The Piety of Panic Text: Jeremiah 42:1-6
Introduction: Foxhole Religion
There is a kind of piety that flourishes in a crisis. When the shells are falling and the end seems near, even the most hardened unbeliever might find himself muttering a prayer. This is what we call foxhole religion. It is a religion of desperation, a last-ditch effort to bargain with a God who has been studiously ignored up to that point. It is a piety of panic. And while God, in His mercy, can certainly use such a crisis to bring about genuine repentance, we must be careful not to mistake the panic for the piety. The human heart is a master of disguise, and it is never more cunning than when it puts on a religious mask to save its own skin.
The scene before us in Jeremiah 42 is a textbook example of this. Jerusalem has been sacked. The Babylonians have crushed the city, hauled off the best and brightest, and left behind a small, terrified remnant. This remnant, under the command of men like Johanan, is now in a state of high anxiety. They are caught between the hammer of Babylon and the allure of Egypt. They are afraid, they are disoriented, and so they do what desperate people do. They go looking for a word from the Lord.
And who do they go to? They go to Jeremiah, the very prophet they had spent years persecuting, ignoring, and attempting to kill. They had thrown him in a cistern to die. They had rejected every word he spoke from the Lord. But now, with their world in ashes, they show up on his doorstep, hats in hand, with a request that sounds, on the surface, like the most humble and sincere submission imaginable. This passage is a master class in the anatomy of false piety. It looks good, it sounds good, but it is rotten to the core. It is a solemn promise made with fingers crossed behind the back.
We must pay close attention here, because our own hearts are cut from the same crooked timber. We are all tempted to approach God as a divine consultant, to be called upon in an emergency but kept at a comfortable distance when things are going well. We are tempted to make extravagant promises of obedience, provided that God's will happens to align with our own preconceived plans. This remnant in Judah is not some ancient anomaly; they are a mirror.
The Text
Then all the commanders of the military forces, Johanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people both small and great approached and said to Jeremiah the prophet, "Please let our supplication come before you, and pray for us to Yahweh your God, that is for all this remnant, because we remain but a few out of many, as your own eyes now see us, that Yahweh your God may tell us the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do." Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, "I have heard you. Behold, I am going to pray to Yahweh your God in accordance with your words; and I will tell you the whole message which Yahweh will answer you. I will not keep back a word from you." And they said to Jeremiah, "May Yahweh be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with the whole message with which Yahweh your God will send you to us. Whether it is good or bad, we will listen to the voice of Yahweh our God to whom we are sending you, so that good may come to us when we listen to the voice of Yahweh our God."
(Jeremiah 42:1-6 LSB)
The Polite Demand (vv. 1-3)
We begin with the approach of the delegation.
"Then all the commanders of the military forces, Johanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people both small and great approached and said to Jeremiah the prophet, 'Please let our supplication come before you, and pray for us to Yahweh your God, that is for all this remnant, because we remain but a few out of many, as your own eyes now see us, that Yahweh your God may tell us the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do.'" (Jeremiah 42:1-3)
Notice the impressive display of unity. It is "all the commanders" and "all the people both small and great." This is a full-blown community meeting. Their request is presented with apparent humility. "Please let our supplication come before you." This is the language of respect. But we must look closer at the words they use, because the devil is always in the details.
They ask Jeremiah to pray for them to "Yahweh your God." They do this twice. This is not a slip of the tongue. It is a profound theological statement. They are not claiming Yahweh as their own covenant Lord. They are treating Him as Jeremiah's special contact, a deity with whom the prophet has some influence. They are keeping God at arm's length. This is the language of outsourcing, not ownership. They want the benefits of a relationship with God without the responsibilities of the covenant. They want Jeremiah to act as their spiritual broker, to go get a message for them from his God.
They also engage in a bit of manipulative self-pity. They are "but a few out of many, as your own eyes now see us." This is an appeal to pathos. They are leveraging their sorry state, hoping to guilt God into giving them a favorable answer. It is a subtle attempt to frame the situation in a way that makes God obligated to help them on their terms.
And what do they want? They want God to "tell us the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do." This sounds like the epitome of submission. But what it really is, is a demand for a divine blueprint. They don't want a relationship with a sovereign Lord; they want a set of instructions. They want a clear, unambiguous roadmap so they can be in control. As the rest of the story makes clear, they have already decided on the destination, Egypt, and they are simply looking for God to co-sign their travel plans.
The Prophet's Integrity (v. 4)
Jeremiah's response is that of a faithful servant of God.
"Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, 'I have heard you. Behold, I am going to pray to Yahweh your God in accordance with your words; and I will tell you the whole message which Yahweh will answer you. I will not keep back a word from you.'" (Jeremiah 42:4)
Jeremiah agrees to their request. He takes them at their word, for the moment. He will be their intermediary. Notice that he picks up their language, "Yahweh your God," perhaps with a note of irony. He is holding a mirror up to their detached spirituality. But his commitment is not to them; it is to the Word of God.
He makes them a solemn promise: "I will tell you the whole message... I will not keep back a word from you." This is the non-negotiable job description of a true prophet. A false prophet tells the people what they want to hear. A true prophet tells the people what God has said, period. Jeremiah is not a political consultant, a life coach, or a therapist. He is a messenger, and his allegiance is to the message. He is binding himself to tell the unvarnished truth, whether it brings him comfort or conflict. This statement is a quiet, ominous foreshadowing. He is warning them, in effect, that they had better be prepared to hear something they do not want to hear.
The Over-the-Top Oath (vv. 5-6)
In response to Jeremiah's integrity, the people double down on their feigned sincerity with a dramatic oath.
"And they said to Jeremiah, 'May Yahweh be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with the whole message with which Yahweh your God will send you to us. Whether it is good or bad, we will listen to the voice of Yahweh our God to whom we are sending you, so that good may come to us when we listen to the voice of Yahweh our God.'" (Jeremiah 42:5-6)
This is where the performance becomes truly extravagant. They call upon God Himself to be a witness against them and to curse them if they disobey. This is a self-maledictory oath. Whenever someone is trying to sell you a lie, they often ramp up the promises to an absurd level. This is what is happening here. Their hearts are already set on going to Egypt, so they make this grandiose vow of obedience to throw Jeremiah off the scent. It is a smokescreen of piety.
The key phrase is their promise to obey "whether it is good or bad." In this context, "good or bad" does not mean morally good or evil. It means pleasant or unpleasant, advantageous or disadvantageous from their perspective. They are saying, "Even if the news is bad for us, even if it cuts against our plans and desires, we will obey." This is precisely the promise they are about to break.
They conclude by saying they will listen "so that good may come to us." Here, the mask slips completely. Their ultimate motivation is not the glory of God or submission to His authority. Their motivation is their own well-being. Their obedience is conditional, a means to an end. They will obey in order to get a good outcome for themselves. This is not faith; it is religious pragmatism. It is an attempt to use God, to make Him a cosmic vending machine. Put in a promise of obedience, get out a blessing of safety and prosperity. But God is not a tool to be manipulated for our benefit. He is the sovereign Lord to be worshipped for His own sake.
Conclusion: The Treachery of Pragmatic Piety
This entire exchange is a sobering picture of a heart that has not truly surrendered to God. This remnant wanted God's guidance, but not His government. They wanted His blessing, but not His lordship. They were willing to listen to His voice, so long as He told them what they had already decided to do.
And are we any different? How often do we come to God in prayer with our minds already made up? We say, "Lord, thy will be done," but what we mean is, "Lord, may my will be done, and may you have the good sense to agree with me." We promise to obey Him in all things, but we have a mental list of exceptions and non-negotiables. We promise to follow whether the path is "good or bad," but the moment it becomes unpleasant, we start looking for an exit ramp.
The piety of panic is always self-serving. True piety, true faith, is God-centered. It does not begin with the question, "What is the best way for me to be safe and prosperous?" It begins with the declaration, "You are the Lord, and I am your servant." It stops saying "your God" and learns to say "my God."
The solution is not to make bigger and better oaths that we cannot keep. The people of Judah called down a curse on themselves, and that curse came to pass. Our only hope is to look to the one who made promises on our behalf and kept them perfectly. Jesus Christ is the truly obedient one. He listened to the voice of His Father, even when it was "bad" for Him, leading Him to the cross. He did this so that true good might come to us.
Therefore, we must abandon all attempts to bargain with God. We must repent of our pragmatic, self-serving religion. We must throw ourselves completely on the mercy of the God who does not just show us the way, but who is the Way. We must stop trying to get God to sign off on our plans and instead surrender our plans to Him, trusting that His way, whether it seems good or bad to us in the moment, is the only way that leads to life.