Wednesday/Thursday - Jeremiah 43 - Jeremiah in Egypt

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OMETIMES we find ourselves in bad situations that are not of our own making. What are we to do then? Well, look up my friend. God is still on the throne. Jeremiah had preached against fleeing to Egypt. Yet, he ended up being taken there by force. What a frustration that must have been to him! And yet, his mission didn't suffer any for it. God kept speaking to him, and he kept spreading God's word.

The people who had spoken so nobly to Jeremiah about their intentions concerning Gods words, well, their fate of noble piety was short lived. They flatly denied that Jeremiah had received a word from God at all (Jeremiah 43:2). And then, under Johanan's "leadership" they hightailed it to Egypt... with Jeremiah and his secretary in tow (Jeremiah 43:6).

But, just like Jonah couldn't hide from God in Joppa, nor in the belly of a whale, even so this remnant of Jews couldn't escape from God or from His words even down in Egypt. God instructed Jeremiah to hide large stones in a brick oven at Pharaoh's house. And, he had to do it in full view of his Jewish brethren. Then he was to proclaim to them the one message that they would have hated the most.  He declared that the Babylonians were going to invade Egypt successfully. The stones in the brick kiln were going to belong to Chaldeans soon enough. All of Johanan's efforts to run from Nebuchadnezzar were useless. And of course, this is no surprise. Johanan had been moving in contradiction to God's directives.  So, pain was inevitable.