When God’s Answer Isn’t What You Wanted to Hear
What’s Jeremiah 42 about?
After Jerusalem’s fall, the surviving remnant asks Jeremiah to seek God’s guidance about fleeing to Egypt – but they’ve already made up their minds. This chapter reveals the dangerous gap between asking for God’s will and actually wanting to obey it.
The Full Context
Picture this: Jerusalem lies in ruins, the temple is destroyed, and most of the population has been dragged off to Babylon. The few survivors huddle together, traumatized and terrified. They’ve just witnessed the assassination of Gedaliah, the governor Babylon had appointed, and they know Nebuchadnezzar won’t be pleased. Egypt starts looking pretty good right about now – it’s the obvious escape route, the logical plan B.
But here’s where it gets interesting. These aren’t pagans making a purely political calculation. These are people who still acknowledge Yahweh, still recognize Jeremiah as His prophet. They approach him with what sounds like genuine spiritual seeking, asking him to pray and get God’s direction. The literary context is crucial here – this comes right after Jeremiah 40-41, where we see the tragic aftermath of Jerusalem’s fall and the political chaos that followed. Jeremiah 42 sets up the final act of the prophet’s ministry, showing how even in their lowest moment, God’s people struggle with the fundamental question of trust versus self-preservation.
What the Ancient Words Tell Us
The Hebrew here is absolutely fascinating. When the people approach Jeremiah, they use the phrase yippol-na’ tachanunenu lephaneycha – “let our supplication fall before you.” The word tachanun comes from the root meaning “to show favor” or “to be gracious.” They’re literally asking Jeremiah to let their plea for grace fall at his feet.
But here’s what caught my attention: they ask Jeremiah to pray el-YHWH Eloheycha – “to the LORD your God.” Not “our God” – “your God.” There’s already distance in their language, a subtle hint that they see this as Jeremiah’s relationship with God, not necessarily their own.
Grammar Geeks
The Hebrew verb darash (seek/inquire) appears twice in this chapter, but notice the different contexts. In verse 2, the people ask Jeremiah to “seek” God’s will. In verse 20, God accuses them of deceiving themselves about their true intentions. Same word, completely different heart attitudes.
When God’s answer finally comes through Jeremiah, the language shifts dramatically. God speaks in first person – “I will build you up,” “I will plant you,” “I will relent.” The Hebrew nichamti (I will relent/have compassion) is the same root used when God “regrets” making humanity before the flood. This isn’t wishy-washy divine indecision – it’s the language of deep emotional engagement, of a God whose heart is moved by His people’s situation.
What Would the Original Audience Have Heard?
For ancient Near Eastern ears, this whole scenario would have sounded achingly familiar. When empires clashed and smaller nations got crushed, the survivors always faced the same desperate choice: submit to the conqueror or flee to a rival power. Egypt had been the traditional refuge for centuries – it’s where Abraham went during famine, where Jacob’s family found safety, where Jeroboam fled from Solomon.
But there’s a deeper layer here that would have resonated powerfully. The people are essentially asking, “Should we trust God’s promise to preserve us, or should we take matters into our own hands?” This is the same question that had plagued Israel since the wilderness wanderings. Do we trust the invisible God or the visible armies? Do we believe the prophet’s words or our own strategic analysis?
Did You Know?
Archaeological evidence shows that Jewish communities did indeed flourish in Egypt during this period. The Elephantine papyri, discovered in the early 1900s, reveal a thriving Jewish military colony in southern Egypt. The people weren’t wrong about Egypt being a viable refuge – which makes God’s command to stay in Judah all the more challenging.
The ten-day waiting period (Jeremiah 42:7) would have felt agonizing to people living in constant fear of Babylonian retaliation. In their world, delayed divine responses weren’t unusual – gods were often portrayed as deliberating, consulting with other deities, or simply being hard to reach. But Yahweh’s delay here serves a different purpose: it’s testing the sincerity of their request.
Wrestling with the Text
Here’s where this passage gets uncomfortable: God essentially tells them that the very thing they’re afraid of will happen to them if they disobey, but in the place they think is safe. If they stay in Judah and trust Him, He’ll protect them from Babylon. If they flee to Egypt seeking safety, the sword they’re running from will overtake them there.
But why would God be so opposed to what seems like a reasonable survival strategy? This isn’t just about geography – it’s about faith’s fundamental nature. The people are asking God to rubber-stamp a decision they’ve already made based on fear rather than trust. They want divine approval for a human solution.
Wait, That’s Strange…
Notice that God doesn’t immediately condemn their desire to go to Egypt. Instead, He promises blessings if they stay and warns of consequences if they leave. He’s not being arbitrary – He’s revealing that their safety depends on their relationship with Him, not their geographical location.
The phrase “Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon” (Jeremiah 42:11) cuts right to the heart of the matter. Fear is driving their decision-making, and fear makes terrible theology. When we’re afraid, we stop seeing God as bigger than our circumstances and start seeing Him as one factor among many to consider in our strategic planning.
How This Changes Everything
What strikes me most about this chapter is how it exposes the difference between seeking God’s will and seeking God’s approval. The people already knew what they wanted to do – the evidence is in their reaction when God’s answer doesn’t match their preference. They weren’t really asking “What should we do?” They were asking “Will you bless what we’ve already decided to do?”
This pattern shows up everywhere in Scripture and in our own lives. We pray about decisions we’ve already made, hoping God will sign off on our plans rather than genuinely surrendering our will to His. We treat prayer like a divine consultation service rather than an invitation to align our hearts with God’s purposes.
The beautiful promise hidden in God’s response is that He wanted to do something new with this broken remnant. “I will build you up and not tear you down, I will plant you and not uproot you” (Jeremiah 42:10). The Hebrew verbs here echo the language of Jeremiah 1:10, where God first called Jeremiah to “uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” After all the judgment and destruction, God was ready to move into building and planting mode. But it required trust.
“Sometimes the very thing we’re running from is what God wants to use to build our faith, and the place we think is safest is where we’re most vulnerable to losing sight of Him altogether.”
Key Takeaway
Real faith isn’t about finding the perfect circumstances where trusting God feels safe and reasonable – it’s about trusting Him precisely when every human instinct tells us to take control and protect ourselves.
Further Reading
Internal Links:
External Scholarly Resources:
- The Book of Jeremiah: Chapters 26-52 by Jack R. Lundbom
- Jeremiah 26-52: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary by William McKane
- From Exile to Restoration: The Archaeology and History of the Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods by Oded Lipschits
Tags
Jeremiah 42:7, Jeremiah 42:10, Jeremiah 42:11, fear, trust, divine guidance, obedience, exile, remnant, Egypt, Babylon, prayer, seeking God’s will, faith versus fear, submission, divine protection
