Chapter 43
Johanan and others accuse Jeremiah of lying about what God says and they determine to go to Egypt anyway. They go so far as to say Baruch - the one that wrote those two scrolls as Jeremiah dictated them - has set Jeremiah against them, because Baruch wants them all to be taken captive to Babylon. Doesn't say why they think this. Seems pretty far fetched to me. They not only decide to go to Egypt despite what Jeremiah has said, they decide to take Jeremiah with them. Bad enough to deny what God says. Bad enough to accuse this prophet - who has just been vindicated since all that he has predicted for decades has come about exactly as he said it would - but now they decide to take Jeremiah with them! They do exactly what He says not to do, after they promised to do whatever He said, no matter what it was. This is mind-boggling. Why even ask if you don't have any idea of complying unless He says to do what you were going to do anyway? Pure arrogance now.
2022 - 6 the men, the women, the children, the princesses, and every person whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan; also Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah. 7 And they came into the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the LORD. And they arrived at Tahpanhes. [Jer 43:6-7 ESV]
Did they take Jeremiah to hedge their bets, thinking that even if he was telling the truth, God wouldn't wipe them out as promised if Jeremiah was with them? Or was it more malicious than that? As in they thought he really might be telling the truth - but not the one they wanted to hear, not the one he should have told them, but something more like the ear-tickling other prophets always told them - and if he was, then he ought to get the same "justice" they were going to get. Maybe they even though that if Jeremiah was with them, he'd pray them out of the consequences. How arrogant do you have to be to think you can "blackmail" the God of heaven and earth by threatening His servants???
A FB post?
The whole bunch of them - the surviving royal family and the people that were left with Gedeliah at Mizpah, the commanders of men who had somehow survived the invasion, and the few "leaders" left in Judah that Neb had not identified and killed, all together decide to go to Egypt, and they arrive in Tahpanhes.
God tells Jeremiah Neb is coming to Egypt and will clean it out as a shepherd clears vermin from his cloak. He will burn Egypt's gods and temples. He will kill and take captives.
2022 - What a remarkable thing. They defied God's command to stay in Israel, because they were afraid the Chaldeans would come and kill them there. So God sends his servant Nebuchadnezzar to Egypt, and has them killed by the very one from whom they fled! And while Neb is there, let's just have him take out all these idols that the Egyptians worship too, and maybe they will turn to God as a result.
2022 - I noted before that the first chapters of Jeremiah - at least through 40 - are prophecies of events that will occur very soon - in Jeremiah's lifetime in fact - for the most part. But once the prophecies are complete, the book turns into a history book almost exclusively. At least that is what it is through 43.