How we look at our lives makes a big impact on the direction for our lives. We even use such illustrations in our culture to try to communicate that idea. For example, we will ask if a glass is half full or half empty. Obviously the answer is that both are true. But how you see things in life will strongly dictate the direction we will go. Jeremiah is dealing with a people who are looking at things in their lives in all the wrong ways. They think they are seeing life correctly when, in fact, everything they understand to be happening is the wrong way to look at life. In our lesson today we are going to look at how we look at our lives and consider how we look at life will dramatically affect the outcome with God. Open your copies of God’s word to Jeremiah 44 and we are going to look how we can look at life the wrong way which leads us into greater troubles.
Why Are You Stubborn? (Jeremiah 44:1-14)
Jeremiah 44:1 tells us the God has sent a message to Jeremiah to the people of Judah who have left Jerusalem and are now residing in Egypt. You may remember that God told these people to stay in Judah and God would protect them from the Babylonians. However, the people rejected the word of the Lord and moved to Egypt anyway, taking Jeremiah with them (cf. Jeremiah 43). The message from the Lord begins by telling the people that reason that the Lord brought judgment on Jerusalem and Judah was because of the people’s wickedness (Jeremiah 44:2-6). They continued in their evil practices, continued in their idolatry, and worshiped other gods. The Lord sent the prophets to tell the people to stop doing these horrible acts, but the people would not listen or return from their evil ways.
So now the people have moved to Egypt, against the will of the Lord. So the Lord has an important question for the people through the prophet Jeremiah. Look at verse 7. “Why do you commit this great evil against yourselves…” This is an amazing question that God has for the people. Why are you destroying yourselves? Why are you harming yourselves? If we saw a person hurting themselves, we would ask the same questions. What are you doing? Why are you trying to hurt yourself? It does not make any sense. Yet the people fail to see that their sins are hurting themselves. Please think about it. The people have witnessed the judgment for their sins in Jerusalem and Judah. Rather than hearing God’s message and seeing God’s judgment and turning to God, they have moved to Egypt and are continuing the same evil practices. The Lord is asking the people why they are continuing to harm and destroy themselves with their sins. We have talked about this on occasion in our study of the book of Jeremiah. But it bears repeating as God is making the point again to the people who are not listening. Sin only harms us. Sin only destroys us. Sin only brings future wrath and judgment. Our sins do not have a positive, healthy outcome. Our sins always have a negative, destructive outcome.
But the people have shown no remorse. They have not humbled themselves. They have not feared the Lord. They have not turned to seek the Lord’s instructions. There has been no repentance or reverence for the Lord (Jeremiah 44:10). So rather than learning from the Lord, they are going to experience the same judgment in Egypt (Jeremiah 44:11-14).
Seeing Life Wrongly (Jeremiah 44:15-30)
Now we will see how the people from Judah who are living in Egypt respond to the word of the Lord through Jeremiah. Notice in verse 16 the people proclaim that they will not listen to the message that Jeremiah has proclaimed in the name of the Lord. But I want us to pay careful attention to the reasoning given in verses 17-18. In verse 17 the people say that they are going to do whatever they want to do. We are going to continue to offer our sacrifices and incense to the queen of heaven (a false god) as our parents and ancestors did in the past. Notice how they are looking at their lives. At the end of verse 17 they say that when our families were doing this, then we had prosperity. We had plenty of food and saw no disaster. Then notice their reasoning in verse 18. They think that ever since we stopped offering sacrifices and incense to our gods, then they lacked everything and have been experiencing war and famine. You see that the people think that the reason for their problems is that they are not worshiping their gods. When we worshiped our gods, then things were going well. But when we stopped, all we have experienced in life is emptiness and trouble. The people think that serving the Lord has caused all their problems and what they need to do is go back to the false worship and false things of this world and then everything will go back to normal.
Jeremiah tells the people that they have this all backwards. You are looking at things upside down. In verse 23 Jeremiah tells the people that all of these troubles have come on them because they have given their lives to these false gods rather than to the true and living God. The good life is not in disobedience to the Lord. But so often we can think that this is the case. Now that we are trying to serve the Lord, all of the sudden things have become more difficult.
We can think that things were so much better and we were so much happier when we were not doing what God told us to do. But this kind of thinking forgets a critical factor that happens when we sin. Jeremiah tells the people you are experiencing the consequences for your sins. Your troubles are not because you have neglected to worship your false gods. Your troubles are that your sins are catching up to you. Your problems are that the consequences for our decisions are now impacting your lives. The consequences for our sins typically do not express themselves the next day or even the next week. It is why we are deceived into thinking that we are getting away with our sins. Rather, the consequences for our sins more often take years to catch up to us. Sins in the home and of the family take years until the fruits of those sins are observed. Hidden sins can take years until they are finally revealed. The troubles for our sins do not typically land instantaneously but take years to build and develop. Then the pain of our rejection of God’s ways lands. But what we do not see that the flood from our sins are finally catching up to us. We think we were just happier when we are living in sin. The problem for the people who are now living in Egypt is that all their sins and their consequences are finally catching up to them. But the people wrongly think that they were better off when they were ignoring the Lord.
Dealing With Disappointment (Jeremiah 45:1-5)
Jeremiah 45 flips the coin to the other side. We are going to look at the same message but from a different direction. Jeremiah has a message from the Lord to Baruch. Remember that Baruch was the scribe who had written all of God’s words down from Jeremiah to give to King Jehoiakim (cf. Jeremiah 36:20-26). We are reminded of this work in Jeremiah 45:1. I want us to look at Jeremiah 45:3 where the Lord quotes what Baruch has been saying. You will notice that Baruch has been saying, “Woe is me! For the Lord has added sorrow to my pain. I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.” Now this is a very short chapter and we are not provided any particular reasoning for Baruch’s groaning. The only thing we are told is in Jeremiah 45:1 that this message came when he wrote the scroll for Jehoiakim, which the king ultimately cut up and threw in the fire. What I believe we can piece together is that Baruch has been faithfully serving the Lord, helping Jeremiah through his imprisonments and persecutions, and spent a significant amount of time and effort writing this scroll containing the message of the Lord so that the king and the people would listen and turn back to the Lord. Has anything Baruch has done been successful in that effort to turn the people back? No, it does not look like his efforts have had any impact. Rather than turning the hearts of the people back to the Lord, the king is so insolent and rebellious that he cuts up the word of the Lord and burns it. It appears that Baruch is weary and frustrated. In all of the troubles he is enduring, now they experience more persecution and hardships for trying to do the will of the Lord. So what is God’s message to Baruch? We see three messages God has for Baruch.
First, God will destroy the nation of Judah for its wickedness (Jeremiah 45:4). God is always saying that no one is getting away with their sins. No one has to worry about justice and righteousness. Those things are in God’s hand and he will ultimately judge the wickedness of peoples and nations. Second, do not seek great things for yourself (Jeremiah 45:5). Perhaps Baruch was discouraged that his work for the Lord had not changed the spiritual condition of the nation. Perhaps he felt like it was all a waste of time. Maybe he thought he would be instrumental in changing the hearts of the people and now seems to be for nothing. Or maybe he had expectations for his life that were not met. Whether those expectations were physical or spiritual, Baruch is being told to stop pursuing great things for himself. Third, God tells Baruch that God sees his efforts and he will be given his life as a reward (Jeremiah 45:5). Just because things did not go according to plan does not mean that God is not going to reward you for your work. In short, do not seek great things for yourself. Seek God’s things in our life and you will be rewarded.
Seeking Great Things and Dealing With Disappointment
These two chapters are placed together to teach us some really important messages about how we look at life. First, notice that in both chapters we are seeing people arguing with God and complaining to God because things are not going to our life expectations. The people of Judah who are living in Egypt are rejecting God’s message because of their life experiences are not meeting their life expectations. Baruch is upset and overwhelmed because his life experiences are not matching his life expectations. We can be disappointed by life because we think serving the Lord will carry with it certain comforts and certain outcomes. Baruch seems to think that he would be able to have some rest while serving the Lord. But all he can see is pain, sorrow, groaning, and no rest (cf. Jeremiah 45:5). The people of Judah turning from their idolatrous ways would immunize them from experiencing the consequences for their sinning over all the years. We can be so tempted to turn away from the Lord when life does not go according to plan. We can be tempted to turn away from the Lord when life is disappointing. We can turn away from the Lord because we were seeking great things for ourselves and those things did not work out. Worse, we can blame God for our troubles rather than seeing our need to seek God’s things.
Friends, we must not base our faith on our life circumstances. We cannot base our beliefs on our experiences but on God’s revelation. You see that the people of Judah who were living in Egypt were basing their beliefs on their experiences, not on God’s revelation. They believed that they just needed to worship their gods and life would go better. They did not believe God’s revelation that their troubles were because of their sins. We can think that we just need to return to our gods and things will go better. If we just had more money, were more career-driven, focused more on ourselves, focused more on our families, focused having more power or influence, or whatever we think is going to make things better rather than seeking God’s things. Friends, the answer for all of life is to seek God’s things, not great things for your life. Seek God’s ways, not your ways. The problem is often we want to see God’s hand right now. I did something for God and I don’t see any immediate result! So then we give up. The people of Judah did not think serving the Lord was doing them any good. Baruch does not see what good his work for the Lord has done. We must be satisfied in our obedience and faithfulness to the Lord, even when our present circumstances do not see positive results in our lives. Jesus’ faithfulness led him to the cross, not to comfort. We must base our faith on God’s revelation, not on our circumstances.