Jeremiah 44:1-14
In chapter 44 we have the final public words of the prophet Jeremiah, no one knows what happened to him, but some believe the people of Judah in Egypt murdered him. That would be in keeping with religious people, and they were very faithful to false gods like the queen of heaven. As a footnote never forget religion’s end game is death, and we who follow Jesus are about life. When a follower of Christ acts as a religious person they are filled with fear, and it is fear that leads to hate, but when that takes place you have departed from the faith, and entered into religion.
Jeremiah’s life was without wife or children, and his ministry was not uplifting in that no one followed or did what he told them. He was God’s spokesman for 60 years, and his message always began in this way: “Thus says the LORD.” And these are his last public words recorded. “The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Judeans who lived in the land of Egypt, at Migdol, at Tahpanhes, at Memphis, and in the land of Pathros, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all the disaster that I brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah. Behold, this day they are desolation, and no one dwells in them, because of the evil that they committed, provoking me to anger, in that they went to make offerings and serve other gods that they knew not, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers. Yet I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying, ‘Oh, do not do this abomination that I hate!’ But they did not listen or incline their ear, to turn from their evil and make no offerings to other gods. Therefore my wrath and my anger were poured out and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they became a waste and a desolation, as at this day.” (Jeremiah 44:1-7)
In the first 14 verses of chapter 44, we have “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel stated three times but the people of Jeremiah’s time did not have ears to listen. It has always amazed me the things religious people will believe but never check out in God’s written word to see if they hold water.
As we explore more of the first fourteen verses of this chapter, we find God asking these questions: “Why do you commit this great evil against yourselves, to cut off from you man and woman, infant and child, from the midst of Judah, leaving you no remnant? Why do you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, making offerings to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to live, so that you may be cut off and become a curse and a taunt among all the nations of the earth?” Then God goes to a question many of us should be asking; do you not recall your history? They had no recall of the evil they and their leaders had done, they blamed God and not themselves, sounds like the day we live in.
We have often heard that sin will take us deeper than we ever expected, and how many of us have done just a little flirting and ended up leaving our wife and children, how many have tried a little weed and ended up addicted to dope. Yes, sins end game is to kill, steal, and destroy, both in Jeremiah’s time and ours.
God’s judgment for sin is strong, and yet that was the message no one wanted to hear from Jeremiah. Here is what is coming disaster and famine, the people of Judah will be the object of cursing, scorn, and disgrace, most will die in Egypt. But it is always a choice, and my prayer is that we have ears to hear and do what God has said.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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