’s doing because the people’s continued sinning. But I would like for us to see the offer the Babylonian captain makes to Jeremiah. Jeremiah is offered to go to Babylon with them where they will take care of him. But if that seemed wrong to him, then he could stay anywhere in the land of Judah. Go to Gedaliah, the appointed governor over the land or go anywhere else you please. Jeremiah chooses to stay in the land and live among the people. I want us to be impressed by this decision. What have the people of this land done for him? Think about all the things the people have done against him. Remember that his own hometown and his own family were against him, conspiring to kill him (cf. Jeremiah 11). Jeremiah has experienced persecutions and repeated imprisonment. Yet Jeremiah will remain in the land, serve the new governor, and continue his work as God’s messenger to these people. This is similar to the apostle Paul being dragged out of a city, stoned, and left for dead only to have Paul rise up and go back into that very city, continuing to preach the gospel in the next cities (cf. Acts 14:19-23). These men knew that had a mission given to them that they must fulfill regardless of the pain and rejection they had already experienced.
What we read next is God’s grace to these people. Those who had not been taken into Babylonian exile remained in the land. Gedaliah tells the people to live in the land, serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well for them (Jeremiah 40:9). Gather wine, fruits, and oils and store them in your storage vessels (Jeremiah 40:10). You will notice in verse 12 that everyone who returned and those who remained in the land harvested in great abundance. If you will listen, God will take care of you. This is a very important message to the people. If you will listen, then God will provide for you. We see God make this point throughout the scriptures. The reason Jesus told us that we do not have be anxious for anything is because God knows what we need and will provide for us (cf. Matthew 6:25-34).
I would expect that the people would be happy to settle in and live in the land after all the turmoil and disaster the people have experienced. However, we read in Jeremiah 40:13 that a conspiracy is now forming against Gedaliah. Gedaliah is warned of the conspiracy but Gedaliah does not believe that this is true (cf. Jeremiah 40:14-16).
Rising Fear (Jeremiah 41)
The messenger was correct. Ishmael and his men rise up and assassinate Gedaliah. Then Ishmael and his men slaughtered 80 men who were going to ruins of the temple to offer their sacrifices to the Lord. Then Ishmael captured the town of Mizpah and took captive the rest of the people who lived there. Johanan goes after Ishmael, kills him for his evil, and sets the captives free. The point that we are to see in Jeremiah 41 is there is chaos and fear in the land. Killing the governor that the Babylonians had appointed is only inviting the Babylonians to come back and attack them. Further, we have rogue men running around killing people and capturing people. So there is a lot of fear in the land.
Seeking God (Jeremiah 42)
With all the chaos and fear in the land, the people all come to Jeremiah. We read their words to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 42:2-3. They plead to Jeremiah to pray to the Lord on their behalf because they are a remnant and there are few of them left. Pray to the Lord to show us the way we should go and what we should do. Jeremiah says that he will pray to the Lord on their behalf and tell them all that the Lord gives as an answer. Listen to what the people say in Jeremiah 42:5-6. They say that the Lord is our faithful witness that we will act in accordance with all that the Lord says for us to do. If it is favorable or unfavorable, we will listen. If the message is pleasant or unpleasant, we will obey the Lord our God. They say that they want to know God’s will and they will do whatever God’s says, even if the message is unpleasant or unfavorable.
Ten days later the Lord gives a message to Jeremiah to give to the people. All of the people are summoned to come and hear the message that the Lord has for the people. The message begins in Jeremiah 42:10. Jeremiah tells the people that if they will stay in the land, then God will build them up and not tear them down. He will plant them and not pluck them up. They will be secure in the land. Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon. The Lord is with you and he will save and deliver you from his hand. The Lord will show you mercy and compassion and you will be allowed to remain in your own land. However, in verse 13, Jeremiah tells the people if they choose to not listen to this message, saying that they will go to the land of Egypt so that they will not have to worry about war or be hungry for bread, then the sword and famine will follow you to Egypt and will overtake you. No one will survive the disaster that will come if you leave the land and move to Egypt. The wrath that was poured out on Jerusalem will be poured out on Egypt if you move there. Now Jeremiah makes sure the people are clear about God’s message. Look at verse 19. “Do not go to Egypt!” You have been warned and it will cost your lives if you go. You said that you would listen and obey whatever message the Lord gives to you (Jeremiah 42:20). You have not listened to God in the past and you need to listen to him now (Jeremiah 42:21-22).
Rejecting God (Jeremiah 43)
What will be the response of the people? They said that they would obey. Will they listen to the word of the Lord? Look at Jeremiah 43:2. “You are telling a lie. The Lord our God did not send you to say, ‘Do not go to Egypt to live there.’” You want us to be killed or captured by the Babylonians. So all the people did not obey the voice of the Lord to remain in the land of Judah but go to Egypt, taking Jeremiah with them (Jeremiah 43:4-7). God tells Jeremiah in the land of Egypt to take large stones and bury them at the entrance of the palace to mark that the Babylonians are coming there and will rule over it too after he destroys it, just like God said would happen.
Praying For My Answer
So I want to return to the questions we asked at the beginning of the lesson. What do you do when God’s word is not your will? What do you do when God answers your prayer in a way that you did not want or expect? There are three principles that we learn from these chapters about God and our response to his answers to our prayers.
First, God’s will can be different than what we want. I think as followers of Jesus we understand this idea. But when it comes to times when we want something, we can fall into expecting that God will answer our prayers the way that we want and we will accept no other response. God’s word speaks to us and what God says through his word can tell us the answers we do not want to hear. Whether it be from sexual immorality or divorce, the scriptures are clear in their condemnation of these things. But that can be the answer that we are not looking for. So what will we do when God’s answer is not what we want? I can tell you that far too often people who claim to be followers of Jesus will follow their own will and reject what God says, even though they will say that they are seeking the will of the Lord. It is just like what we are reading in Jeremiah. The people say that they want to do God’s will…so long as God’s will is what I want to do. This is an area where we need to be honest about our prayer life and our desires. Are we really willing to do what God says even when his will and his word does not match what we want?
I want to remind us of what we see in Jesus. Jesus prayed for the cup of suffering to pass from him but then followed that request with the words, “Not my will, but your will be done” (Matthew 26:39). Please consider that the Father’s answer was not that Jesus would avoid the cross, but would go to it. The apostle Paul prayed three times for the thorn in his flesh to be removed from him and three times God’s answer was no (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:8-9). But the apostle Paul did not give up on God. He did not quit. He did not go into sin since God did not answer him the way that he wanted. We must grasp this very important principle that God’s will can be different than what we want. We must accept God’s answer and not continue in our will regardless of God’s answer. True faith obeys even when it is difficult, painful, or inexplicable.
Second, returning to Egypt never fulfills what it promises. The people in Jeremiah’s day thought that safety and ease would be found by leaving what God said and to go do what they thought would be best for their own safety and ease. What the people are missing and we what we can be missing is that rejecting God’s word returns us to slavery. Rejecting God’s word is what will destabilize our lives and not provide the security we are looking for in our lives. The history of Israel in the wilderness was always believing that what they left behind was better than where they were going. They often wanted to return to Egypt, the place of pain and slavery, because they could not see that listening to God would lead them to freedom and joy. So often we return to sin because we expect sin and our desires to fulfill what we want in life. But we know this is not true. One of the reasons we became Christians is because we understand the futility of the world and the pain of sin. But then we desire to return rather than trusting that God’s will and God’s ways are for our good. Do not return to sin. Do not return to Egypt. They never fulfill what they promise.
Finally, it is possible for God’s people to agree on disobedience. We must see the warning that God’s people can conspire to disobey and discredit the message. Friends, there can be whole churches that will agree to not do what the scriptures say. There can be whole groups of Christians who will leave as a group, believing they are doing God’s will, but are actually rejecting God’s will and word. Shockingly, they may even threaten you to join in their disobedience, just as these people did in Jeremiah’s day (cf. Jeremiah 43:5-6). But just because a group agree to disobey does not mean that they are right. As we see at the end of Jeremiah 43, God condemns the whole group for their disobedience. Going along with the crowd can destroy you. You must know the word of God and you must follow the word of God, even if it mean you must go against the majority belief or majority actions of those who claim to be followers of God.
So what will you do when God’s will does not match your will?