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Dave Burnette's Commentary

Jeremiah Chapter 42

Written By: God through Inspiration
Penned By: Jeremiah
Date Penned: (627-586 BC)
Overview: To Urge God's People to Turn from Sin to God (c 1-52)
Theme: God's Judgement on Judah (c 1-45)
Message: God Warns About Going to Egypt (v 1-22)

Jeremiah 42 Commentary

(42:5-6) A Spoken Curse - Johanan and his associates spoke their own curse; Jeremiah merely elaborated on it. It was a tragic mistake to ask for God's guidance with no intention of following it. Be sure never to ask God for something that you know in your heart you really do not want or for guidance that you would never obey if he asked you to. It is better not to pray than to pray hypocritically. God cannot be deceived. 


(42:7) Finding God's Will -  In this verse, Jeremiah models one secret to finding God's will: Don't be in a hurry. Too often we pray a hasty prayer for guidance and then, if God has not made his will clear by the next day, feel like he doesn't care. But God wants to know that we are serious about learning his will. God needs to purify our lives so we can respond wholeheartedly to his will, which takes time. When you need to hear from God, pray earnestly day after day, let God reshape your motives, and listen for his voice. Receiving God's direction at a crucial moment took Jeremiah, a great prophet, ten days. Be willing to trust God's timing. 

(42:10) The Lord is Perfect - Does God make mistakes? No--the Lord is perfect and makes no mistakes (Psalm 18:30). In this verse, God is not saying, "Oops." God's punishment upon Judah was just and necessary, but it made God sad to do it. God's heart rejoices to move to a new phase in his relationship with his people, blessing the remnant left in Judah. We do not always understand what God is doing as we experience suffering. But what a comfort to know that the one who holds our lives in his hands never makes a mistake!

 


David Burnette's Life Application


Seek the Lord - Not the World

 Each day we walk through the Bible chapter by chapter making an application of our text to help us grow in the Lord. Many applications can be made from each day's text. Today we continue in the Book of Jeremiah 42. In our text today we see how God warns His people to not go to Egypt for those who live by the sword shall die by the sword. In making application we see that Egypt is a type of the world and we are instructed to not go to the world for things we need but to rather go to our Lord. How about you? Do you go to the world for your needs? Let us learn from our text today and the example in Jeremiah to remember the Lord is source for our needs and we are not to turn to Egypt (the world) for it cannot meet our needs.  

 

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Jeremiah 42

Jeremiah 42

 1Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even unto the greatest, came near,

 2And said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the LORD thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us:)

 3That the LORD thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do.

 4Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto the LORD your God according to your words; and it shall come to pass, that whatsoever thing the LORD shall answer you, I will declare it unto you; I will keep nothing back from you.

 5Then they said to Jeremiah, The LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which the LORD thy God shall send thee to us.

 6Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.

 7And it came to pass after ten days, that the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah.

 8Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,

 9And said unto them, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present your supplication before him;

 10If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you.

 11Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith the LORD: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.

 12And I will shew mercies unto you, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land.

 13But if ye say, We will not dwell in this land, neither obey the voice of the LORD your God,

 14Saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell:

 15And now therefore hear the word of the LORD, ye remnant of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there;

 16Then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, whereof ye were afraid, shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die.

 17So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there; they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.

 18For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As mine anger and my fury hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt: and ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no more.

 19The LORD hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah; Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have admonished you this day.

 20For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us unto the LORD our God; and according unto all that the LORD our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it.

 21And now I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, nor any thing for the which he hath sent me unto you.

 22Now therefore know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither ye desire to go and to sojourn.