The city of Jerusalem has been destroyed. The temple has been burned to the ground. The land has been ravaged by years of war with mighty Babylon. Your king's eyes have been gouged out. So many of your countrymen have been hauled off to a distant land. Any real semblance of order that remained ended when the Babylonian-appointed governor Gedaliah was murdered.
What do you do now? The Jews who remained in the land wanted to know. So they decided to go to the prophet Jeremiah.
This was the same prophet whose many warnings had been ignored. He had prophesied that Jerusalem would be conquered, and yet no one had listened to him. In fact, they had always been pretty upset with Jeremiah for saying such negative things and for dampering the spirits of the soldiers and those who remained in the city. These Jews, in other words, had never liked Jeremiah, but he turned out to be right in the end. What he said would happen did happen...and now here they are, stuck in a war-ravaged country, unsure of what to do and where to go.
"So they said to Jeremiah, 'Let the Lord be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not do according to everything which the Lord your God sends us by you. Whether it be pleasing or displeasing, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God'" (Jer. 42:5-6).
These Jews sound pretty sincere, don't they? It looks like they are really serious about obeying God. These same people who had contributed to the wickedness and depravity of Jerusalem before, which in turn, had warranted God's severe displeasure and wrath, apparently had been humbled and now wanted to obey God...even if what God wanted them to do was "displeasing" to them. I'll tell you something: if I heard someone say this to me today, I'd be tickled. If someone came to me and said, "Casey, I want you to tell me what I need to do to be saved, and even if I don't like it, I'll do it," I'd be overjoyed!
But God knew their hearts. And if Jeremiah didn't know their hearts when they made the request, he was going to know their hearts soon enough. For in fact, their motives were not pure! God knew what was in their hearts and that they actually had already planned to flee to Egypt (vs. 14-17). He plainly told them that they "were hypocrites" in their hearts (vs. 20), and already knowing what they would do, stated the consquences that they would inevitably face for their decision to go to Egypt:
"Now therefore, know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to dwell" (vs. 22)
So did they seem sincere when they came to Jeremiah? Yes. Was their request well-phrased? Absolutely. And yet we know, based on a more thorough reading of Jeremiah 42 that they had the wrong motive and heart when they came to Jeremiah seeking advice.
Of course, we find similar examples in the New Testament, especially in the four gospels. There were many people who came to Jesus with inquiries even though they had no real interest in obeying His words. Some might have asked sincerely, but were disappointed by the answer they received. Others posed questions to Jesus in an attempt to trap Him.
Likewise, there are people today who ask questions and who express "interest" in learning more about the Bible. I welcome all questions, and I am always excited when someone agrees to study the Bible with me. Perhaps someone is struggling with a particular problem or there is a specific spiritual issue that they want to know more about - again, I am overjoyed to have such opportunities to convey God's message. And yet, I have studied with people who, despite their outward interest, do not have the right motives. Even though they may express great desire to learn God's will, they do not TRULY have the attitude that "whether it is pleasing or displeasing, we will obey the voice of the Lord" (Jer. 42:6).
Now here's where it gets interesting...
When Jeremiah told the people that they needed to remain in the land of Israel, and that they must NOT go to the land of Egpyt, they became angry with Jeremiah:
"...the proud men spoke, saying to Jeremiah, 'You speak falsely! The Lord our God has not sent you to say, 'Do not go to Egypt to dwell there'" (Jer. 43:2).
So they took Jeremiah by force and marched straight down to Egypt contrary to God's clear instructions, and in spite of their insistance upon obeying God "whether it is pleasing or displeasing." Not only that, by once they were in Egypt, it came out that many of the women were "[burning] incense to the queen of heaven and [pouring] out drink offerings to her" (Jer. 44:17). They had done this before Jerusalem was destroyed, and now planned on going right back to it!
In the end, all of these rebellious Jews would die!
Here's my observation based on this dramatic saga in Jeremiah 42-44...
It is wonderful to ask spiritual questions and to seek God's will, but if we do not have a sincere heart, not only will we NOT respond well to the truth, but we will become more and more stubborn and will drift deeper and deeper into the snare of sin. This is what we learn from the story in Jeremiah, and this has been confirmed by my own experiences. There are folks today who will agree to a Bible study and outwardly will seem sincerely interested, but once they hear the truth of God's message, they will set their jaw, resist it, reveal their true character, and in the end, will end up more stiff-necked and stubborn than ever before.
The lesson for us: whether you're a sinner seeking the truth of Christ or a Christian seeking a deeper understanding of God's will, have a truly sincere heart. If you do, you will find the truth. However, if you are not willing to embrace God's truth, be it "pleasing or displeasing," you will most likely be disappointed, for some aspect of it will be displeasing to you...and you may very well end up going down the same dangerous, destructive path as the Jews did in Jeremiah 42-44.
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