Word of Salvation – Vol.52 No.30 – August 2007
Murphy’s Law
A Sermon by Rev John Haverland
on Jeremiah 41:16-43:7
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 11:32-12:3
Theme: The small remnant in Judah reject God’s word and God’s prophet and flee to Egypt.
Purpose: To urge you to seek God’s guidance, listen to his word and do what it says.
(A books of sermons on Jeremiah by Rev Phillip Ryken was useful in the preparation of this sermon, as well as others in this series.)
Introduction to the Scripture reading: Before we read this part of God’s Word let’s examine the context and background of these chapters.
The book of Jeremiah is not arranged in a chronological manner but in a topical format; that is, it is not arranged according to time but rather in topics. The last section of the book, chapters 46-51, are a collection of prophecies against the nations. Chapters 39 and 52 describe the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC under the Babylonian army. And chapters 40-44 describe what happened after that; so these chapters cover the last part of Jeremiah’s life and ministry; here we are looking at the end of this sequence of events.
After the fall of the city, Zedekiah was taken away into exile along with many others. The city was destroyed. The temple was ransacked and then burnt. The city walls were pulled down.
King Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah as the governor of Judah. Gedaliah was a man of peace and honour and was trusted by Babylon and by his own people. His rule inspired confidence and many of the Jews who had scattered to the surrounding nations returned to Judah. The soldiers and army officers who had been hiding in the surrounding countryside also returned. Things were looking up. Confidence was returning.
Gedaliah, however, was too trusting and he was assassinated by a man called Ishmael, one of the army officers, who was supportive of the Ammonites. Ishmael also killed Babylonian soldiers and other Jews and then took many of the people captive and headed off to the Ammonites.
Another army officer, Johanan, heard about this and gathered soldiers together and they rescued these people. But this whole group feared Babylonian reprisals and they decided that they would flee to Egypt where they thought they would be safe. Before they did this they decided they should consult the Lord through Jeremiah to get direction about where to go and what to do.
[Read: Jeremiah 41:16 – 42:22] [Sing Psalm/Hymn] [Read: Jeremiah 43:1-7]Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Many of you will have heard of Murphy’s Law. There are a number of variations of his law, but one of them makes the observation that “If something can go wrong, it will”! Murphy’s Law would make a good heading over these chapters that record the end of this period of Judah’s history. They are a sad ending to the life and ministry of the prophet Jeremiah because they show that the people of Judah remained the same. They did not listen to God’s Word and they did not obey him. Instead they made up their own minds and went their own way.
These chapters record some of the last messages of Jeremiah – the last words of the Lord to these people who remained behind in Judah. They show us that God’s word was requested, that it was rejected, and that it remains. They also cause us examine our own attitude to God’s word and our own response to it.
First of all we see that the people of Judah REQUESTED to hear the word of the Lord for their situation.
This was a significant moment in Israel’s history. Here was a decisive turning point. This was history in the making. What they did here would determine the future of the nation. They had started on the road to Egypt and were near Bethlehem (41:17). They were literally at the crossroads. Should they stay in the land or should they go down to Egypt? In trying to determine what to do they decided to ask for the word of the Lord.
It was an encouraging request. It came from all the army officers and from all the people from the least to the greatest – everyone was united in their desire to hear what the Lord had to say (42:1).
It was also a realistic request. They recognised their situation. They explained that they “were once many, now only a few are left” (vs 2). Many Jews had died during the siege of Jerusalem. Others had been killed by the Babylonian army. Others had been taken away into exile leaving only the poorest people behind. Things were not looking good.
It was a wise request. They approached the prophet and said, “Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do” (vs 3). They approached the right person, who was the prophet, who had the ear of the Lord God, who was the only one who could give them this information. It sounded like a sincere request.
In verse 5 they even called the Lord as a witness against them if they ignored his word. And in verse 6 they promised to obey the Lord no matter what he said, “Whether it is favourable or unfavourable, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the Lord our God.” The people offered the Lord a blank cheque for obedience.
Here was a request that had all the ingredients for success. It echoed words spoken by the people of Israel on earlier occasions to Moses and to Joshua and to Samuel. Yet there was one significant point of concern here: that is, they were already on their way to Egypt! They had already started on the journey. They were already travelling. It looks as though they were looking for confirmation for what they had already decided. They wanted the Lord to affirm the plans they had already set in place. The request to Jeremiah seems a bit like an afterthought; “Oh, how about we ask the Lord? By the way, what about seeking the will of God?”
Don’t we do this, too? We make up our own minds about our lives: about what job we will do, about where we will study, about whom we will marry, about where we will live, about holidays we hope to enjoy; but we often do this without reference to the Lord. Then, when we have decided what we are going to do, or where we are going to go, then we pray, then we ask the Lord for confirmation of what we have already chosen.
But that is the wrong way round. Rather, we should pray first and then make up our minds. We should seek the Lord’s will in the Scriptures and in prayer and then decide on a course of action. This applies to many decisions we face in our own lives and in our families and for us as a church.
What the people of Judah asked for is a good model for guidance, but we need to be sure that it comes early on in our deliberations, not after we have made up our minds.
Let’s pray that “the Lord our God will tell us where we should go and what we should do” and resolve that we will obey him (vss 3,6).
Secondly, we notice in this story that GOD’S WORD WAS REJECTED
Ten days later the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. So he called together the army officers and the soldiers and all the people from the least to the greatest. Everyone was there to hear the word of the Lord about their situation.
The Lord told them to stay in their own land. He recognised that they were afraid of the king of Babylon and they feared reprisals. So he reassured them, “Do not be afraid of him for I am with you and will save you and deliver you from his hands” (vs 11). If they remained in the land the Lord promised to plant them and to build them up. They had been punished for their sins and now the Lord wanted to show them compassion and restore them to their land.
He warned them against the other course of action of going down to Egypt. He knew this was an attractive option. Egypt appeared to be a land of peace, a refuge, a place of safety, a way of escaping the war and famine they had just experienced in their own land.
This remnant of Israel looked south to Egypt in the same way that the people of Israel in the desert under Moses had looked back to Egypt – back to the “good ole days”.
But the prophet knew this was unrealistic. They were looking at that land with rose tinted glasses. Going there would be disastrous and so he expressed this as plainly and directly as he could. There was no mistaking his advice. “O remnant of Judah, the Lord has told you, ‘Do not go to Egypt’.” (vs 19)
And he warned them of the consequences that would follow if they decided to do this. “If you are determined to go to Egypt and you do go to settle there, then the sword you fear will overtake you there and the famine you dread will follow you into Egypt and there you will die” (vss 15-16).
Jeremiah knew that this was not really what they wanted to hear. This was not the message they expected. It was unpopular. It went against common sense and it did not calm their fears. But the Lord wanted them to live by his word and not by their own assessment of the situation. He wanted them to be guided by the truth of God and not by their own political calculations or their own analysis of international events.
This is true for us today as well. We too need to live by the word of the Lord. For us today that means living by the Bible, by the Scriptures, which are the full revelation of God’s will for our lives. We need to obey the Lord and do what he commands. Sometimes this may not seem like a safe option. Sometimes it is risky to obey the Lord and to trust in him.
It seems risky to give 10% of your income to the Lord when you could be putting that towards your retirement.
It seems risky to choose to marry and to commit yourself to another person “for as long as we both shall live” when you don’t know how things will turn out.
It seems risky to stand up for what is honest and true in your workplace or in your place of study and to stick out as being different.
Yet what seems risky in the short term turns out to be the safest option in the long term. What seems a dangerous choice in the uncertainties of the present turns out to provide an eternal security that nothing can threaten.
But the people of Judah did not see this. They did not want to trust in God and they rejected his word. Their response shows just how hollow their earlier words had been. That was all talk! They didn’t really mean what they had said. It all sounded good but they were empty promises. They had only wanted the Lord to rubber stamp what they had already decided to do. That hadn’t happened and so they were going ahead anyway.
To justify their decision they dismissed Jeremiah and accused him of lying (43:2)! They claimed to have a better insight into the will of the Lord than the prophet of the Lord! They also accused him of being wrongly influenced by his friend Baruch and that both were acting from an evil motive, wanting to have them handed over to the Babylonians.
So all the people disobeyed the command of the Lord to stay in the land and instead they went down to Egypt. The army officers led the way and they took with them all the people of Judah – men, women and children.
Going to Egypt like this was the Exodus in reverse. A thousand years earlier the Lord had rescued his people out of their slavery in Egypt; and now, here they were, going back there, to their doom. They were negating God’s earlier work. They despised his great act of salvation in the past.
If you go on and read chapter 44 you’ll see that this meant the end of this part of God’s people. The future of Israel did not lie with this remnant of Israel but with the remnant that had gone away into exile in Babylon. Those who had gone into Egypt would die in that land, but those who had been taken to Babylon would return to their land and would rebuild the nation. The future lay with the Babylonian exiles, not with the voluntary exiles going to Egypt. This is what the Lord had prophesied in earlier words through Jeremiah (chapters 24 & 29:16-20) and the Lord would fulfil his word. This is the final point we should notice.
GOD’S WORD REMAINS
Our last view of Jeremiah is of him being taken away to Egypt with all the other Jews. When the people of Israel came out of Egypt 1000 years earlier they were led by Moses, that great prophet of the Lord, and they listened to him. When the people of Judah returned to Egypt they took Jeremiah with them, another great prophet of the Lord, but they ignored him.
This was nothing new. All through his long ministry he had been slighted and scorned. He had been ignored and rejected. He had been unpopular and unrecognised. His entire ministry had been difficult and had been at great personal cost. And even after he had been proved to be right, they still did not believe him or pay attention to his words. From a human point of view his ministry was notably unsuccessful. He had seen no converts, no church growth, no repentance, no spiritual reform, no revival.
Yet throughout this long and difficult ministry Jeremiah had been faithful – and in the eyes of the Lord this was his success! He had been obedient. He had done the will of the Lord. He had spoken the word of the Lord. He did not shirk his responsibility. He did not shy away from saying what God wanted him to say and he never once compromised his message. He persevered despite loneliness and opposition. He was a man of courage and yet also compassion. One writer described him as “the bravest, grandest man of Old Testament history” (W W White).
We are not told about his death. Jewish tradition has it that he was stoned to death. He was one of the men of faith described in Hebrews 11. He was one of those of whom “the world was not worthy”. He “faced jeers and flogging… he was put in prison…. he was destitute, persecuted and mistreated…” (Heb 11:36-38).
Yet although he was unrecognised by those in this world he was recognised by God. He was one of those who “were all commended for their faith”. He was an alien and a stranger on earth, taken from his own land to a foreign country. But he was looking for a better country – a heavenly one. He was looking for that city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
In all this Jeremiah pointed ahead to Jesus, who was the fulfilment of all the Old Testament prophets. Jesus also came to his own, but his own did not receive him. He too was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His words also were ignored and rejected.
But, like Jeremiah, he too persevered, doing the will of his Father in heaven. He fulfilled his calling. He completed his work. And he too looked ahead to the reward that would follow. “After he had provided purification for sins he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven” (Heb 1:3). After he had completed his great work of salvation “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name” (Phil 2:9).
In our present day and age it seems as though Murphy’s Law is the law of the land; if something can go wrong it will. That is the reality of living in a fallen world with sinful people. But in this world of sin the Lord has proclaimed his word of salvation and hope. He did that through prophets like Jeremiah. He did that finally and fully in His Son, Jesus Christ. He does that today through the reading and preaching of the Scriptures.
Don’t reject it, as did the people of Judah. Rather, seek God’s will in and through his word, in all the decisions of life. Receive his word with a good and noble heart. Retain it, and persevere in doing God’s will. And one day you will enter that better country and receive your eternal reward from the Lord Jesus himself.
Amen.