God’s Word Will Stand True

Jeremiah 44:1-30                    Kevin E. Jesmer

Key Verse: 44:28                     4-6-18

“Those who escape the sword and return to the land of Judah from Egypt will be very few. Then the whole remnant of Judah who came to live in Egypt will know whose word will stand—mine or theirs.”

Part 1: God States His Case (1-6)

Verses 1-6, “This word came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews living in Lower Egypt—in Migdol, Tahpanhes and Memphis—and in Upper Egypt: 2 “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You saw the great disaster I brought on Jerusalem and on all the towns of Judah. Today they lie deserted and in ruins 3 because of the evil they have done. They aroused my anger by burning incense to and worshiping other gods that neither they nor you nor your ancestors ever knew. 4 Again and again I sent my servants the prophets, who said, ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate!’ 5 But they did not listen or pay attention; they did not turn from their wickedness or stop burning incense to other gods. 6 Therefore, my fierce anger was poured out; it raged against the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem and made them the desolate ruins they are today.”

In this passage God is stating his case as to why all of this was happening to his people. It was not God’s fault at all. We can see the reason why it all happened in verses 3-5, “because of the evil they have done. They aroused my anger by burning incense to and worshiping other gods that neither they nor you nor your ancestors ever knew. 4 Again and again I sent my servants the prophets, who said, ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate!’ 5 But they did not listen or pay attention; they did not turn from their wickedness or stop burning incense to other gods.”  God was upset, because for centuries, his people, who were called by his name, were worshipping the idols of the nations around them. Some of these religions involved horrible practices, like child sacrifice and temple prostitution.

Image today, what it would be like. Think about a Christian country surrounded by Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist nations, etc. For many centuries this Christian nation was practicing their Christian faith. But then they decided that they would get some benefit if they started to practice some of the religious practices of the other neighboring countries. Practicing other religions would be easier on their people.  It could benefit them economically and militarily. They may have felt that their crops were blessed when they worshipped other religions. Eventually their Christian faith became so diluted and tainted, that they could no longer be recognized as Christian. They were not like the other nations either. They were some kind of Christian mutation. They jeopardized their relationship with God for the sake of some short-term benefits. When the rest of the world looked upon them, they could no longer see Jesus. They could not see the Gospel. They were led astray into falsehood that would only lead their once Christian nation into destruction.  That is what happened to Judah and that is why God was so sorry about the condition of his people.

God’s verdict was clear. The people of Judah and Jerusalem had provoked the Lord to anger by worshiping other gods. They would need to face the consequences of their sin. They would need some spiritual refining so that their hearts may turn back to the Lord. And so, God’s judgment came in the form of the Babylonian invasion. The city was razed and the people taken captive.

Part 2: God Invites His People To Reason With Him (7-14)

Verses 7-14, “7 “Now this is what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Why bring such great disaster on yourselves by cutting off from Judah the men and women, the children and infants, and so leave yourselves without a remnant? 8 Why arouse my anger with what your hands have made, burning incense to other gods in Egypt, where you have come to live? You will destroy yourselves and make yourselves a curse and an object of reproach among all the nations on earth. 9 Have you forgotten the wickedness committed by your ancestors and by the kings and queens of Judah and the wickedness committed by you and your wives in the land of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem? 10 To this day they have not humbled themselves or shown reverence, nor have they followed my law and the decrees I set before you and your ancestors.

11 “Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I am determined to bring disaster on you and to destroy all Judah. 12 I will take away the remnant of Judah who were determined to go to Egypt to settle there. They will all perish in Egypt; they will fall by the sword or die from famine. From the least to the greatest, they will die by sword or famine. They will become a curse and an object of horror, a curse and an object of reproach. 13 I will punish those who live in Egypt with the sword, famine and plague, as I punished Jerusalem. 14 None of the remnant of Judah who have gone to live in Egypt will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah, to which they long to return and live; none will return except a few fugitives.”

While most of the able people had been taken to Babylon, a remnant remained in Judah. Some of the leaders, like Johanan and his military leaders were afraid to live under Babylonian occupation, and in spite of Jeremiah’s warnings, they decided to flee to Egypt. They gathered up everyone else to go with them, the poor, who were tending the fields and the orchards and those refugees who had slowly come back to Judah from the surrounding country side, after the people of Jerusalem were taken into exile. I am not convinced that all of the poor people were afraid and wanted to leave at first. Their leaders tried to convince them to leave. They might have planted fear in their hearts. They might have forced them migrate, like they forced Jeremiah and Baruch to migrate with the populace.

Jeremiah remained true to God’s message. He told them the way of salvation for them.  Look at verse 11-14. He told them that none of them would survive to return. He warned them to change their minds, repent, trust God and return to Judah and submit to the Babylonians. This was God’s consistent message to his people.

God wants to reason with us. Isaiah 1:18 reads, “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” (NIV) The people thought they were wiser than God when they ignored his word and disobeyed him. They had not idea what they were doing to themselves. But God told them what they were doing through his word. He tried to reason with them, asking them why they were inviting this destruction on themselves. Through Jeremiah he said to them, “…Why bring such great disaster on yourselves by cutting off from Judah the men and women, the children and infants, and so leave yourselves without a remnant?” (7b), “Why arouse my anger with what your hands have made, burning incense to other gods in Egypt, where you have come to live?” (8a); “You will destroy yourselves…” (8b); “…and make yourselves a curse and an object of reproach among all the nations on earth.” (8c); This is a clear call to examine their hearts and ask themselves, “Why?”

I am a nurse. There are many times that the patients become confused. They have hospital delirium, or medication induced delirium. The patients actually become convinced that something diabolical will happen to them. They think that the nurses are part of some sort of conspiracy, where the patient feels they are imprisoned and they are a victim of some elaborate plot. Things escalate. I ask the patient, “Why are you doing this? This is only going to lead to five men coming into the room and you might have to be restrained. Why do this?” They are not in their right mind. They don’t trust my words and fail to see the folly on their ways. They try to throw a few punches and soon they are subdued by five men and placed in restraints. This happened despite of the fact that they were warned again and again with kindness and patience.  It was all because they were in delirium. That is what sin does to us. It makes us delirious to the point that even when God wants to reason with us, we don’t trust him and we rebel against him.

We don’t know the disaster that we are bringing on ourselves when we ignore God’s way. I see it all the time. People are following their own wills and over the decades their lives have literally become a train wreck. They have been a curse on others, rather than a blessing. They have desperately not wanted this to happen, but it happened. Should they be shocked? God is asking why did it have to go that far? We need to come to Jesus now and not wait any longer. The stakes are very high.

In our “delirium” we sin. We become overcome by fear. We end up doing many things in order to save ourselves. We do what we think is best. But if we ignore God, we are actually not doing what is best, because God is the one who knows best. Jesus is the way; the truth and the life. (John 14:6) He shows the way that leads to himself and to eternal life. It is the ancient, tested, tried and true way. It is the way of the Lord.

Part 3: God’s Word Will Always Stand (15-30)

Verses 15-30, “15 Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women who were present—a large assembly—and all the people living in Lower and Upper Egypt, said to Jeremiah, 16 “We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord! 17 We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm. 18 But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine.”

19 The women added, “When we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did not our husbands know that we were making cakes impressed with her image and pouring out drink offerings to her?”

20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, both men and women, who were answering him, 21 “Did not the Lord remember and call to mind the incense burned in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem by you and your ancestors, your kings and your officials and the people of the land? 22 When the Lord could no longer endure your wicked actions and the detestable things you did, your land became a curse and a desolate waste without inhabitants, as it is today. 23 Because you have burned incense and have sinned against the Lord and have not obeyed him or followed his law or his decrees or his stipulations, this disaster has come upon you, as you now see.”

24 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, including the women, “Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah in Egypt. 25 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You and your wives have done what you said you would do when you promised, ‘We will certainly carry out the vows we made to burn incense and pour out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven.’

“Go ahead then, do what you promised! Keep your vows! 26 But hear the word of the Lord, all you Jews living in Egypt: ‘I swear by my great name,’ says the Lord, ‘that no one from Judah living anywhere in Egypt will ever again invoke my name or swear, “As surely as the Sovereign Lord lives.” 27 For I am watching over them for harm, not for good; the Jews in Egypt will perish by sword and famine until they are all destroyed. 28 Those who escape the sword and return to the land of Judah from Egypt will be very few. Then the whole remnant of Judah who came to live in Egypt will know whose word will stand—mine or theirs.

29 “‘This will be the sign to you that I will punish you in this place,’ declares the Lord, ‘so that you will know that my threats of harm against you will surely stand.’ 30 This is what the Lord says: ‘I am going to deliver Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hands of his enemies who want to kill him, just as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the enemy who wanted to kill him.’”

In Egypt the people were unrepentant and persisted in burning incense to the Queen of Heaven. The women were the ones who had started this evil practice. They men quietly agreed with them and went along. It was the fruit of fear.

I can see that they misinterpreted their suffering. Look at verses 16-18, “We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord! 17 We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm. 18 But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine.”

The people knew that they were perishing by the sword and the famine. They were desperate. They refused to agree that their suffering was a punishment and divine training for their sin.  They literally felt that their suffering was because they have not been faithful to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her. They felt they were suffering because they were going astray from devotion to idol worship. What a distorted way of thinking.

This is what happens when people are caught up in false religion. No matter what the false religion is, they feel that national tragedy comes because they have drifted away from sincere worship to their religion. If they want their national tragedies to cease then all they have to do is to become sincerer to their false religion. But this is not the correct view.

Adherents to false religions need to realize that the practice of their false religion is the cause of their troubles and getting sincerer to their false religion will only cause them more grief and trouble. They need to stop and accept what the God of the Bible has to say, considering deeply what God’s word is saying. They must repent of their sins and hold fast to the Gospel. Then Jesus will lead them in the most fruitful path. It is that clear.

God wants his word to stand, for it is the word of life and salvation. God can not let his people be led astray by false religion. God must uphold his word and his  glory over all the earth. Look at verse 28, “Those who escape the sword and return to the land of Judah from Egypt will be very few. Then the whole remnant of Judah who came to live in Egypt will know whose word will stand—mine or theirs.” The Egyptians all knew that these migrants were from Judah and were God’s people. They were watching. The kids of the migrants were watching. If these people saw God’s own people rejecting his word and turning to idols, that would defame God and lead future generations to reject his word and go astray. It would serve to hide God’s word and his glory from the people who so desperately needed to seek and find God. God had to do something. And so, the people were facing certain destruction.

Prayer: “Lord, thank you for inviting us to come and reason with you and thank you for showing us that your word stands true. Help me to spurn all idols and hold fast to Christ and your word.”

One Word: God’s word will stand, for he makes it stand.