Jeremiah 42:7 - Meaning and Application

Jeremiah gave the answer God sent him for the men who had asked for guidance. It did not come right away, but only after ten days (Jeremiah 42:7). They were left waiting that long, perhaps to expose their hypocrisy, or to show that Jeremiah did not speak from himself. He could not speak whenever he wanted, only when God gave him words. This teaches us to keep waiting on God for guidance in our own path. The vision is for an appointed time, and at the end it will speak.

When the answer came, Jeremiah gave it openly, both to the military leaders and to all the people, from the least important to the highest in rank. He gave the message fully and honestly, just as he had promised. If Jeremiah had depended on his own wisdom, he may not have known what to say, because their situation was so hard. But what he had to give them was the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, the One they had sent him to ask. That meant they were bound, both by honor and duty, to follow it.

God’s will was that they stay where they were, and his promise was that if they stayed, it would go well with them. He wanted them to remain in the land (Jeremiah 42:10). Their brothers had been forced out into exile, and that was their sorrow. So those who were allowed to stay should count it both a mercy and a duty. If your lot is in Canaan, the promised land, do not leave it while you can remain there. It would have been enough if God had simply said, “I command you to stay in the land.” But he speaks more like a friend persuading them than a ruler ordering them.

God first shows gentle care for their sad condition: “I am sorry for the disaster I have brought on you.” They had shown little sign of sorrow for their own sin, yet God, like one grieved over Israel’s misery (Judges 10:16), begins to turn from the judgments he had sent because of their sins. This does not mean God changed his mind. It means he was ready to change his dealings with them and return to them in mercy. God’s time to show repentance toward his servants is when he sees, as here, that their strength is gone and none remain, whether shut up or free (Deuteronomy 32:36).

God also answers the fear that kept them from staying. They were afraid of the king of Babylon, because they thought he might punish them for Gedaliah’s death, even though they had no part in it and had opposed it (Jeremiah 41:18). That fear had no real basis. Still, if they felt threatened, God’s answer was enough: “Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon” (Jeremiah 42:11). He is a powerful man with little mercy, and his rule is harsh and unpredictable. Yet God says, in effect, “Do not fear him, because fear will trap you. I am with you, and if God is for you to save you, who can be against you to hurt you?” God gives enough promise to calm even the needless fears that pull his people away from obedience.

God also promises that if they stay in the land, they will not only be safe from the king of Babylon, but made happy by the King of kings. “I will build you and plant you,” he says. They would take root again and become the new beginning of another nation, like a phoenix rising from the ashes of the old one. He adds, “I will show you mercy” (Jeremiah 42:12). In every comfort we should read God’s mercy. If the king of Babylon shows them kindness, they must trace that kindness back to God’s hand. God makes those he pities receive pity even from the people who had carried them away captive (Psalm 106:46). The king of Babylon, now ruling the land, would let them return to it, settle again in their homes, and receive back the land that had belonged to them.

God has made what is really our privilege into our duty, and our obedience will be its own reward. “Stay in this land,” he says in effect, “and it will become your own land again. Do not leave now, when you are so close to enjoying it again. Do not be foolish enough to give up your own mercy for empty lies.”

They must also not think of going to Egypt, of all places. Egypt was the land from which God had rescued their fathers, and it was a place he had often warned them not to trust or ally with. God exposes the sin they were already leaning toward, and for the One who knows their hearts, it is more than a guess. “You are beginning to say, ‘We will not live in this land’” (Jeremiah 42:13). They were resolved not to stay, even if God himself promised to protect them. They would not remain, even in obedience to the Lord their God. In effect, they were saying, “He may say what he wants, but we will do what we want. We will go to Egypt and live there, whether God allows it or goes with us or not” (Jeremiah 42:14).

Their reasoning was that in Egypt they would see no war and no hunger, as they had for so long in Judah (Jeremiah 42:14). But it is foolish to leave our place, especially the holy land, because we face trouble there. It is even greater folly to think that by changing our location we can escape God’s judgments. Sin’s evil follows the disobedient everywhere, and there is no escaping it except by returning to loyal obedience.

If they kept on with this sin, God’s sentence was certain. It comes in the Lord’s name: “Hear the word of the Lord, you remnant of Judah” (Jeremiah 42:15). They thought that because they were a remnant, they must be spared and allowed to follow their own wishes. But that was a false hope. Did the sword and famine frighten them? Those same judgments would follow them into Egypt, overtake them there, and defeat them there (Jeremiah 42:16, 17). They thought war and famine were tied to that land, and that if they escaped Judah they would escape those troubles too. But if they trusted God, he could make even that land peaceful for them. They imagined the danger stayed behind if they moved away, but God would send it after them wherever they went. The evils we try to avoid by sin are the very evils we bring on ourselves.

The men who go to Egypt against God’s will, trying to escape war and famine, will die there by war and famine. We can also apply this to the common troubles of human life. People who cannot bear their hardships and think they can avoid them by changing places will find they are mistaken. The same troubles that burden people will meet them wherever they go. In this world, every move is only from one wilderness to another, and we are still in the same condition.

Were they frightened by Jerusalem’s destruction? Did they want to get as far away from it as possible? Then they will meet the same judgment in Egypt too (Jeremiah 42:18). As God poured out his anger and wrath on Jerusalem, so he will pour them out on Egypt. Those who make God their enemy by sin will find him to be a consuming fire wherever they go. Then they will become a curse and a horror. Long ago the Hebrews were an abomination to the Egyptians (Genesis 43:32), and now they will be even more despised. When God’s professing people mix with unbelievers and court their favor, they lose honor and bring shame on themselves.

God also knew their hypocrisy in asking him for guidance. When they asked what he wanted them to do, they had already decided to do what they wanted. So the warning that had been given conditionally is now stated as certain. He had set before them good and evil, blessing and curse, and now he applies what he has said.

First, he solemnly says that he faithfully gave them God’s message (Jeremiah 42:19). The final point is this: do not go down into Egypt. If they disobeyed God’s command, the warning he gave would stand as a witness against them. No one could then claim ignorance of God’s will, because they had been plainly warned, whether they listened or refused to listen.

Second, he accuses them of open deceit in the way they asked for guidance (Jeremiah 42:20). They were false in their hearts. They pretended one thing and meant another, promising what they never intended to do. They used deceit against their own souls, as the margin says. Those who try to trick God end up bringing a deadly trick on themselves.

Third, he already knew they were determined to go against God’s command. They had likely shown it in their faces and in their quiet complaints before he finished speaking. Still, he spoke for the one who knows hearts: they had not obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and they had no real wish to obey it. Moses had said the same in his farewell sermon, “I know your rebellion and your stubbornness” (Deuteronomy 31:27, Deuteronomy 31:29). We should admire God’s patience, that he is willing to speak to people whom he knows will not listen, and to deal with those he knows will act very treacherously (Isaiah 48:8).

Fourth, he declares their sentence again: “Know for certain that you will die by the sword” (Jeremiah 42:22). God’s warnings may be mocked, but human unbelief cannot cancel them. War, famine, and disease will follow these sinners, because no place is protected from God’s judgment, and no criminal can leave his reach. They will die in the very place they wanted to go. We do not know what is truly good for us, and what we want most often turns out to be painful, and sometimes deadly.