For those of you who have been following this blog through Jeremiah, you know that we’ve done quite a bit of jumping around the book just to stay roughly chronological.
That said, it may come as a bit of a surprise (it did to me) that chapters 43-44 are essentially the end of Jeremiah.
The last 8 chapters all happened prior to the events recorded here. The only thing remaining after this is passage is a little footnote concerning King Jehoiachin which we’ll get to in a future blog.
What also surprised me was that Jeremiah probably died right there in Egypt.
We see in chapter 43 that he was dragged there against his will by the leaders of the Jewish remnant that was trying to flee from Nebuchadnezzar. And no where in scripture do we see that he ever returns to Judah.
Doing a little digging (the internet is such a useful thing), Jewish tradition holds that he did indeed die in Egypt, probably stoned to death by his own people.
Chapter 44 may provide some explanation for this. (Although admittedly, it may have no connection with it at all. There are times we just have to say, “I don’t know.”)
Having been dragged to Egypt, Jeremiah probably was shocked by what he saw when he got there.
Despite all the horrors that had happened to the Israelites in Jerusalem with the siege and its ultimate fall, the Jews living in Egypt, far from repenting from their sin, were continuing in it.
Namely, they continued worshiping their false gods, specifically the “Queen of Heaven.” (This is probably referring to Ashtoreth, a fertility goddess).
At this, God gave Jeremiah a message to pass on to the people.
Basically he said this:
“You saw all that happened to Jerusalem because the people had turned their backs on me and started worshiping all these false gods. They did all kinds of detestable things and despite my warnings, they continued in their sin. That’s why all my wrath was poured out on them.
“Why then are you continuing in the sins that destroyed your family and friends in Jerusalem? Because of what you are doing, judgment will come upon you right here in Egypt.” (Jeremiah 44:1-14)
How did the Israelites respond?
“What are you talking about? When we made offers to the Queen of Heaven, everything went well with us. It was when we stopped that this disaster happened. That’s why we’re making these offerings once again.” (Jeremiah 44:15-19)
It seems that the Jews here had some selective memory.
This is just a guess, but it’s possible that their stopping of offerings happened during the revival under Josiah. During that time, God’s blessing fell upon the nation.
But after his death, the last three kings fell back under idol worship, and so did the nation. It was at that point, after years of warning from the prophets, that Jerusalem fell.
Jeremiah also points out here that their prosperity during their time of idol worship was due not to their idol worship, but due to God’s mercy.
God had given them an extended time to repent, but when they refused to, his patience finally ran out and judgment fell. (Jeremiah 44:20-23)
And now, because they were continuing their sin, judgment would follow them there in Egypt as well.
What can we learn from this? Sometimes we look back at our old life before we became Christians and we start to remember “the good times.”
We think of our life of sin, and think, “Those were the good days. My life was so happy then. Maybe I should go back to my old way of life.”
But we forget two things.
Number one, for most of us, those good times were not so good.
We were often hurting our relationships with our family and the people around us by our attitudes and actions. On top of that, we were hurting ourselves by the bad decisions that we made.
But number two, and even more important, we were a people standing under judgment. And if we had continued on that path, we would have been condemned for all eternity.
Even if we were enjoying our lives, the day would have come when we would have paid for all of our sins.
The Israelites forgot this and slid back into their old sins, and it eventually cost them their lives.
If we slide back into our sins, they will destroy us too.
So let us not slide back to our old life and our old ways. Let us embrace the new life God has given us.
Only in doing so will we truly find a life worth living.
Moment to Moment (Bible blog) 