Jeremiah 43

Hey, hey, good morning morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions. Don't look at my coffee like you want it. It's my coffee Since when have you stopped offering me the coffee? Would you like my coffee? Yes. Okay Well, anyways this morning. We're at jeremiah chapter 43 jeremiah has been uh asked by Johanan to ask God about going down to Egypt.
God says, no, don't go. And Jeremiah has said, you'll be a bunch of hypocrites. You asked God, but you didn't actually want to listen to God. And if you go down there, you're going to have famine, pestilence, death, not going to go well. If you stay here, don't be afraid of the Chaldeans. So let's see how Johanan responds to that.
So let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's word. Oh, you're going to drink. You coffee thief. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word. And we pray that you would please help us to read it and understand it. We pray that you would teach us to know how it applies to our lives, that we would be filled with your spirit, that we might live lives that are focused on bringing you glory.
Help us, Lord, we pray in Jesus's name, amen. All right, here we go, Jeremiah 43, we'll just kind of read a chapter, talk about, or read a paragraph, talk about, read about, read a paragraph, talk about it, and then summarize it at the end, okay, you ready?
Now it happened when Jeremiah had stopped speaking to all the people, all the words of the Lord their God, for which the Lord their God had sent him to them, all these words, that Azariah, son of Hoshea, Johannan, the son of Korea, And all the proud men spoke, saying to Jeremiah, You speak falsely. The Lord our God has not sent you to say, Do not go to Egypt to dwell there.
But Berub, the son of Neriah, has sent you against us to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, so that they may put us to death or carry us away captive to Babylon. So Johanan, the son of Chariot, all the captains of the forces and all the people would not obey the voice of the Lord to remain in the land of Judah. But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces took all the remnant of Judah who had returned to dwell in the land of Judah from all the nations they had been driven, men, women, children, and the king's daughters. And every person who Nebazaradan, the captain of the guard, had left With Gedalius, the son of Ahicham, the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch, son of Noriah.
So they went to the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the Lord. And they went as far as the Tafin Hill, Okay, so what happens in that section they don't listen to The lord and falsely accused jeremiah and baruch Yeah, right. So they say no no No, god didn't tell you that baruch has told you and you just want the king of the chaldeans to kill us I thought baruch was in charge of writing down what? the lord said after jeremiah got it from Yeah, the point is they don't trust Jeremiah, they don't trust Baruch, right? They're just like, no way, right? And so, yeah, they're just mad, right? They're mad at him. So they went to the land of Egypt and they did not obey the voice of the Lord.
And they went as far as Taffanis. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in Taffanis, saying, Take large stones in your hand, and hide them in the sight of the men of Judah, in the clay in the brick courtyard which is in the entrance to Pharaoh's house in Taffanis. and say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will send and bring Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babel, on my servant, and he will set his throne above these stones that I have hidden, and he will spread his royal pavilion over them.
When he comes, he shall strike the land of Egypt and deliver to death those appointed for death, and to captivity those appointed for captivity, and to the sword those appointed for the sword. I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt, and he shall burn them and carry them away captive. And he shall array himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd puts on his garment, and he shall go out from there in peace. He shall also break the sacred pillars of Beth Shemesh and that are in the land of Egypt and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians he shall burn with fire All right. So man, they they take Jeremiah with them Jeremiah don't want to go to Egypt Yeah, they force him to go and they go as far as the Taffanys and what does he do The Lord's like Jeremiah take take two stones and and hide them and and tell the people that Nebuchadnezzar is going to take over Egypt and he's thrown it's literally gonna be set over those stones Yeah, well, maybe not like literally but the point is like he that the king of Babylon is going to conquer Egypt, right? You're going there because you're afraid of Nebuchadnezzar, but in a reality Nebuchadnezzar is about to come and attack Egypt All right, so what's this whole section about? What's the whole chapter about?
We don't know what's going to happen. And so if we don't listen to the Lord, we might find out that there's just something worse coming for us. Oh, man, hold on. So you just went to calling when I was asking about. But we're talking about the historical what is what is this about? Oh, I thought you were oh, yeah, not what are we called to do? That's c don't get ahead. We're still on a here. Okay Yes, so what's this about?
Johanan and azariah, so that's his name, uh, johanan and azariah come and they they don't believe jeremiah they want to go down to babylon and they even forcefully take him and Destruction on Egypt is actually... They went down to Egypt, that's where they took them, to get away from Babylon, but Babylon's going to conquer Egypt. So now, what would you say, if you could only underline one or two verses, what would you underline as the best verse to summarize this?
Seven. That's what I was going to say, too. Yep. Seven is a great verse to underline. Actually, interestingly enough, I don't have things written in my Bible for this part. Normally, I have notes all over the place. But this one, I don't have anything underlined. So, I'm going to underline that right now. So, what's this got to do with your life? Now we can go to see calling. So, go ahead and say it again.
That we have that we should obey God Because he knows what's best for us. Okay, so just a moralistic tale obey God. He knows what's best for us Good and you always do that, right? What Everybody struggled with obeying God Don't tell everybody my secret that I struggle with obeying God Come on now I think everybody struggles with obeying god.
Yeah, we do. So what so so then okay, so if you're saying well, you just gotta follow god Well, the problem is then you set yourself back up in a trap don't you that that looks like works Yeah Now there is a general principle right when we do follow the lord. Do things generally go? Well, yes. Yeah but What is the root issue here?
That they didn't listen? Why won't they listen? Because I don't know. Do they believe? No, they don't believe the Lord. They don't believe the Lord's prophet. They're suspicious, they're hard-hearted, just like their fathers in the wilderness. We want to go back to Egypt. They think that's going to find them safety, rather than doing that. Sometimes trusting the Lord is a counterintuitive thing.
No, stay in the land where they've just burned down the cities, where they've just destroyed everything. but that's where God will bless you. Sometimes God calls us to do the things that humanly speaking, we're like, I don't see how there's gonna be good things or blessings that come from that.
How is it gonna be good that I love those who persecute me? How is it that it's gonna come back good to me if I throw a feast and I invite the poor and the orphan and the widow and people who can't repay me? How is that a good thing? What do you mean I gotta forgive my debtors as I have been forgiven?
That's counterintuitive. But it's when we listen to the Lord, when we believe what he says, and then from that heart of belief, say, you know what, Lord, I don't know. It's hard for me to understand this. And I may even naturally not want to do that thing you're telling me. So help me, please. Turn me from what I want. Not my will be done, but yours. I think that's where we go first. We got to get at the heart issue first. Because if it's just behavioral change, well, the problem is we got an issue. But their issue is Azariah, Johanan.
Y'all may be wise in the ways of this world, but you need to listen to the Lord. You were good asking for the Lord to tell you, now you need to actually listen to what he says, even when you don't like it. But that's always easy, right? All right, let's go ahead and pray.
Father, we thank you so much that you have given us your son, Jesus Christ, and he has taught us to pray to you, our heavenly father. And so God, we pray that we might not be like our ancestors were, wandering the wilderness, unwilling to listen and obey. God, we pray that you would please help us, give us tender hearts, let us do those things which would be unnatural normally for us to do. Father, please help us. Teach us to walk in your ways and to do your will, not ours. We pray these things in Jesus's name, amen. May God bless you as you submit to his will and walk in his ways. We'll see you next time. Bye