JEREMIAH 42-432010 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Jeremiah 42-43

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2010. Well, this evening we're in chapter 42 of the book of Jeremiah, and as we...

through the book of Jeremiah, we're in a portion right now which is really like a narrative portion. It's telling the story, the historical account of what happened to the city of Jerusalem. And the context for this point in the story or the account is the city of Jerusalem has been conquered. God has sent Jeremiah and for many years Jeremiah prophesied to the nation of Judah, to the city of Jerusalem.

warning them that if they did not turn back to God, that Babylon would come and conquer the city and carry away all the captives and there would be no one left. It would just be rubble. It would be not inhabited. And that's where we're at in the story. They did not repent. They did not turn back to God. And so now they're in the land of Israel.

Judah, near the city of Jerusalem, there was a little tiny remnant of people left. The poor of the land were left behind and they were to take care of the land. But there was a problem because the person that Babylon left in charge, King Nebuchadnezzar left Gedaliah in charge.

And he was just assassinated. We saw that last week as we were looking at chapter 41. And so he was assassinated and now the rest of the people are really freaked out because Babylon has just conquered them for the third time.

They set up a new leader. Now that leader is dead. They're thinking Babylon's going to come and just wipe us all out. They're not going to take time to hear our story or find out who did it or do an investigation. They're probably fed up with us by now. And so we're just going to...

Get out of here is what they're thinking. They want to head out of the region of Judah and head towards Egypt. And that's where we find the rest of the Jewish people, the remnant that's left as we pick it up in chapter 42. Look with me at verses 1 through 3. It says this.

Now all the captains of the forces, Johanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest came near and said to Jeremiah the prophet, Please let our petition be acceptable to you and pray for us to the Lord your God for all this remnant since we are left but a few of many as you can see here.

that the Lord your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing we should do. So,

The people at this point have just been rescued by Johanan from the person that actually assassinated Gedaliah, the governor, the person that Babylon left in charge. They've been rescued because he was carrying them away captive. And Johanan comes and rescues them. He brings them back. And now they come near to Jeremiah to seek some counsel, to hear from the Lord. What are we supposed to do now? Because the leader's been put to death.

What are we going to do? And they come to Jeremiah with the request saying, there's just a few of us left. We used to be many, but now, well, there's just a handful of us. You can think back to when God brought the nation of Israel out of Egypt. And it says that there was 600,000 men who were brought out of Egypt.

If you factor in women and children, there's estimates from two to three million is the conservative usual estimates of how many people were brought out of Egypt. And God brought this great multitude out of Egypt through the wilderness. Yes, a generation died, but about the same number replaced them as the next generation grew into their place. As they go into the promised land, they're a huge host.

Under King Saul, under King David, under King Solomon, the nation is blossoming. They're fruitful. They're very well populated. But ever since Solomon's son took the throne, the people have not locked with God. They've turned away from God. After Solomon's son, you remember, the kingdom was split in two. The northern kingdom...

we call Israel at this point, they never walked with God. They never, because Jerusalem is down in the southern part, and the northern leaders didn't want the people associating, you know, going down to Jerusalem in the southern kingdom, so they set up their false gods right away. They never walked with God. They were conquered well before the city of Jerusalem was. The southern kingdom, well, they had good kings and bad kings, but the people...

The people as a whole never really turned back to God. And they continued to walk farther and farther away from God. And God sent his prophets. He sent his messengers to call them back. But they refused. And so they've been diminishing year by year as a result of their rebellion against God. They've become fewer and fewer to the point now that the only people that's left in the land is just a handful.

And this is significant and it's important because, well, it's exactly what God said would happen. And I would encourage you to spend some time later and look up Deuteronomy chapter 28. In Deuteronomy chapter 28, God spells out for the nation what will happen if they turn away from Him, which is exactly what the nation had done. And God says, look, if you guys turn away from Me,

Instead of one chasing a thousand, your enemies are going to chase you. Instead of you being fruitful, you're going to be in want. You're going to lack. He says specifically, God tells him in Deuteronomy chapter 28 verse 62, he says, You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.

And so God says, you used to be like the stars of the heaven in multitude. You were a great multitude, but you will be reduced to a few because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. As I mentioned as I was praying, Isaiah chapter 55, we have the scripture which tells us, God says, just like the rain comes down and it has effect, it accomplishes things on the earth,

The Word of God does not return void. It's not given out and then sometimes it comes to pass and sometimes it doesn't. The Word of God accomplishes that which He set it forth to do. And in Deuteronomy chapter 28, God set forth His Word. And He says, when you disobey Me, when you rebel against Me, this will be the result. And here in Jeremiah chapter 42, we find the fulfillment of God's Word. It's kind of the thrust of...

What we'll be looking at today as we continue on in Jeremiah, that God's word is fulfilled. We need to know that God's word is fulfilled. Both the blessings and the curses, as we saw in Deuteronomy chapter 28. Both the things that we love and the promises that we like to claim, but also the promises of judgment.

The consequences of sin, the reaping what you've sown. God's Word is fulfilled. And you can't escape it, and you can't outrun it, and you can't outwit God.

His word will be fulfilled. It will accomplish that which he set it forth to do. And so these guys come to Jeremiah now and they say, we used to be many, but now we're just a few. By their own mouths testifying that God's word has been fulfilled exactly the way that God said it would be accomplished. Going on now in verse 4.

It says,

whether it is pleasing or displeasing. We will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God. So as they come near to Jeremiah, they're asking him to pray for them, that God would give them direction. They need to know, what are we supposed to do now? Gedaliah has been assassinated. We want to go to Egypt.

But before we just go and do what we want to do, they say, well, let's go and see what God wants us to do. And so they go to Jeremiah and they say, Jeremiah, will you pray for us? And Jeremiah says, yes, I'll pray for you. And here's my commitment to you guys. Whatever God tells me, I'll deliver it to you. So I'm not going to, you know, hold back if God says something that I don't think you're going to like. I'm going to share with you the complete message that God gives me to give to you.

And the people respond, if you just judge by their words here, very well. They say, that's wonderful, Jeremiah. You tell us what God says. And whatever He says, that's what we're going to do. Even if it's displeasing to us. Even if it's not something that we would be very excited about. Even if it's contrary to what

What we think should be done in this situation, Jeremiah, if we don't like it, we're still going to obey. But if we like it, we'll still obey. And so either way, they say we are going to be obedient to

Now this is a wonderful thing to say. More important though is for it to be the reality of our heart. That as we come and seek the Lord, that our commitment is, God, whatever you say, I'm going to do. Even if I don't agree with it or understand it, even if I don't like it, I'm going to be obedient to you. The problem here, as we'll see in the chapter, although they said this,

It was not really the state of their heart. God calls them out later and calls them hypocrites. That they said this with their mouths, but they had no actual intention of following through and being obedient if it was not something that they wanted to hear. And sometimes we do that. We come and we ask God because we're hoping that God's going to tell us to do something that we already want to do. So that...

That way we can feel good about being obedient to God and doing the thing that we already wanted to do to begin with before we knew if it was from the Lord or not. How many times do we do that? You know, it's like, God, this is where I want to go. Would you bless it? And if He says no, well, we think, oh, that must not be the Lord. I think I'm going to go this way anyways. If He says yes, then we can say, hey, great, I wanted to go that way anyways. There's so many times that we approach God and we have this dual heart. Instead of

Although we might say the words like the nation of Judah did, but our heart's not there where, Lord, whatever you want to do, whatever you want me to do, however you want me to go, I'm going to be obedient to you. As I've shared before this many times that we ask God, we seek Him, we want to hear from Him so that we can decide if we like His idea or not.

So we pray and we seek God. God, I want to know, what would you like me to do in this situation? How would you like me to handle this? Where do you want me to go in this direction? And we pray and we ask God so that we can decide whether or not we want to be obedient to that. We like his idea. Oh, great. That's a wonderful idea, God. I agree with that. I guess you're not crazy after all. I'll be obedient to you. But many times, God comes back to us with...

You have to lose your life in order to save it. Oh, I don't like that idea. That's crazy. I'm going to do my idea. My idea is better. I mean, I know you're smart and everything, God, but you've got kind of that ancient wisdom. And it's just not modern. I mean, you don't have the technology that we have today. Well, I think my way is pretty well thought out. I've got it figured out. We try to manipulate God. We try to...

play around and pretend like we're devoted to Him. But many times our hearts are already set to do whatever it is that we want to do without regard for what God wants us to do. But that's a very dangerous place to be. Because as I said earlier, God's Word will be fulfilled. He is going to accomplish that which He said He's going to accomplish. And so we need to get on board with His will and His plans and His purposes.

As we'll see as we look at the people of Judah, the remnant that's left. Verse 7. And it happened after ten days that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. Then he called Johanan, the son of Korea, all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, and said to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before him.

If you will still remain 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 relent concerning the disaster that I have brought upon you.

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. And I will show you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and cause you to return to your own land. Here we find the response that God gives through Jeremiah to the remnant, to the few that are left after Jerusalem has been conquered.

Jeremiah hears from the Lord and then passes on this message to them. He calls them back together and he says, Okay, I've heard from God. God spoke to me. This is what he has said. And what is the message that God delivered? Stay here in the land of Judah.

I know you want to go to Egypt, and it lets you desire, that's what you think is best, but stay here. Listen to what God says here, because this is really phenomenal. After all that we've been through going through Jeremiah together, all of the promises of judgment, all of the flat-out rebellion that we've seen by the people, the just absolute refusal to do anything that God desired,

Here God is extending his merciful hand to the people one more time and he says, Stay here. Let me be your God. I'm going to take care of you. And you don't have to be afraid of Babylon. I'm going to have mercy on you. I'm going to establish you in this land. I'm done with the judgment of this place. If you'll just turn to me. God is looking for an opportunity. He's saying, Give me an excuse.

to show you mercy. Give me the opportunity. Here is my mercy. Here is my grace. Here is this wonderful plan. Reach out and take it. Give me an opportunity to give this to you. Incredible, God says. You know, it's not like we ask God, Lord, I want to do whatever you want me to do. And I'm going to be obedient. And God says, you have to go fulfill your worst nightmare. Sometimes He calls us to that, but He prepares us for it.

But the majority of the time, He says, look, I want to show you mercy and grace. I want to bless you abundantly. I want to work in your life. I want to use you. And even if He calls us to fulfill our worst nightmare, that's where we're going to find the biggest blessings and joy that we've ever found. As we're obedient to God, to be in the center of His will is the best thing for us. But God doesn't, you know, just think of chores like punishment so that when we come to Him...

He says, alright, I got a good one for you. Here's a toothbrush. Get to work. He's desiring to work in our lives, to bless us, to do good, to establish us. To accomplish His will in us is something that's incredible.

And this is important because consider who it is this message is being delivered to. This is a people who have rebelled against God. Jeremiah's entire ministry, they've refused to listen. They've refused to pay attention. This isn't like, okay, this is, you know, the Sunday school kids. They've always been faithful. They've always prayed and now they're here and God says, all right, now I want to bless you. This is the same people that brought upon the judgment upon Jerusalem. God is saying, I want to bless you.

No matter how far we've gone, no matter how much we've rebelled against Him, no matter how bad we've blown it, God continues to extend His mercy and grace to us. He continues to offer us a chance to be His children, to be His people. He continues to reach out to us. Incredible, the grace and mercy of the God that we serve.

And so this is the message that God gives them. Now, we'll go on with the rest of the message in just a moment. But notice something in verse 7 that I think is important as well. It says, And it happened after ten days that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. How do you like that? After ten days, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. Now, I think that's important for a couple of reasons. First of all, put yourself in Jeremiah's shoes. Sometimes people will come to you and say, Hey, what do you think God wants me to do?

What do you think I should do in this situation? How do you think I should respond to these events or this person in my life? Sometimes people will come to us, as they did to Jeremiah, looking for some type of word from the Lord or looking for some type of guidance or counsel.

And I want to encourage you to look at the model of Jeremiah and apply it to your own life. Wait 10 days and then talk to them again. Maybe, but to wait to hear from the Lord. You know, Jeremiah didn't just say, okay, here's what I think you should do. Based upon my knowledge of God, based upon... He waited, he heard from the Lord, and when he heard from the Lord, then he called him back and said, this is what God has said.

It's so important that we don't just offer people our opinions, our own thoughts, our own advice. We need to be pointing people to the Lord and delivering the word of the Lord to people as opposed to just giving our best guess for the situation that they're in.

Jeremiah didn't just give them his own opinion. He waited. Even if it took some time. Even if it meant he didn't have an answer for them right away. He waited. He prayed. He sought the Lord. And then he brought back the message that God had given to him. But the second aspect of this, it's kind of flipping it around the other way because I think very often as well, we are the ones who want to hear from the Lord. But many times we want to hear from the Lord a lot sooner than 10 days from now.

We want to hear from the Lord and we want to hear from the Lord right now. God, what do you want me to do right now? You know, I really love the account in Genesis chapter 24. I'm sure you like it too. There is the servant of Abraham. He's sent out to get a wife for Isaac. And he goes...

to this well right outside of the town and he's there and he's praying to God. He says, Lord, would you help me? And if you're going to help me, would you just confirm it by having this happen? This kind of woman come and when I ask her this, then she'll do even more. And

And it says in Genesis chapter 24 verse 15, And it happened before he had finished speaking, that behold, Rebekah came out with her pitcher on her shoulder. Before he finished speaking his prayer, the prayer was answered. Oh, we love those prayers. We love those kinds of answers. But it doesn't always happen that way. And I think that's important to note and it's important to consider. That sometimes it's immediate. But other times, you've got to wait. Right?

And it's important to wait. And not just act, not just go, not just move, but to wait upon the Lord and be willing to wait 10 days or longer until God speaks to you, until you hear. God does not always respond instantly. And so we must wait. Wait upon the Lord. Well, as we go on now in verse 13.

We find the rest of the message that God gave him. So he says, first of all, if you stay here, I'm going to bless you. I'm going to show my mercy towards you. You don't have to be afraid of Babylon. But here's the other side of the coin, verse 13. But if you say, we will not dwell in this land, disobeying the voice of the Lord your God, saying, no, but we will go to the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor hear the sound of the trumpet,

Verse 1.

Then it shall be that the sword which you feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt. The famine of which you were afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt, and there you shall die. So shall it be with all the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to dwell there. They shall die by the sword, by famine and by pestilence, and none of them shall remain or escape from the disaster that I will bring upon them.

Verse 18, For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, As my anger and my fury have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will my fury be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And you shall be an oath, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach, and you shall see this place no more. So as we continue on with the message of the Lord, we have...

Well, the consequences of disobeying. God says, in effect, if you disobey, you will be destroyed. Disobedience will destroy you, God says. So God says, here's the message. Stay here. I'll bless you. Let me be your God. I'll show you mercy. But if you say, oh, we don't want to dwell in this land. And notice what the things that they say. We're going to go to Egypt where we're not going to see war.

Now, what have they been experiencing for the past several years? War. Babylon came and laid siege to Jerusalem. About ten years before this battle that just happened, there was another battle. A few years before that, there was another battle. Babylon came three times against the city of Jerusalem, conquering it. They've seen a lot of war. And so they figure, if we stay here, we're just going to continue to see war. They're thinking it's not going to change. God says...

If you disobey me thinking, oh, we want to go to Egypt and there we're not going to hear the sound of war any longer. We're not going to hear the trumpets or we're not going to be hungry. Now, what did they just go through? There, the city of Jerusalem, as Babylon was laying siege to it, they were starving. No supplies, no resources. They couldn't go out into the field to harvest the wheat. They ran out.

Because Babylon was surrounding them, cutting them off from their supplies. And so they've experienced war. They've heard the sound of the trumpet, the fear of battle, the fear of being conquered, the hunger that comes from starving as Babylon is laying siege to them. And so he says, if you think to yourself, we don't want to have those kinds of experiences again, maybe we better go to Egypt first.

God says, if that's what you're thinking, if that's what's going through your mind, then hear the word of the Lord. If you go to Egypt, whoever sets their face to Egypt, devotes themselves or decides we're going to Egypt, whoever does that, God says, you are going to experience those very things that you are fearful of. You see, you think you're going there to escape the sword and the trumpet and the famine, but

But God says, if you go to Egypt, those are the very things that you're going to experience. And it's going to happen. He says that all the men who set their faces to go to dwell there, they're going to die by the sword and by famine and by pestilence. And none of them shall remain or escape from the disaster that I will bring upon them. It's going to be complete. As many rebel against God is as many as will be put to death by sword, by famine, and by pestilence.

Whoever rebels is going to be destroyed. Verse 19. The Lord has said concerning you, O remnant of Judah, do not go to Egypt. Know certainly that I have admonished you this day. For you were hypocrites in your hearts when you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, Pray for us to the Lord our God. And according to all that the Lord God says, so declare to us, and we will do it.

And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, or anything which he sent you by me. Now therefore, certainly, know certainly, that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to dwell. You see here, their hearts were already set. Their minds were already made up. God gives them the warning stones.

He says, don't go to Egypt. Don't disobey. He says, know certainly that I've admonished you this day. I've given you a warning. I've issued you a warning. Don't go to Egypt. If you go to Egypt, the things that you fear are the things that are going to happen to you. He says, you are hypocrites.

Jeremiah says, when you told me go pray and then come back and whatever God says, that's what we're going to do. God gave Jeremiah some insight into their hearts. He said, you're hypocrites. You never intended. Your mind was already made up. You asked God because you know that's what you're supposed to do, but you were already set in what you were going to do. You'd already made up your mind. So he says, therefore, no, certainly not.

He says, know certainly that I've admonished you. Know certainly that you will die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. The word of God will be fulfilled, Jeremiah says. He lays before the remnant two choices, two options. You have the option of staying here, being blessed, being obedient to God. That's what God wants you to do. Or you can flee to Egypt as you want to do and you've decided to do. And there, because it's an act of disobedience,

Well, you'll experience the judgment of God. Consider who it is that Jeremiah is speaking to. This is the people that have just watched Jerusalem be destroyed, just a couple months prior. They saw Jeremiah and the prophecies that he brought forth. They saw those words being fulfilled exactly the way that Jeremiah had brought them forth, exactly the way that God had said they were going to happen. That's what they saw happen.

God prophesied and promised in advance what would happen to Jerusalem if they continued to rebel. And that is exactly what happened to Jerusalem. It was fulfilled exactly the way that God said. Now He gives them the warning not to go to Egypt and the consequences of that warning. But they still are set on rebelling against God, on fulfilling their own ways, on acting on their own wisdom. Even though they've just seen God's Word fulfilled.

They're still in the place where they refuse to listen to God. And we see that take place as we go on in chapter 43. Look at verse 1 of chapter 43. It says, Now it happened when Jeremiah had stopped speaking to all the people, all the words of the Lord their God, for which the Lord their God had sent him to them all these words, that Azariah the son of Hoshea, Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men spoke, saying to Jeremiah,

You speak falsely. The Lord our God has not sent you to say, do not go to Egypt to dwell there. But Baruch, the son of Noriah, has set you against us to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death or carry us away captive to Babylon. So they go to Jeremiah. They say, will you pray for us? And we're going to do whatever God says through you. Jeremiah comes back with a message. Option A, stay here, be blessed. Option B, go to Egypt and die.

And their response? You're a liar, Jeremiah. You speak falsely. We don't believe you. Baruch, he's put you up to this. He's always wanted us to surrender to Babylon. He's put you up to this. He's convinced you. He's the one who put these words in your mouth. This isn't God speaking. God hasn't told us this. We don't receive this. You speak falsely, Jeremiah.

And so they rebel. They say, no way. They blame it on Baruch, who's one of Jeremiah's servants, actually. And they say, no way, because their heart was already made up. They've already decided. We're going to do it our way. We're not going to listen to God. Verse 4. So Johanan, the son of Korah, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people would not obey the voice of the Lord to remain in the land of Judah.

But Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Judah who had returned to dwell in the land of Judah from all nations where they had been driven, men, women, children, the king's daughters, and every person whom Nebuchadnezzar and the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch, the son of Noriah,

So they went to the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the Lord, and they went as far as Tapen is. So here we find the tragic account of them acting out what they had set their mind to do. They do not obey God. They go to Egypt, and they take everybody that was left. Now again, this fulfills what God said through the prophet Jeremiah, that the nation of Judah would be without inhabitants.

hadn't quite yet been fulfilled. As Babylon conquered each time, they took away some captive, but they left some in the land. The third and final time, they took away the rest of the inhabitants, except for they left a small portion, the poor. There was a few that they left in the land.

Because they wanted someone to be able to pay tribute to them. They wanted someone to work the land and that Babylon could still gain wealth from those who were left. That's what they were looking for. They weren't trying to wipe out Jerusalem for the fun of it. They just wanted faithful servants there. And so each time they conquered, they left a few more there. There are a few left in the land. But God had said through Jeremiah, there's not going to be any inhabitants left. And here we find the fulfillment of that.

God's word is fulfilled exactly the way that he says it will be fulfilled. It is accomplished. God's word will come to pass. His promises are sure. Whether they be promises that we like or promises that we're not too fond of.

And here we find the people continuing to rebel against God. They do not obey him. And so, Johanan and the rest of the guys, they take all the people, everybody who is left, and they move them all to Egypt. I think that's kind of interesting as well because Johanan, you remember he was the guy who saved the people from Ishmael. When Ishmael killed Gedaliah and then was taking the people captive, Johanan goes after them. He kills.

saves them, he delivers them from Ishmael. And so one day he's saving them. The next day he's leading them to their own destruction. Leading them and rebelling against God. Leading them and taking them to the place that God had said, don't go. But the people go to Egypt. They choose to rebel. They choose, we've got it figured out. We know better than God. And so we're going to do it our way. Verse 8 says,

Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in Toppenes, saying, Take large stones in your hand, and hide them in the sight of the men of Judah, in the clay and the brick courtyard which is at the entrance to Pharaoh's house in Toppenes. And say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will send and bring Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne above these stones that I have hidden.

And he will spread his royal pavilion over them. And so now God gives Jeremiah a visual illustration for the people that they would understand, again, God's word and what God has said about those who go to Egypt. They've taken Jeremiah with them. They go to Egypt. They carry away all the people who are left, including Jeremiah. And so now they're in Egypt. And there in Egypt, God speaks to Jeremiah.

And as God often did, He gives them this visual sign for them so that they could have a visual understanding. Maybe they're not visual learners. I'm sorry, maybe they are visual learners. They didn't understand when Jeremiah said it just by the words. And so God says, well, here's a picture for you so that you can understand what My Word is. Here's a picture for you so that you can know this truly is from Me and My Word will be fulfilled. And so He tells Jeremiah, go take some big rocks.

And there's this brick that's out there, the courtyard for the Pharaoh. And what you need to do is go hide these big rocks underneath that brick pavilion area, that patio that's there. Hide those stones and then proclaim to the people that Nebuchadnezzar will stand above those thrones.

That he will set his throne above those stones. That he will spread his royal pavilion over those stones. In other words, that area, that territory is going to be conquered. That Nebuchadnezzar is going to be there. That he's going to establish himself there in Egypt where the people have fled to. Now we don't find the fulfillment of this in Jeremiah, but we do know that it was fulfilled.

About 20 years after the city of Jerusalem was conquered, Babylon conquered this part of Egypt. And the king Nebuchadnezzar established himself. About 568 BC or 567 BC, this is fulfilled. Again, the emphasis this evening, what we see over and over again is that the word of God is fulfilled exactly the way that he said it would be fulfilled. It's accomplished. It happens.

God's word accomplishes that which he set it forth to do. And we can't get around it. Here they're thinking Egypt is going to save us. It's opposite of maybe what some might call wisdom, right? So here you are in the land of Judah. All the strongholds have been destroyed because Babylon knocked them down because Judah was rebelling against them. So there's no walls. There's just little villages. There's no real security there.

No army left, it's just a little bit of a remnant that's left. Well, that's a dangerous place to be, one could say. Wow, that's pretty dangerous to be in that situation. But then you go down to Egypt and they have an army and they have strongholds and they have fortresses. Well, that must be better, you might think. Well, look, they've got security, they've got strength. They'll be protected against Babylon.

So they said, we're going to go to Egypt. There's security there. It's safe there. There's walls and armies and we'll be better off there than being out here in the open field with no one to protect us. They were working on their own intellect, man's wisdom, without listening to what God said. And so yes, it might be contrary to what we would normally think, what God asks us to do, what God speaks to us.

But we have this advantage. When everybody else thinks, you're crazy, why are you doing that? Well, that's what God told me to do. You see, the advantage is God's word will be fulfilled. It will be accomplished. The way that God said it's going to be accomplished, it's going to happen. And so if God says, stay here in the open field where everybody thinks you're crazy and where it seems like it's less secure, and you'll be safe there, or run over behind the secure borders,

Well, now you're going to experience the war, the famine, the pestilence, all those things that you're afraid of. Because God's Word is accomplished the way that He says it's going to be accomplished. It comes to pass exactly the way that God says it's going to come to pass. We see this with the inhabitants of Jerusalem as Jerusalem is conquered, just like God said. We see it as Jerusalem is left desolate with no inhabitants left, just as God said. We see it as they go to Egypt and there they...

Well, they are conquered by Babylon, just as God said. Verse 11, "...when he," that is Nebuchadnezzar, "...when he comes, he shall strike the land of Egypt and deliver to death those appointed for death, and to captivity those appointed for captivity, and to the sword those appointed for the sword. And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt."

And he shall burn them and carry them away captive. And he shall array himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd puts on his garment. And he shall go out from there in peace. He shall also break the sacred pillars of Beth Shemesh that are in the land of Egypt and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians he shall burn with fire. And so God finishes it up saying, He's going to be victorious. He's going to conquer. You're trusting in Egypt. You're hoping that Egypt can save you.

But Egypt is going to be destroyed. You're relying upon the strength of Egypt, but the strength of Egypt is going to be broken. And so God gives the message to the children of Israel, the remnant that's left, the last few that were left in the land that fled to Egypt, saying, My word is going to be fulfilled. God's word is accomplished. There's no escaping it. There's no outrunning God. There's no outwitting God. His word comes to pass.

And so where does that put us this evening? I want to encourage you this evening to consider where you stand. Are you in the place that you're at because that's where God has said for you to be? Or because that's what makes sense? That's what seems right? That's what you think is best? Have you waited for the Lord to speak to you, to give you the direction, to indicate to you where He wants you to be? And I'm...

That could be referring physically to literally where you are and where He wants you to be. Or it could be referring to a spiritual condition or an attitude or a state of heart or a place of service. What's God been speaking to you? And where are you at in relation to what God desires for you? We see the nation of Judah just continually, although they had all kinds of advantages,

with the temple there being in their midst, being the people of God, having this incredible heritage of godly men who had went before them. They just continued to rely upon their own wisdom, their own ways to rebel against God, to refuse to obey. And quite frankly, we have those same tendencies. We've got all these advantages. We go to church, we've got the Bible, but we can very easily find ourselves in the same position. Not really paying attention to what God wants,

Maybe not being patient enough to wait the ten days for Him to speak to us. Or maybe being like the nation of Judah, saying, oh, it didn't matter what He was going to say anyways because I'm going to do what I want to do. We need to be a people. We have the opportunity to be a people who can respond to God, who can hear His voice, who can be obedient to Him and be established and blessed beyond what we deserve and beyond what we can imagine. You want a fulfilling, joyful life.

overwhelming life, abundant life, like Jesus said, wait on the Lord. Hear from Him. Determine ahead of time, God, I'm going to be obedient to you. The worship team is going to come up and lead us in some songs. And as they do, I want to encourage you to take this time to seek the Lord, to wait upon the Lord. Come to Him this evening with a heart and a desire that says, Lord, I want to be obedient to you. Whether I like it or not. But don't just say the words.

Because it sounds good. It sounds spiritual. Let's make that the genuine desire of our heart. Let's make that the real commitment before God this evening. Lord, whatever you want to speak, however you want to lead, whatever you want to do, we'll be obedient and faithful to you. Let's wait upon the Lord. Let's hear from Him and allow Him to accomplish the things that He wants to accomplish. We can try to thwart it. We can try to disregard it. We can try to run from it.

But God's word will be fulfilled. And so I want to be on the side where God's word is fulfilled on my behalf and in my favor, as opposed to rebelling against him or relying upon my own wisdom and having God's word be fulfilled to my destruction. Let's take this time to get on the Lord's side, hear from him what he wants to do, and commit to following him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Let's worship the Lord together.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.