Today we are reading Jeremiah 42. In this chapter we read about the stubborn servants of the king who now find themselves about to be annihilated by the Babylonians. They beg Jeremiah to pray to the Lord for them and the response to the prayer is to not go to Egypt. Ultimately they do go and are crushed. “And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God in anything that he sent me to tell you. Now therefore know for a certainty that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.”” Jeremiah 42:21-22 This chapter is a little complicated. People who have rejected God and His servant Jeremiah now want God’s help. God gives them a message through Jeremiah and they still reject it and receive God’s punishment as a consequence. Are there examples of this same struggle in your life? We struggle with sin and sometimes are very stubborn to defend our sin. God tells us, “Do not go to Egypt” yet we go anyway. Thank God that He provides the way of escape through repentance. Pastor Tim
