The Sin You Carry With You
Introduction: The Folly of the Geographical Cure
Men have always believed in the geographical cure. If I am unhappy in this town, I will find happiness in the next. If my business fails here, it will surely succeed over there. If this marriage is a wreck, a new spouse in a new city will fix it. We are convinced that our problems are external, that they are tied to our location, our circumstances, our relationships. So we run. We pack our bags, convinced that we can leave our troubles behind us like a cloud of dust on a desert road. But the great and terrible irony is that we always pack our biggest problem in our own suitcase. The problem is not the town; the problem is the treacherous human heart that we carry with us wherever we go.
This is precisely the scene we find in Jeremiah 44. The remnant of Judah has fled the consequences of their sin. God, through Nebuchadnezzar, had brought a terrible and righteous judgment upon Jerusalem for generations of high-handed idolatry. A small group, against the explicit command of God delivered by Jeremiah, decided to run. And where did they run? They ran down to Egypt. They ran back to the house of bondage, the very place God had miraculously delivered their fathers from. They thought Egypt offered security, provision, and a refuge from the God of Israel. But they brought their idols with them. They fled the fire, but they carried the embers in their own pockets. They did not escape the judgment; they simply relocated the scene of the crime.
In this chapter, God corners them. Through His prophet Jeremiah, He confronts this self-deceived remnant and shows them, with devastating clarity, that you cannot outrun God because you cannot outrun yourself. This is not just a historical reprimand for a band of ancient refugees. It is a timeless spiritual principle. God is teaching us that changing your scenery is no substitute for repentance. You can move from Jerusalem to Memphis, but if you bring your love for false gods with you, you will find that the true God is the God of Memphis also. And He is a consuming fire.
The Text
The word that came to Jeremiah for all the Jews living in the land of Egypt, those who were living in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and the land of Pathros, saying, “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen all the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are a waste place and no one lives in them because of their evil which they did so as to provoke Me to anger by continuing to burn incense and to serve other gods whom they had not known, neither they, you, nor your fathers. Yet I sent you all My slaves the prophets, rising up early and sending, saying, “Oh, do not do this abominable thing which I hate.” But they did not listen or incline their ears to turn from their evil, so as not to burn incense to other gods. Therefore My wrath and My anger were poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, so they have become a waste place and a desolation as it is this day. So now, thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, “Why are you doing great evil against yourselves, so as to cut off from you man and woman, infant and nursing baby, from among Judah, leaving yourselves without remnant, provoking Me to anger with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you are entering to sojourn, so that you might be cut off and become an imprecation and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? Have you forgotten the evil of your fathers, the evil of the kings of Judah, and the evil of their wives, your own evil, and the evil of your wives, which they did in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? But they have not become contrite even to this day, nor have they feared nor walked in My law or My statutes, which I have put before you and before your fathers.” ’
“Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am going to set My face against you for your evil demise, even to cut off all Judah. And I will take away the remnant of Judah who have set their face on entering the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they will all meet their end in the land of Egypt; they will fall by the sword and meet their end by famine. Both small and great will die by the sword and famine; and they will become a curse, an object of horror, an imprecation, and a reproach. And I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence. So there will be no one who escapes or any survivors for the remnant of Judah who have entered the land of Egypt to sojourn there and then to return to the land of Judah, to which they are longing to return to live; for none will return except a few who escape.’ ”
(Jeremiah 44:1-14 LSB)
God's Inescapable Exhibit A (vv. 1-6)
God begins His case not with abstract theology, but with cold, hard, empirical facts.
"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen all the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are a waste place and no one lives in them...'" (Jeremiah 44:2 LSB)
God calls them as eyewitnesses to their own ruin. He says, "You saw it. You were there." The desolation of Jerusalem is not a rumor; it is a smoking crater in the ground that they just fled from. This is Exhibit A in God's courtroom. He is Yahweh of hosts, the commander of heaven's armies, and the covenant God of Israel. He is not some local deity that can be left behind in Judah. He is laying out the evidence, and it is undeniable.
And what was the reason for this devastation? It was not bad luck or a geopolitical accident. Verse 3 is explicit: "because of their evil which they did so as to provoke Me to anger by continuing to burn incense and to serve other gods whom they had not known." The charge is idolatry. This was not a one-time mistake; it was a continual, persistent rebellion. They were chasing after gods that were strangers, manufactured novelties with no history and no power. They traded the God of the Exodus for cheap, powerless counterfeits. This is the essence of all sin: exchanging the glory of the immortal God for a lie.
Furthermore, God demonstrates that He did not act rashly. He reminds them of His extraordinary patience. "Yet I sent you all My slaves the prophets, rising up early and sending..." (v. 4). This Hebrew idiom paints a picture of God's earnest diligence, like a father getting up before dawn day after day to warn his wayward sons. His message was not one of cold legalism, but of heartfelt pleading: "Oh, do not do this abominable thing which I hate." God hates idolatry not just because it offends His honor, but because it destroys His people. It is an abomination. But their response was willful deafness: "But they did not listen or incline their ears to turn from their evil" (v. 5). The problem was not a lack of information; it was a lack of submission. Consequently, the judgment was just and necessary. "Therefore My wrath and My anger were poured out..." (v. 6). The fire that fell on Jerusalem was a righteous fire, the inevitable result of a holy God confronting persistent, unrepentant sin.
The Madness of Spiritual Amnesia (vv. 7-10)
Having established the recent past, God now turns to their insane behavior in the present.
"So now, thus says Yahweh... 'Why are you doing great evil against yourselves, so as to cut off from you man and woman, infant and nursing baby, from among Judah, leaving yourselves without remnant...?'" (Jeremiah 44:7 LSB)
The question is devastatingly logical. God asks, "Why are you committing spiritual suicide?" Notice the language. Their evil is not just against God; it is "against yourselves." Sin is always self-destructive. It promises autonomy but delivers annihilation. They thought they were preserving a remnant by fleeing to Egypt, but God tells them they are ensuring its destruction. They are cutting off their own future, down to the infants at the breast.
And how are they doing this? In verse 8, God delivers the punchline: "...provoking Me to anger with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt." They are doing the exact same thing that got them into this mess in the first place. They fled the consequences but embraced the cause. They thought Nebuchadnezzar was the problem, but the problem was the idolatry in their hearts, and they packed it up and brought it with them to Egypt. The geographical cure failed spectacularly.
God then asks if they have collective amnesia. "Have you forgotten the evil of your fathers, the evil of the kings of Judah, and the evil of their wives, your own evil, and the evil of your wives...?" (v. 9). This is a corporate indictment spanning generations. Sin is never a purely individual affair; it is a tangled, generational rebellion. The specific mention of the "wives" is crucial, as it sets the stage for the defiant response later in the chapter, where the people will explicitly defend their worship of the "Queen of Heaven." Idolatry was a family business.
Verse 10 provides the ultimate diagnosis of their spiritual condition: "But they have not become contrite even to this day, nor have they feared nor walked in My law..." Despite the utter destruction of their nation, their hearts remain hard. The word "contrite" means to be crushed, humbled, or broken. They are uncrushed. They have seen God's judgment firsthand, but it has not produced repentance. It has only produced relocation. They are spiritually calloused, without the fear of God, walking in their own ways.
The Unalterable Sentence (vv. 11-14)
Because their hearts are hard and their sin is persistent, the verdict is final and severe.
"Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am going to set My face against you for your evil demise, even to cut off all Judah.’" (Jeremiah 44:11 LSB)
There is no image more terrifying in Scripture than God setting His face against someone. It means His full, holy, and settled opposition is directed at them. The very place they ran to for safety will become their graveyard. "they will all meet their end in the land of Egypt; they will fall by the sword and meet their end by famine" (v. 12). The judgment will be a carbon copy of what happened in Jerusalem. God is teaching them a powerful lesson: He is the God of the whole earth. You cannot escape His jurisdiction by crossing a border.
The final verse is the tragic culmination of their folly. They ran to Egypt as a temporary refuge, "to sojourn there," but they were secretly "longing to return to the land of Judah." They wanted the blessings of the promised land without the God of the promise. They wanted God's real estate, but not God's rule. And God's answer is a resounding no. "for none will return except a few who escape" (v. 14). The door is shut. The very few who do escape will not be a testament to their own cleverness, but will serve as God's witnesses, returning to the ruins to testify that every single word Jeremiah spoke came true. Their escape confirms the doom of all the rest.
The Gospel Cure
This is a dark and heavy chapter. It reveals the terminal nature of unrepentant sin. The human heart, left to itself, will see the ruin caused by its sin and then dive right back into the same sin, expecting a different result. That is the definition of insanity, and it is the spiritual condition of every fallen man and woman.
We all have our Egypts. When the covenant life in Judah becomes difficult, when God's commands feel restrictive, when judgment for our sin feels imminent, we run. We run to the world, which promises safety, security, and a place where we can worship our idols in peace. We run to our careers, our hobbies, our addictions, our political ideologies, thinking we can find refuge there. But we only find another form of bondage.
The diagnosis of verse 10 is the diagnosis for all humanity apart from grace: "not contrite... nor have they feared." Our hearts are stone. We cannot soften them ourselves. We need a divine intervention. We need a new heart.
And this is where the glory of the gospel shines against this dark backdrop. The judgment these idolaters faced in Egypt, the sword and the famine and the curse, is the judgment that every one of us deserves for our own idolatry. But God, in His infinite mercy, provided a substitute. There was another who went down to Egypt to escape a sword, the infant Jesus, the true Israel. He recapitulated the story of Israel, but He did it perfectly, without sin.
And on the cross, Jesus Christ, the true remnant, faced the unmitigated wrath of God. God set His face against His own Son. He took the sword of justice in His side. He endured the famine of separation from the Father. He became a curse for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. He absorbed the full judgment so that we would not have to.
Therefore, the only true escape from judgment is not to run from God, but to run to Him. We do not flee to Egypt; we flee to the cross. It is only at the cross that our hard hearts can be made contrite. It is only there that we learn the true fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. God's answer to the sin you carry with you is not a change of scenery, but a change of heart, purchased by the blood of His Son and applied by His Spirit. He does not just deliver us from bondage; He kills the slave master of sin within us and raises us to walk in newness of life, no longer longing for Judah, but longing for Him.