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Consider the questions that were raised in the first two acts of this book. Is Jeremiah telling the truth, or are the prophets who promise peace? Would the LORD really allow Zion to burn, and drive His people from a land that He himself had given them? Is it truly safer to flee Jerusalem than to remain inside the walls? Would Jeremiah’s strength remain…and would the LORD truly make him a fortified city, “against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land?” Yesterday, many of these questions were answered.

Today’s opening scene shows Nebuzaradan, the Babylonian Captain of the Guard, revealing to Jeremiah his understanding of why Jerusalem was destroyed: "The LORD your God pronounced this disaster against this place. The LORD has brought it about, and has done as he said. Because you sinned against the LORD and did not obey his voice, this thing has come upon you.”

Let’s dwell on this a second. In this statement, it sounds like Nebuzaradan is giving the LORD – Jehovah, the God of Israel – the glory for Babylon’s victory. Not Merodach, not the Baals, not Asherah. He says, “The LORD has brought it about…” Furthermore, he recognizes that it was Judah’s rebellion against the LORD, not against Babylon, that brought judgment on them: “Because you sinned against the LORD and did not obey His voice…”

This is stunning in religious, historical, and literary terms. The persistent thread running through this book has been: “But they would not listen…” Through peace and war, plenty and famine, Jeremiah has been proclaiming the coming judgment. Thousands of God’s people and four of Judah’s kings stubbornly refused to heed the warnings. Yet in these chapters we’ve seen the king’s Ethiopian servant, the Babylonian captain, and even the king Nebuchadnezzar himself (by granting Jeremiah protection) recognize that the truth was in Jeremiah and in his words.

And this is only the beginning of the surprises today, as a new order takes shape for the provinces of Western Babylon. Raiding parties of mixed background roam the land. A new governor is appointed but is soon murdered. Fear that Babylon will avenge him grips the remaining Judeans and the refugees who only recently returned home.

So they come, ironically, to Jeremiah, asking “that the LORD your God may show us the way we should go…” and promising that “Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God…”

Our verse for this week is Psalm 51:10: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Jeremiah 40 through 42. Now let’s read it!

Jeremiah 40 - 42

The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, after Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah who were carried away captive to Babylon. The captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him, "Jehovah your God pronounced this evil on this place; and Jehovah has brought it, and done according as he spoke. Because you have sinned against Jehovah, and have not obeyed his voice, therefore this thing has come on you. Now, behold, I release you today from the chains which are on your hand. If it seems good to you to come with me into Babylon, come, and I will take care of you; but if it seems bad to you to come with me into Babylon, don't. Behold, all the land is before you. Where it seems good and right to you to go, go there." Now while he had not yet gone back, "Go back then," he said, "to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people; or go wherever it seems right to you to go." So the captain of the guard gave him food and a present, and let him go. Then Jeremiah went to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah, and lived with him among the people who were left in the land. Now when all the captains of the forces who were in the fields, even they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam governor in the land, and had committed to him men, women, children, and of the poorest of the land, of those who were not carried away captive to Babylon, then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men came to Gedaliah to Mizpah. Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan swore to them and to their men, saying, "Don't be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you. As for me, behold, I will dwell at Mizpah, to stand before the Chaldeans who will come to us; but you, gather wine and summer fruits and oil, and put them in your vessels, and dwell in your cities that you have taken." Likewise when all the Jews who were in Moab, and among the children of Ammon, and in Edom, and who were in all the countries, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant of Judah, and that he had set over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, then all the Jews returned out of all places where they were driven, and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah, to Mizpah, and gathered very much wine and summer fruits. Moreover Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were in the fields, came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, and said to him, "Do you know that Baalis the king of the children of Ammon has sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to take your life?" But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam didn't believe them. Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, saying, "Please let me go, and I will kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no man will know it. Why should he take your life, that all the Jews who are gathered to you should be scattered, and the remnant of Judah perish?" But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said to Johanan the son of Kareah, "You shall not do this thing, for you speak falsely of Ishmael." Now in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal offspring and one of the chief officers of the king, and ten men with him, came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and there they ate bread together in Mizpah. Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah arose, and the ten men who were with him, and struck Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land. Ishmael also killed all the Jews who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldean men of war who were found there. The second day after he had killed Gedaliah, and no man knew it, men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even eighty men, having their beards shaved and their clothes torn, and having cut themselves, with meal offerings and frankincense in their hand, to bring them to Jehovah's house. Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping all along as he went, and as he met them, he said to them, "Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam." It was so, when they came into the middle of the city, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah killed them, and cast them into the middle of the pit, he, and the men who were with him. But ten men were found among those who said to Ishmael, "Don't kill us; for we have stores hidden in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey." So he stopped, and didn't kill them among their brothers. Now the pit in which Ishmael cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had killed, by the side of Gedaliah (this was that which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel), Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with those who were killed. Then Ishmael carried away captive all of the people who were left in Mizpah, even the king's daughters, and all the people who remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive, and departed to go over to the children of Ammon. But when Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done, then they took all the men, and went to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and found him by the great waters that are in Gibeon. Now when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, then they were glad. So all the people who Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned about and came back, and went to Johanan the son of Kareah. But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the children of Ammon. Then Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces who were with him took all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after he had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam--the men of war, with the women, the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon. They departed and lived in Geruth Chimham, which is by Bethlehem, to go to enter into Egypt because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon made governor over the land. Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, came near, and said to Jeremiah the prophet, "Please let our supplication be presented before you, and pray for us to Jehovah your God, even for all this remnant, for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes see us, that Jehovah your God may show us the way in which we should walk, and the things that we should do." Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, "I have heard you. Behold, I will pray to Jehovah your God according to your words; and it will happen that whatever thing Jehovah answers you, I will declare it to you. I will keep nothing back from you." Then they said to Jeremiah, "May Jehovah be a true and faithful witness among us, if we don't do according to all the word with which Jehovah your God sends you to tell us. Whether it is good, or whether it is bad, we will obey the voice of Jehovah our God, to whom we send you; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of Jehovah our God." After ten days, Jehovah's word came to Jeremiah. Then he called Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, and said to them, "Jehovah, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before him, says: 'If you will still live in this land, then I will build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I grieve over the distress that I have brought on you. Don't be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Don't be afraid of him,' says Jehovah, 'for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand. I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you, and cause you to return to your own land. "'But if you say, "We will not dwell in this land," so that you don't obey Jehovah your God's voice, saying, "No, but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we will see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there we will dwell;"' now therefore hear Jehovah's word, O remnant of Judah! Jehovah of Armies, the God of Israel, says, 'If you indeed set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to live there, then it will happen that the sword, which you fear, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are afraid, will follow close behind you there in Egypt; and you will die there. So will it be with all the men who set their faces to go into Egypt to live there. They will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. None of them will remain or escape from the evil that I will bring on them.' For Jehovah of Armies, the God of Israel, says: 'As my anger and my wrath has been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you, when you enter into Egypt; and you will be an object of horror, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you will see this place no more.' "Jehovah has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah, 'Don't go into Egypt!' Know certainly that I have testified to you today. For you have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for you sent me to Jehovah your God, saying, 'Pray for us to Jehovah our God; and according to all that Jehovah our God says, so declare to us, and we will do it.' I have declared it to you today; but you have not obeyed Jehovah your God's voice in anything for which he has sent me to you. Now therefore know certainly that you will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live."

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