"However, if you say, 'We will not stay in this land,' and so disobey the Lord your God, and if you say, 'No, will will go and live in Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the trumpet or be hungry for bread,' then hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: 'If you are determined to go to Egypt and you go to settle there, then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow you to Egypt, and there you will die." Jeremiah 42:13-16
When I read this passage, I immediately recognized the irony in it. These people were the survivors who hadn't been taken to captivity in Babylon. God was telling them to stay in Judah and be His remnant there; but instead after they had seen all the destruction that had come in their land, they decided that Egypt was a better place for them. If you know anything at all about the Israelites, then you know that they were slaves in Egypt at one time and God had set them free by bringing plagues against the land and the people who lived there, including the plague on the firstborn. The Egyptians had treated them harshly, and God had saved the Israelites when they cried out, and made them His chosen people. Here in Jeremiah, many generations later, they decided they wanted to go back to this territory to settle because they feared being hungry for bread, among other things.
How many of us fear being hungry when we try to lose weight? I know I do. I hate being hungry. I hate feeling light-headed and desiring the taste of something that I know I can't have. It's easy to be overweight - you simply eat whatever sounds good. But, it's a struggle to maintain weight and even harder to start losing it. That said, we knowingly go right back into captivity when we give into our fears rather than trust God. We don't like being hungry, so we willingly go right back where we started. It sounds awful, but I've done it time and time again.
And what does God promise His beloved people who go back into captivity? For one, the famine they dread will follow them there, and more importantly, they will die there. If we don't obey God's instructions of where He wants us to go and if we put more emphasis on our desire for food than His will for our lives, then the good He has planned for us will instead end in destruction. God wanted the people in this passage to be His remnant in His land and rebuild it. Instead, they gave into their desires for an 'easier' life; and God warned them up front, through Jeremiah, that this was NOT His plan for them and that they would die of the very things they feared when they went to Egypt. Unfortunately, this people didn't listen to God's warnings. They found out the hard way that when God says He's going to do something, He means it. He only speaks truth. And while He's gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, He also is just and righteous.
I keep reading throughout these pages of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations and Ezekiel of how much God warned His beloved people. They were doing detestable things, including worshiping other gods, and yet He sent His messengers to speak to them in love and promised to relent if they would turn from their wicked ways and follow Him wholeheartedly. When they didn't, He followed through on His word that He had sent to His prophets. Today I realized that we're in a similar situation. We can choose to do things the way we've always done them, giving ourselves comfort through food rather than laying down our fear of being hungry and giving it to God. Or, we can say that we realize we'll die in captivity if we don't make a significant change and follow God wholeheartedly in this struggle.
We may not know what that looks like, but we can trust in our compassionate God, who will reward our obedience by saving us! Only through Christ can we be saved from a life of sin. We need forgiveness and we need redemption - we need a 180 turn from our old patterns. Let's not go back to Egypt. Let's press on toward what God has planned for our lives! Who's with me?
