The camels are packed. 🐪🐪🐪 Everyone is ready to go. Oh- maybe we should pray before we leave…

The little band of misfits…

🤓 And princesses! Can’t forget them!

Yes. And the princesses. 👸🏼 They tell Jeremiah to pray and ask God where to go.

They certainly don’t think they can’t stay in Judah because- what will the Babylonians do when they find out Gedaliah was assassinated? They can’t go to Ammon because the Ammonites want them dead. Moab and Edom are too close to Ammon. They can’t go north because there are Assyrian immigrants and it’s super unstable. That leaves one direction. South. To Egypt.

“Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord your God be a faithful witness against us if we refuse to obey whatever he tells us to do! Whether we like it or not, we will obey the Lord our God to whom we are sending you with our plea. For if we obey him, everything will turn out well for us.”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭42‬:‭5‬-‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

That sounds uncomfortably like the children of Israel talking to Moses at the foot of Mount Sinai- just before they disobey and make a golden calf. See Ex. 24:3-8.

Jeremiah returns after 10 days with 2 options.

I’m old enough to remember a game show called “Let’s Make A Deal” where contestants would have to choose between a known prize – like $500 cash or whatever might be behind a curtain…

There might be a brand new car behind the curtain. Or there might be goat or pile of rubber chickens.

Jeremiah comes back with two options:

1. Stay in Judah and you will be safe. The LORD will rescue you and cause the Babylonians to be kind. (42:7-12)
2. Go to Egypt and you will die. (42:13-22)

It’s far more counterintuitive that it seems though. Judah has completely collapsed. The economy, the government, military – all gone. This is the part of the story when all the people with bunkers and buckets of freeze-dried food go into hiding. Total government collapse.

Egypt, on the other hand, is a known entity. Israel has done business with them from time immemorial. The trade routes are established. It’s an empire that has stood for nearly a thousand years. They have a stable government, a thriving economy, and abundant food and resources.

Jeremiah says that God says they will die in Egypt from the war and famine they are trying to escape. But what if Jeremiah is bluffing?

Which deal will the remnant of Judah take?

“Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the other proud men said to Jeremiah, “You lie! The Lord our God hasn’t forbidden us to go to Egypt! Baruch son of Neriah has convinced you to say this, because he wants us to stay here and be killed by the Babylonians or be carried off into exile.” So Johanan and the other military leaders and all the people refused to obey the Lord’s command to stay in Judah.”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭43‬:‭2‬-‭4‬ NLT‬‬

They don’t believe the Word from God. And they force Jeremiah and Baruch to go to Egypt with them.

When they get to Taphanes, God gives Jeremiah another message and he starts moving rocks…

“While the people of Judah are watching, take some large rocks and bury them under the pavement stones at the entrance of Pharaoh’s palace here in Tahpanhes. Then say to the people of Judah, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will certainly bring my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, here to Egypt. I will set his throne over these stones that I have hidden. He will spread his royal canopy over them.”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭43‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This is what all the preppers (I’ll just hide in my bunker and live off-grid) and escapers (I’ll just move to another country) need to realize: when God decides to destroy something, there is no place to hide and no place to escape to. The safest place to be is in the will of God. Freeze-dried food or not.

Remember that the Fall of Jerusalem is the pattern for “The Day of the LORD,” a.k.a. Judgement Day.

Judgment Day has come for them. And in the next chapters there is a major disagreement on WHY it has happened.

See you then.