Jeremiah 42

August 31, 2022

Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.

Reading along with us in Jeremiah? Here’s today’s reading:

Jeremiah 42 (NIV)

1 Then all the army officers, including Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest approached 2 Jeremiah the prophet and said to him, “Please hear our petition and pray to the Lord your God for this entire remnant. For as you now see, though we were once many, now only a few are left. 3 Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.”.........Continue Reading

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This Post Has 8 Comments

  1. Happy to see the people going to God for counsel and it sounds like it was fair for them to be scared about their fate if they stayed in this land so Jeremiah is more than willing to petition God on their behalf. However, there was a catch….they had to promise to listen and obey regardless of whether or not they liked God’s answer. While they promised they would it was clear at the end of the chapter that God knows our hearts and He knows when we are giving lip service and when we are truly sincere. I imagine God, like a parent would, watching them as they receive the news that they are to stay in the land and their wheels immediately start turning as this is not what they wanted to hear and coming up with their own Plan B and how angry it must have made Him to know they had no intention of keeping their promise.

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  4. Yes it seems the people have learned their lesson and realize they need God’s direction and promise to obey when they hear it. God in His compassion expresses regret over the way He has dealt with the Jews (like a parent who realizes the discipline their child needs to receive, but doesn’t like that they have to put it in place) and appears excited by the opportunity to bless them again..that is if they stay in the land. And God not only tells them what to do, He also tells them what not to do. He very much knows their (and our) hearts and knows what direction they are leaning in.. It is a valuable lesson in carrying the intention to obey God to fruition into actually obeying God, because it is not the thought that counts in this case.

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  5. Beginning to read this chapter. Finally thought some good news in this book. How does anyone think they can trick God with fancy words. Yikes. Your do much better not saying anything. Can’t believe all the promises God makes through Jeremiah. Vs 7-12. And they say no. Are we that obstinate at times? Who doesn’t want to be blessed by God. Reminds me of the verse: For this day choose life or death

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  7. Jeremiah: You want to hear from the Lord? Sure, but you are hypocrites and won’t do what God says anyway!

    I think it (once again!) reinforces the free will that God allows man. In this chapter God relents, “For I relent concerning the disaster that I have brought upon you” and gives the reassurance of what He will do if they obey. “Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not be afraid of him,’ says the Lord, ‘for I am with you, to save you and deliver you from his hand. 12 And I will show you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and cause you to return to your own land.’”
    God knows that they will not obey and that they are hypocrites in their request to Jeremiah, but He still proposes the choice and the accompanying consequences.

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