The Lord Your God

The Lord Your God

Jeremiah Chapters 40-45

Judah, Babylon, and Egypt

The first section of Chapter 40, in verses 1-6, tells of Jeremiah being freed from captivity and offered the chance either to go to Babylon or to remain in Judah. This presentation of the story sounds somewhat different than what we read in 39:11-14. We may infer from either presentation that, just as some of Jeremiah’s fellow countrymen assumed he was a Babylonian sympathizer, the Babylonians had heard of him and his message and had assumed the same thing. In the current chapter, Jeremiah is offered a chance to come into their country under their protection. The account in the previous chapter makes no mention of this, and the setting of the encounter with Jeremiah is also different. In either case, however, Jeremiah is left under the protection of Gedaliah, whom the Babylonians have installed as the leader over Judah.

The rest of the chapter and the entirety of Chapter 41 are a more elaborate version of an account which is summarized in 2 Kings 25:22-26. Briefly, after Gedaliah was installed to govern the people, a man named Ishmael lead a revolt and assassinated Gedaliah. Ishmael’s motives are not clear, but his revolt was stopped and he escaped. Afraid of the Babylonian response to the uprising, the people made ready to escape to Egypt.

Our God

In Chapter 42, the people come to Jeremiah to ask him to enquire of the Lord regarding their flight to Egypt. The exchange of pronouns in verses 1-6 is very telling. The people begin by asking Jeremiah to consult “the Lord your God.” That is, they want Jeremiah to consult his God. Jeremiah responds, saying using the phrase translated in our Bible “the Lord your God” but of course he means the God of the people. The people then say they will do whatever “our God” tells them to do.

Jeremiah does consult the Lord, and it is interesting to note that, even for a prophet of God, the answers do not come immediately (verse 7). The answer is summarized in verses 19-22, where Jeremiah says that the people should not go to Egypt, though he knows they will.

In Chapter 43, as recorded in verses 1-7, the people respond that Jeremiah must be lying, because “our God” would not say such a thing. Jeremiah, who told the people they must go to Babylon, but stayed with them when they stayed, and told the people they must not go to Egypt, went with them when they went.

So, in Chapter 44, we find a remnant of Judah in Egypt, in much the same situation as we found the entire nation of Judah at the beginning of the book. Just as the people of Israel were to lose their faith in the one true God, and to follow after the idols of the indigenous peoples of the land, the remnant of Judah believed that they knew better than God what was good for them, and we read in verses 7-10 that they went off to Egypt and began to worship the idols of the people there.

In verses 15-18, the people respond to Jeremiah, no longer acknowledging the word of the Lord, or that Jeremiah speaks for the Lord, but simply that he speaks “in the name of the Lord.” In their response, the people completely reject the authority of the Lord, believing that they know best, and that it is best that do as they have always been taught to do.

Baruch

Chapter 45 is yet another chapter out of time with the surrounding chapters. Though we have been reading about the time following the reign of Zedekiah, this story takes place during the reign of Zedekiah’s predecessor, Jehoiakim. It is unclear exactly what has transpired. The story tells of some response from the Lord to Baruch by way of Jeremiah, but it is unclear exactly what Baruch has requested. The setting, established in the initial verses, is after Baruch had dictated the scroll for Jeremiah. We know from that story (in Chapter 36) that Jeremiah and Baruch suffered some hardship because of the scroll, and this may be the complaint that Baruch brought to the Lord.

The Lord’s response, however, seems to suggest that Baruch expected more. He had served the Lord, and expected reward. The Lord’s only promise was that Baruch would be safe.

The Lord Your God

When we try to own God – to talk about your God and our God – and how your God might do this, but my God would not do that, we try to limit God. We think we know God, and we expect God to behave a certain way, and we are angry when God behaves some other way. When we make God small enough, we have no need for God at all, and we can make our own gods, live our own lives. When we do that, we have sealed our fate. There is no worse punishment than to live without God.

We can know God, but not through our reason; it is not something we achieve. We can know God through faith, through the gift of God’s revelation to us. In this, we have something over the people of Judah. “In the past, God spoke to our forefathers by the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last few days, he has spoken to us by his Son.” (Hebrews 1:1-2a) Still, like the people of Judah, we may not always listen, and may, even now, not be what we should be. But the Lord says “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt.” (Jeremiah 31: 3b-4a)