Friday, May 3, 2024

Jeremiah 43: Johanan fears Babylon and flees to Egypt with all Jews that remained in the land

 In Jeremiah 43 we read how Johanan opposed Jeremiah words:

1-3 When Jeremiah finished telling all the people the whole Message that their God had sent him to give them—all these words—Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah, backed by all the self-important men, said to Jeremiah, “Liar! Our God never sent you with this message telling us not to go to Egypt and live there. Baruch son of Neriah is behind this. He has turned you against us. He’s playing into the hands of the Babylonians so we’ll either end up being killed or taken off to exile in Babylon.”

Johanan believes in what he wants to believe. For instance: he believed that Gedaliah would be killed, but now, he doesn't believe that the Lord told to stay and not go to Egypt because he had already decided to go to a country that seemed safe. However, the Lord says that this plan will fail. They will meet death, exile and slaughter in Egypt.

10-13 “Then address them: ‘This is what God-of-the-Angel-Armies says: Be on the lookout! I’m sending for and bringing Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon—my servant, mind you!—and he’ll set up his throne on these very stones that I’ve had buried here and he’ll spread out his canopy over them. He’ll come and absolutely smash Egypt, sending each to his assigned fate: death, exile, slaughter. He’ll burn down the temples of Egypt’s gods. He’ll either burn up the gods or haul them off as booty. Like a shepherd who picks lice from his robes, he’ll pick Egypt clean. And then he’ll walk away without a hand being laid on him. He’ll shatter the sacred obelisks at Egypt’s House of the Sun and make a huge bonfire of the temples of Egypt’s gods.’”

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