Jeremiah 42:1-6 - Do not try to circumvent God's will

The remnant of people whom Johanan had rescued from the hand of Ishmael would have included Jeremiah. This was because the prophet was living in Mizpah then. Because of their fear of reprisal from the Babylonians for the murder of Gedaliah whom Nebuchadnezzar had installed as governor over those he did not deport to Babylon, Johanan and the people decided to go flee to Egypt for refuge. They then approached Jeremiah to ask him to help them pray to God and seek guidance on what they should do. Jeremiah 42:1-6 captured that conversation they had with the prophet.

Verses 2-3 said they approached Jeremiah saying, “Please let our petition come before you, and pray for us to the Lord your God, that is for all this remnant; because we are left but a few out of many, as your own eyes now see us, that the Lord  your God may tell us the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do.”  They could tell that their number had dwindled. Many of them were deported to Babylon, and the remnant left behind were the poorest of the people and not too many of them. The right thing to do was for them to return to their homeland and submit to the rule of Babylon. Jeremiah had been preaching that they should submit to Babylon as it was Lord’s doing for their disobedience. They were hoping that he could seek the Lord and perhaps He would change His mind and agree with their decision to go to Egypt.

Jeremiah agreed to pray for them and promised to tell them whatever the message of God would be. He promised to tell them everything exactly and would not hide anything from them. They on their part promised that they would do everything God would say to them whether His message be a pleasant or an unpleasant one. They spoke as if they knew that the safest thing for them to do was to follow the direction of the Lord. We will leave to the next discussion on what God would say to them and how they would respond to the message of God from Jeremiah.

Seeking God was certainly the right decision they had made. And Jeremiah was certainly the right person to approach to seek an answer from God. For all along he had accurately shared the message of God truthfully with the people. He fearlessly declared the word of the Lord to them, whether pleasant or unpleasant, at great risk to the safety of his own life.  The truth is that if they had been listening to Jeremiah, they would have known what God would say to them regardless of how many times they sought Him. Their approach to Jeremiah this time had everything that seem sincere. The words they used sounded spiritual but deep inside their hearts, they very badly wanted to seek refuge in Egypt. It was another desperate attempt to get their own way.

From their approach to seeking a message from God, we learn how we should approach God. We learn with what attitude we should relate to God. The Lord wants us to discern His will and be true to what God has already revealed to us. We must not go from one advisor to another wishing to find one that will concur with our hidden agenda. If we already know what God wants us to do, do it and not prevaricate by seeking means to circumvent it.