God had pleaded with the Jews to mend their ways and turn back to Him: ‘Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and evil deeds, and dwell upon the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers from of old and for ever’ (Jeremiah 25:5). But at last the situation was beyond repair.
In 587 BC the Babylonian army destroyed the nation, ransacked Jerusalem, and carried the majority of the surviving population into captivity.
Jeremiah 41 continues the account. The Babylonian captain appointed a Jewish noble Gedaliah as the governor of Judah, under Babylonian rule. The remaining scattered Jews throughout the country gathered to Gedaliah, including the remnant of the Jewish army that had survived the invasion. But it was a time of confusion and treachery. One of the Jewish captains assassinated Gedaliah and his men, along with the Babylonians who were with him, and fled. Frightened of the Babylonians’ response when they discovered what had happened, the survivors suggested they flee south to Egypt (vs. 17–18). They asked the prophet Jeremiah what they should do.
“Let our plea for mercy come before you, and pray to the Lord your God for us, for all this remnant—because we are left with but a few, as your eyes see us—that the Lord your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing that we should do” (42:2–3).
God’s reply was clear—stay in Judah, don’t go to Egypt (vs. 7–22). But that wasn’t what they wanted to hear. They told Jeremiah he was lying (43:2–3). They left for Egypt, and took Jeremiah with them.
A Lesson for Us
One of the evidences that the Bible is the inspired word of God, rather than a human work, is its uncompromising honesty. It’s a Jewish book, written by Jews and mainly about Jews. It focusses on the Jewish Messiah (Jesus Christ) who said “Salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22)—and yet it is entirely unflattering. It exposes all their weaknesses, stubbornness, dishonesty and stupidity, throughout their long history. The Jews always have been God’s people (Romans 11:1–6), but their human nature is no better than the rest of us.
How could Jeremiah’s people have been so rebellious? If we’re honest, we’ll admit that we know the reason. You and I like to hear what we want to hear, and do what we want to do. The antics of the Jewish people were recorded as a lesson for us—not to show how rotten they are, but to show us what we are like
(Romans 15:4).
Being Renewed
There’s an idea that people are essentially good. We just need the right environment, and we’ll flourish. Sociologists tell us to obey our instincts. Feel-good movies tell us to follow our heart.
The Bible gives a very much more realistic view of human nature—we are fundamentally flawed. It explains clearly in Genesis 3 how we got like this. Jeremiah gives us God’s assessment of our nature: ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?’ (Jeremiah 17:9). I have to admit that’s true, and maybe you will too.
The consistent message of the Bible is that we need to be fixed. This will happen at the return of Christ, for those who have been faithful to him: ‘I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable… this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality’ (1 Corinthians 15:50–53).
As we wait for that time, the life of discipleship involves identifying and resisting the ungodly impulses of our nature, and striving to live as God wants. (We’ll never be perfect, He understands that and will always forgive whenever we ask.) It is to try ‘to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness’ (Ephesians 4:22–24)
