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Jeremiah 42:5-6 Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the LORD your God sends you to tell us. 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.” 

Nothing improves our faith and our prayer life like a spot of bother!  The situation in Jerusalem was desperate.  Nebuchadnezzar had conquered the city and had taken most of its inhabitants off as captives to Babylon; the King and his small army had been captured and humiliated; and among those who had been left behind to cultivate the land there was political intrigue and unrest to the point where no-one felt safe.  It seemed to most of them that the best option was to flee south to Egypt and increase their distance from the powers of the north.  But things were so bad it also seemed unwise to try anything that didn’t have the LORD’s blessing.

The saddest part about all of this is that the answer the LORD gave Jeremiah to pass on to them – to stay in Jerusalem and tough it out – was counter-intuitive.  So much so that a small group of them led by Ishmael son of Nethaniah, a descendant of King David – and quite contrary to David’s constant example of not taking things into his own hands, but rather submitting to God’s often enigmatic timing, and with with mixed motives from his own sinful, jealous heart, deceitfully assassinated Nebuchadnessar’s appointed governor in Jerusalem.  Gedaliah was a wise, kind, gentle man who was just right to deal with the very complex political situation.

Everything after that went pear-shaped – the inevitable consequence of folllowing human wisdom instead of God’s wisdom.  Now, in spite of all this, and their vows to obey whatever God answered through Jeremiah, they went ahead and fled to Egypt, suffering all the consequences the prophet had warned them about.

Paul tells us we should learn from their foolishness (1 Corinthians 10:6).  It is good to test our own prayer life in the light of their experience.  When we are in a difficult place our prayers can sound very sincere and genuine, with all sorts of vows attached to them; but too often they are accompanied by a hidden agenda.  Are we really seeking to know God’s will in our lives, or are we just wanting his stamp of approval on what we want to do?  Sometimes God calls us to do things that are counter-intuitive and therefore uncomfortable and perplexing – (but never contrary to his revealed truth in the Scriptures!).  Obedience might be hard to explain to our family and friends, or even ourselves.  Authentic prayer must carry with it a genuine desire to submit to God, and to trust fully him and his infallible Word in spite of the evidence (Hebrews 11:1).  Praise God it’s not always this hard, but sometimes it might be!

– Bruce Christian