Rev. Don Campbell
Jeremiah 41-45
THOUGHT FOR TODAY, August 21, 2019
“CALLING GOD AS WITNESS”
Jeremiah and the poorest of the land were not carried into Babylonian captivity. Gedaliah was appointed governor over them, and he gradually began to bring some order to the land. They were told to stay in the land to gather wine, summer fruits, and oil and store them. The Chaldeans would, of course, collect some of the harvest for taxes (Jeremiah 41-45 40).
The remnant came to Jeremiah: “Let our plea for mercy come before you, and pray to the LORD your God for us, for all this remnant—because we are left with but a few, as your eyes see us— that the LORD your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing that we should do” (Jeremiah 42:2-3). Jeremiah agreed, saying that he would hold nothing back from them. They responded: “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the LORD your God sends you to us. Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God” (Jeremiah 42:5-6).
After 10 days Jeremiah returned with God’s word, which was that they should stay in the land and not go to Egypt seeking protection and profit. If they stayed, God would protect and bless them. If they went to Egypt, they would die there by the sword, famine, and pestilence (Jeremiah 42:7-17).
They did exactly what God told them not to do (Jeremiah 42:18-22), and God did exactly what he told them he would do. We will read about God’s judgment against Egypt tomorrow.
Paul said, “As God is my witness” twice (Romans 1:9; Philippians 1:8), so it is not wrong, but when we call God as our witness, we had better now be blowing smoke.
CONNECTIONS
1. Would you agree with this statement? The louder a church proclaims its purity, the more it makes claims of being the exclusive people of God, and the more testimonies of faith it offers, the more harshly it will be judged by both Christ and the world when these claims are not wedded to fruit?
2. A cartoon showed a many clinging to a small tree growing out of the side of a cliff over which he had obviously fallen. In one frame he cries out for God to save him. In the next, a voice from heaven thunders, “LET GO OF THE BRANCH!” In the next, he who had called to God said timidly, “Is there anybody else up there?” The remnant did not trust the word of God to stay put. The man in the cartoon did not trust the word of God to let go. Are there people today who want God to save them, but they want him to do it on their terms?
