They should have learned. After all, Jeremiah had told them exactly what was going to happen. Ever since the days of Josiah’s reign, almost 30 years earlier, Jeremiah had been saying that armies would come from the north, besieging Jerusalem because of its wickedness (1:13-16). Some 11 years earlier, at the beginning of Zedekiah’s reign, Jeremiah had told the people they must submit to the King of Babylon if they didn’t want to experience “the sword, famine and pestilence” (27:8). And Jeremiah had warned the people not to put their trust in the Egyptian Pharaoh to save them from the coming Babylonian onslaught (37:6-10).

Yes, everything Jeremiah had predicted had come true: the Babylonians had in fact invaded the Promised Land, and had in fact killed most of God’s people, and had in fact carried off some of them into exile. So, the tiny remnant left in the land had yet another choice to make: should they run off into Egypt, seeking the Pharaoh’s protection, or should they remain in the land where their Babylonian conquerors remained in control?

Well, when they asked Jeremiah’s advice, he repeated his message of the previous 30 years or so: to stop trusting in foreign gods, or in human rulers, or in political alliances to keep them safe. He told them to stop trusting in what made sense to their own reason, and simply to trust in God to keep them safe. Jeremiah urged them not to be afraid of the Babylonians (42:11) but instead to express their faith in God by remaining under Babylonian control in the land where God promised to give His people protection and prosperity (42:10,12).

And maybe God is calling you to the same kind of radical trust in Him today, to do what doesn’t make any sense to you. Maybe God is calling you to live in quiet confidence in Him in spite of the violence and the pestilence that roam our streets. Maybe God is calling you to turn away from trusting in your guns or your government to keep you safe and to trust in Him alone. Maybe God is calling you to sacrifice your own desires so that others’ needs might be met. Maybe God is calling you to love those who have hurt you in the past or those who hate you right now.

Well, the people of Jeremiah’s day refused to believe him, no matter how many times he had been proven right before. Instead of trusting God to protect them, they ran from their fears, all the way into Egypt (43:4-7). So, Jeremiah predicted they would have to be taught the same lesson all over again, when the Babylonians came to dominate Egypt, just as they had conquered Jerusalem (43:10-13).

So, what about us? Will we allow the awareness of our helplessness to drive us to the Lord, trusting Him alone for our salvation and our safety? Or will we keep looking for other answers to our problems – and find only disappointment and despair?

Jeremiah 42:7-17 (NASB)

7 Now it came about at the end of ten days that the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.
8 Then he called for Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the commanders of the forces that were with him, and for all the people both small and great,
9 and said to them, “Thus says the LORD the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before Him:
10 ‘If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will build you up and not tear you down, and I will plant you and not uproot you; for I shall relent concerning the calamity that I have inflicted on you.
11 ‘Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you are now fearing; do not be afraid of him,’ declares the LORD, ‘for I am with you to save you and deliver you from his hand.
12 ‘I will also show you compassion, so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your own soil.
13 ‘But if you are going to say, “We will not stay in this land,” so as not to listen to the voice of the LORD your God,
14 saying, “No, but we will go to the land of Egypt, where we shall not see war or hear the sound of a trumpet or hunger for bread, and we will stay there”;
15 then in that case listen to the word of the LORD, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “If you really set your mind to enter Egypt, and go in to reside there,
16 then it will come about that the sword, which you are afraid of will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are anxious, will follow closely after you there in Egypt; and you will die there.
17 “So all the men who set their mind to go to Egypt to reside there will die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; and they will have no survivors or refugees from the calamity that I am going to bring on them.”‘”