Commentary - Jeremiah 43:1-7

Bird's-eye view

This passage is a case study in the anatomy of rebellion. After the fall of Jerusalem, the dust has barely settled, and the remnant of Judah has just finished a great show of piety, begging Jeremiah to seek the will of Yahweh for them and promising, with all solemnity, to obey whatever He says. Jeremiah returns with a clear word from God: stay in the land, do not go to Egypt, and I will bless you. This passage records their immediate and insolent response. As soon as the prophet finishes speaking, the leaders of the remnant accuse him of lying, revealing that their initial request was a complete sham. Their hearts were already set on Egypt, and they were merely looking for divine rubber stamp. When they did not get it, they rejected the word and the prophet, and proceeded to drag the entire remnant, including a protesting Jeremiah, down to Egypt. This is not just a historical account of a bad decision; it is a raw exposure of the unregenerate heart, which is pathologically incapable of submitting to the revealed will of God when it conflicts with its own fears, desires, and plans.

The core issue here is the authority of God's Word. The remnant claimed to honor it, but only so long as it aligned with their preconceived notions. The moment God's command ran contrary to their "common sense" plan for self-preservation, they declared the prophet a liar and God's word a fabrication. This is the essence of all false religion: man sitting in judgment upon God's revelation. Their actions demonstrate a profound theological blindness. They are fleeing the judgment of the Chaldeans, only to run headlong into the judgment of God in the very place from which He had delivered their fathers centuries before. It is a tragic and pathetic return to slavery, driven by fear and unbelief.

Outline

Context In Jeremiah

This chapter follows the dramatic events after the assassination of Gedaliah, the governor appointed by Nebuchadnezzar. The small remnant left in Judah is thrown into chaos and fear. In chapter 42, the military commander Johanan and "all the people from the least to the greatest" approach Jeremiah. They put on a great display of humility, asking him to pray for them and seek God's direction, promising unequivocally to obey whatever God says, whether it is "good or bad" (Jer 42:6). After ten days, Jeremiah delivers God's message: stay in Judah, and God will protect and build them up. If they go to Egypt, the sword, famine, and pestilence they fear will surely find them there. Chapter 43 is the direct, rebellious answer to that clear, prophetic word. It is the final act of apostasy for the remnant in the land, demonstrating that the heart of the problem was never the Babylonians, but the stubborn idolatry and unbelief of the people themselves. Their flight to Egypt is the final rejection of God's covenant promises for the land and sets the stage for Jeremiah's final prophecies of judgment upon them in a foreign land.

Key Issues

The Pious Fraud

We must see the scene for what it is. In the previous chapter, we witnessed one of the most solemn, seemingly sincere requests for guidance in all of Scripture. The leaders of the remnant came to Jeremiah, wept, and bound themselves with an oath to obey God's will, whatever it might be. They called God to be a "true and faithful witness against us" if they failed to obey (Jer 42:5). It was a beautiful performance. But it was all a lie. It was a pious fraud.

Their hearts were already packed for Egypt. They were terrified of the Babylonians, and they had decided that the smart geopolitical move, the only sensible course of action, was to seek refuge with Pharaoh. Their request to Jeremiah was not a genuine seeking of God's will, but rather a blasphemous attempt to co-opt God into their plans. They wanted a prophetic seal of approval on a decision they had already made. When the prophet delivered a word that contradicted their agenda, their masks of piety fell away instantly, revealing the ugly face of arrogant unbelief beneath. This is a permanent warning against the kind of prayer that says, "Thy will be done, as long as it's my will." The unregenerate heart does not want a commander; it wants a cosmic consultant, a divine mascot for its own enterprises.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 But it happened that as soon as Jeremiah, whom Yahweh their God had sent, had finished speaking to all the people all the words of Yahweh their God, that is, all these words,

The narrative is structured to create maximum dramatic impact. The break between chapter 42 and 43 is unfortunate, because this verse is the immediate sequel to the promise of obedience. The phrase as soon as is crucial. There was no prayer meeting, no thoughtful deliberation, no weighing of the prophet's words. The rejection was instantaneous. The text also emphasizes the divine origin of the message twice: Jeremiah was sent by "Yahweh their God," and the words were "all the words of Yahweh their God." This leaves no room for ambiguity. The people knew exactly who Jeremiah was and who he spoke for. Their coming rebellion is not against a man, but directly against the God they claimed to serve.

2 Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are speaking a lie! Yahweh our God has not sent you to say, ‘You are not to enter Egypt to sojourn there’;

Here is the arrogant heart laid bare. The leaders, Johanan and a new character named Azariah, along with a mob of like-minded "arrogant men," make their accusation. Notice the directness: "You are speaking a lie!" They do not argue the interpretation; they deny the source. They flatly contradict what the text just established in verse 1. They are calling God's appointed prophet a liar to his face. And on what basis? Their own feelings, their own fears, their own political calculations. They have enthroned their own reason above God's revelation. When a man's heart is set on a course of sin, the clearest word from God will sound like a lie to him, because it contradicts the lie he has already chosen to believe.

3 but Baruch the son of Neriah is inciting you against us to give us over into the hand of the Chaldeans, so they will put us to death or exile us to Babylon.”

Rebellion is never content to simply disobey; it must always rationalize its disobedience. Since they cannot attack God directly, they do the next best thing: they attack God's servants with a conspiracy theory. They invent a villain. It is not Jeremiah's fault, really; he is just a pawn. The real culprit is his scribe, Baruch. They accuse Baruch of being a Babylonian sympathizer, of manipulating the aged prophet to deliver a message that will lead to their destruction. This is a classic tactic of the sinful heart. It avoids repentance by shifting blame. Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent, and the remnant of Judah blamed Baruch. It also reveals their paranoia. They cannot imagine anyone acting out of simple faithfulness to God; there must be a sinister, hidden political motive.

4 So Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the military forces and all the people did not listen to the voice of Yahweh to stay in the land of Judah.

The verdict is stated plainly. This was not a misunderstanding. This was a willful refusal to listen to the voice of Yahweh. The rebellion was comprehensive, led by the military commanders and followed by "all the people." This is what happens when leaders lead in unrighteousness. The people, already inclined by fear to disobey, followed their commanders down the path of destruction. The sin was corporate. They had made a corporate promise to obey, and now they engaged in a corporate act of rebellion.

5-6 But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the military forces took the entire remnant of Judah, who had returned from all the nations to which they had been banished, in order to sojourn in the land of Judah, the men, the women, the little ones, the king’s daughters, and every person that Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, together with Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah,

The disobedience is now put into action. Johanan and his commanders gather up everyone. The text is meticulous in listing the victims of this faithless decision: the entire remnant, including those who had just returned to Judah with hope, the families, the children, the royal princesses, and crucially, Jeremiah and Baruch. The prophet of God, who had faithfully spoken God's word to them, is now taken captive by them. They are literally kidnapping the man who is their only link to the word of the Lord. It is a picture of a church that silences the preacher who speaks an inconvenient truth and forces him to endorse their worldly program. They are dragging the oracle of God with them into apostasy.

7 and they entered the land of Egypt (for they did not listen to the voice of Yahweh) and went in as far as Tahpanhes.

The final step is taken. They cross the border into Egypt. The parenthetical statement is the final nail in the coffin, the divine commentary on their action: for they did not listen to the voice of Yahweh. Their motive was fear, their justification was a lie, and their action was pure disobedience. They sought safety in the very nation from which God had miraculously delivered their ancestors. Egypt is always a symbol of worldly security, of reliance on human power instead of God. By going to Tahpanhes, a border fortress, they were placing themselves under the protection of Pharaoh. They had traded the promises of Yahweh for the empty assurances of a pagan king. They fled the judgment of Babylon only to meet the judgment of God.

Application

The story of Johanan and the remnant is not ancient history. The same spirit of arrogant, self-justifying rebellion is alive and well in the church today. We are masters of the pious fraud. We sing hymns about trusting God and then spend our lives riddled with anxiety, making all our major decisions based on fear and financial calculation. We ask God for guidance on matters where we have already made up our minds, and if the clear teaching of Scripture happens to cross our desires, we are quick to find a reason why it does not apply to our "unique" situation.

We accuse the preacher of being harsh or unloving, or of having a hidden agenda, when all he has done is faithfully expound the text. We find our own "Baruch" to blame. We say we want God's will, but what we really want is God's endorsement of our will. This passage forces us to ask a hard question: Do we truly submit to the authority of Scripture, even when it commands us to do something that looks foolish, costly, or dangerous to the world? Or are we, like the remnant, willing to call God a liar in order to get our own way?

The only escape from this cycle of rebellion is found in the gospel. Our hearts are just as deceitful as theirs. Left to ourselves, we will always choose Egypt. But God, in His mercy, has made a New Covenant, the one Jeremiah himself prophesied. In this covenant, God does not just give us external commands; He gives us a new heart, a heart that desires to obey. He writes His law on our inward parts. The Christian life is one of learning to distrust our own "common sense" and our own fears, and to trust the voice of our Shepherd, even when He leads us on a path we do not understand. He is a better guide than Johanan, and He will lead us not to Egypt, but to the Promised Land.