The Seduction of a Second Opinion
Introduction: Sanctimonious Disobedience
We live in an age that has perfected the art of sanctimonious disobedience. It is the art of approaching God with a Bible in one hand and a bus ticket to Egypt in the other. It is the practice of asking God for His will with every intention of ignoring it if it does not align with the decision we have already made in the quiet, fearful committee rooms of our own hearts. We are masters of the conditional surrender, telling God we will obey Him in anything, provided it is not too costly, not too inconvenient, and not too contrary to what the experts are telling us.
The scene before us in Jeremiah 42 is a master class in this kind of hypocrisy. Jerusalem has fallen. The Babylonian armies have swept through, leaving behind a shattered city and a tiny, terrified remnant of Judah. Their governor, Gedaliah, has been assassinated, and now the leaders of this remnant, with Johanan at their head, are in a full-blown panic. They fear, quite reasonably, that the king of Babylon will hold them responsible for the insurrection and wipe them out completely.
And so they do what religious people do when they are in a jam. They go to the prophet. They come to Jeremiah with a great show of piety, begging him to inquire of the Lord for them. They bind themselves with a solemn oath: "Whether it is good or bad, we will listen to the voice of Yahweh our God" (v. 6). On the surface, it looks like a textbook case of humble submission. But God is not fooled by the posture of humility when the heart has already resolved on rebellion. They did not want a word from the Lord; they wanted a divine co-signer for their escape plan. They had already decided that the smart money was on Egypt, and they just wanted Jeremiah to tell them that God thought it was a good idea too.
This is a perennial temptation for the people of God. When obedience looks like ruin and disobedience looks like a sensible retirement plan, our hearts begin to lawyer the text. We start looking for loopholes. We pray, not for guidance, but for permission. And this passage is God's definitive answer to all such self-deceit. It is a stark warning that the path of calculated self-preservation is, in fact, the highway to the slaughterhouse.
The Text
Now it happened that at the end of ten days the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah. Then he called for Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the military forces that were with him, and for all the people both small and great, and said to them, “Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before Him: ‘If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not uproot you; for I have relented of the calamity that I have done against you. Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you are now fearing; do not be afraid of him,’ declares Yahweh, ‘for I am with you to save you and deliver you from his hand. I will also show you compassion, so that he will have compassion on you and return you to your own soil. But if you are going to say, “We will not stay in this land,” so as not to listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, saying, “No, but we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the sound of a trumpet or hunger for bread, and we will stay there,” then now, listen to the word of Yahweh, O remnant of Judah. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “If you really set your face to enter Egypt, and you will enter to sojourn there, then the sword, which you are afraid of, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are anxious, will follow closely after you there in Egypt, and you will die there. So all the men who set their face to go to Egypt to sojourn there will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; and they will have no survivors or any who escaped from the calamity that I am going to bring on them.”’ ”
For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “As My anger and wrath have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so My wrath will be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And you will become a curse, an object of horror, an imprecation, and a reproach; and you will see this place no more.” Yahweh has spoken to you, O remnant of Judah, “Do not go into Egypt!” You should clearly know that today I have testified against you. For you have only led yourselves astray; for it is you who sent me to Yahweh your God, saying, “Pray for us to Yahweh our God; and according to all that Yahweh our God says, tell us so, and we will do it.” So I have told you today, but you have not listened to the voice of Yahweh your God, even according to all that He has sent me to tell you. So now, you should clearly know that you will die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, in the place where you desire to go to sojourn.
(Jeremiah 42:7-22 LSB)
The Test of Ten Days (vv. 7-9)
We begin with the divine pause.
"Now it happened that at the end of ten days the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah. Then he called for Johanan... and for all the people both small and great, and said to them, 'Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before Him...'" (Jeremiah 42:7-9)
The people are in a panic, and God makes them wait ten days. This is not arbitrary. God's delays are not denials; they are tests. He was giving their feigned piety time to curdle. Genuine faith can wait for God's timing, but a faith rooted in fear and unbelief grows more frantic with every passing hour. For ten days, their anxiety simmered. For ten days, they likely debated among themselves, solidifying their plans to go to Egypt, all the while maintaining the pretense of waiting for God.
When the word finally comes, Jeremiah gathers everyone, "small and great." God's commands are not for a select committee. The covenant applies to all. And notice how Jeremiah frames the message. He says this is the word from the God "to whom you sent me." He is holding up a mirror to them. "Remember what you asked for? Remember your solemn promise? Here it is. This is the moment of truth."
The Way of Life: Stay (vv. 10-12)
God presents them with two paths, and the first is the way of life, which is the way of faith.
"'If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not uproot you; for I have relented of the calamity that I have done against you. Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon... for I am with you to save you and deliver you from his hand.'" (Jeremiah 42:10-11)
The command is simple: stay put. From a human perspective, this was madness. Stay in a devastated land, at the mercy of a pagan king whose local governor was just murdered? Every instinct would scream, "Flee!" But faith is the conviction to obey God's Word over and against the screaming of your instincts. God's command is always tied to a covenant promise. "Stay, and I will build. Stay, and I will plant." This is the language of restoration, of Genesis. God wants to make a new garden right there in the rubble.
And He gives them a stunning reason: "for I have relented of the calamity." The judgment was over. God's posture toward this remnant was one of mercy. He was not looking to strike them again. He wanted to heal. The central command addresses their central fear: "Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon." Why? Because a greater king was with them. "I am with you to save you." God promises not only to protect them but to supernaturally intervene in the heart of the Babylonian king, to make him show them compassion. This is the essence of faith: trusting that God's presence is a greater reality than the threats you can see.
The Way of Death: Flee (vv. 13-17)
Next, God articulates the path they have already chosen in their hearts, the way of death.
"But if you are going to say, 'We will not stay in this land,'... 'No, but we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the sound of a trumpet or hunger for bread, and we will stay there,'... then the sword, which you are afraid of, will overtake you there..." (Jeremiah 42:13-16)
God knows their internal monologue. He quotes their faithless reasoning back to them. Their desire for Egypt is a desire for a life without trouble, a life of comfort and predictability. Egypt represents the world's offer of security. It is the promise of a life insulated from risk, where there is no war, no alarms, and plenty of food. It is the appeal of the 401k over the daily manna. It is the temptation to trust in the visible strength of Pharaoh's chariots rather than the invisible presence of Yahweh.
And here is the terrible, biting irony of disobedience. The very things you fear and are running from will hunt you down in the place you run to for safety. "The sword, which you are afraid of, will overtake you there." "The famine, about which you are anxious, will follow closely after you there." You cannot escape God's ordained trials by changing your geography. When you flee the place of obedience, you run straight into the arms of the very judgment you sought to avoid. God will not be mocked. If you insist on trusting in Egypt, He will make Egypt the very instrument of your destruction. The sentence is absolute: death by sword, famine, and pestilence, with no survivors.
The Verdict: Hypocrisy Exposed (vv. 18-22)
The final section is a blistering indictment of their hypocrisy and a pronouncement of their doom.
"For thus says Yahweh... 'As My anger and wrath have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so My wrath will be poured out on you when you enter Egypt.'... Yahweh has spoken to you, O remnant of Judah, 'Do not go into Egypt!' You should clearly know that today I have testified against you." (Jeremiah 42:18-19)
God reminds them that they are not special. The same principles of covenant judgment that applied to Jerusalem apply to them. Disobedience is disobedience, and its wages are death. Going to Egypt is not an escape; it is a willful decision to step back under the waterfall of God's wrath. The command could not be clearer: "Do not go into Egypt!" There is no ambiguity. No wiggle room. God has testified against them, meaning He has put them on the witness stand and their testimony has convicted them.
And then Jeremiah lowers the boom.
"For you have only led yourselves astray; for it is you who sent me to Yahweh your God, saying, 'Pray for us... and we will do it.' So I have told you today, but you have not listened to the voice of Yahweh your God... So now, you should clearly know that you will die... in the place where you desire to go to sojourn." (Jeremiah 42:20-22)
Here is the heart of the matter. Their pious request was a lie. It was a spiritual smokescreen to cover their predetermined course of action. They were not seeking God's will; they were seeking God's approval for their will. And because God would not give it, they simply ignored Him. "You have not listened." Their ears were open, but their hearts were closed.
The final sentence is chilling. They will die "in the place where you desire to go." God's ultimate judgment is often to give us exactly what we want. When we desire a false refuge over Him, He will let us have it, and it will become our tomb. C.S. Lewis noted that the gates of hell are locked from the inside. This remnant desired Egypt, and God gave them over to that desire, and that desire destroyed them.
Your Egypt or Your Jerusalem
The application for us is sharp and immediate. We all have an Egypt. It is our default plan for security apart from radical, moment-by-moment trust in the Word of God. It might be a career path, a financial strategy, a political savior, or a relational security blanket. It is whatever we run to when God's command to "stay" in the place of difficult obedience seems foolish or dangerous.
The remnant's sin was not simply fear. Their sin was that they allowed their fear to dictate their obedience. They wanted to manage their own salvation. They wanted a God they could consult, but not a God who could command.
The gospel presents us with the same fundamental choice. We are a remnant, living in a world ruined by sin. God's command is to "stay" in Christ. Abide in Him. Trust His promises, even when the world around us is crumbling. Do not be afraid of the "king of Babylon," whether that is a hostile culture, a financial crisis, or a grim diagnosis. For God has said, "I am with you to save you."
But the siren song of Egypt is always playing. The world is always offering a more sensible, more comfortable, more secure alternative. It promises a life without war, trumpets, or hunger. But it is a lie. To flee to the world for safety is to be overtaken by the very sword and famine of eternal judgment you are trying to avoid.
Therefore, let us examine our prayers. Are we truly seeking the will of God, prepared to obey whether it is good or bad in our estimation? Or are we, like Johanan, simply looking for a divine blessing on a decision we have already made? Let us abandon all hypocrisy. Let us confess our fear, but refuse to let it lead us. Let us choose to stay in the ruined, but promised, land of obedience. For it is only there that our God has promised to build us up, and to plant us, and never to uproot us again.