(Jeremiah 42, 43:1-7)
FOUR hundred years had passed since the great division in Israel when the events recorded in this chapter transpired. At this date we find the people of God not only divided but scattered. One hundred and thirty years before, the ten tribes had passed into captivity to become lost among the nations. Repeated captivities had thinned the ranks of Judah, until at length the kingdom, as such, had ceased to exist.
However a remnant of God’s people are still found in God’s land. In the opening verses of the forty-second chapter of Jeremiah they came to the prophet professing to seek light from the Lord for their path in the day of scattering. “All the people from the least even unto the greatest, came near.” Counting, however, the least with the greatest, they have to own they are but a remnant, for they say “we are left but a few of many” (v. 2). Their desire is, as they say, that the Lord “may show us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do” (v. 3).
They recognize the ruin of the nation; they own they are but a few. In the midst of the ruin, and in confessed weakness, they meet together to inquire of the Lord the path He would have them to take and how He would have them to act. What course could be more fitting than for a little company of God’s people, under such circumstances, to turn to the Lord for guidance?
Jeremiah accordingly undertakes to pray to the Lord on their behalf, and to declare to them the Lord’s mind, keeping nothing back (v. 4). This leads this remnant to make the most solemn protestation, that whatever the Lord’s answer may be, they will “obey the voice of the Lord;” they rightly recognize that, doing so, it will be well with them. However dark the day, however great the ruin, it will still be well with those who obey “the voice of the Lord” (vv. 5, 6).
One thing, however, spoiled these fair words. As we shall see the after history discloses that underneath their good words self-will was at work. They had already determined to take their own course. The self-will of the flesh betrays itself by their too self-confident protestation of readiness to obey the voice of the Lord. How often since that day has the flesh shown itself by the self-confident word that betrayed the self-will of the heart. Are there not those who say, after the manner of this remnant, “Give us Scripture—give us the word of the Lord—and we will bow to it!” We may well fear that self-will lies behind such fair words.
However Jeremiah turns to the Lord, receiving an answer after ten days. During these days apparently he has no communications with the people. He will not venture an opinion of his own, as to the way in which they should walk and act. He will wait for clear directions from the Lord (v. 7).
The Lord’s way is very plain. If this little remnant desire to be built up, and established; if they are to enjoy the Lord’s presence with them, and the Lord’s mercies, there is one condition they must comply with. They must “still abide in this land.” However great the failure, however complete the ruin, there would still be blessing for a little remnant—a few of many so long as they remain on God’s ground for God’s people. Their King and leaders may have fled, the house of the Lord be burned to the ground, and the walls of Jerusalem be broken down (52:7, 8, 13), nevertheless there would still be blessing for those who remained in the land. The Land was the place for all Israel, but alas! the great mass had passed into captivity and were lost among the nations, but all blessing, for the few who remained, depended upon their still abiding in the Land (vv. 9-12).
We may well pause in considering this story of people and events of a long past day, and ask ourselves, Has this story any lesson for those who in this present day, in great feebleness and weakness, seek to know “the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do,” in the midst of the division and scattering that has taken place among the people of God? Is not the great lesson this, that, however great the ruin, however divided and scattered the people of God, blessing will be found by those who still remain on God’s ground for all God’s people. In other words, the way of blessing, in spite of all failure, is still to walk in the light of what is true for the whole Assembly of God, and to refuse all other ground.
No failure on our part can relieve us from the responsibility of walking and acting according to the truth of the Assembly of God whether viewed locally or collectively. The principles that should guide the Assembly still remain with all their force unfolded for us in the First Epistle to the Corinthians. It is true as one has said, “We are not to imitate those chapters, or play the part of Corinthians, as though we had all the gifts of Corinthians. Nor are we to assume to be the only light in our place, as the Church then was at Corinth. But we must have faith to know this, that the scattering of the lights or the judgment of the candlestick is not the withdrawal of the Spirit ... We must hold to God’s principles in the place or the scene around us... We are not to expect, it may be, such corporate power as would have been, had no divine judgment come upon the candlestick ... Again as we are not to surrender principles to the corruptions around, neither are we to give them up because of some disappointing efforts in asserting them. ‘Let God be true but every man a liar.’ We are not to give up principle because it is hotly assailed, neither are we to do so because it has been poorly and faintly illustrated. The principle outlives a thousand disappointing attempts to exhibit it. The light is not to be judged because of the soiled lamp through which it may shine... I may be grieved and disappointed that the candle has been, as it were, under a bushel, but I am to remember that it is a candle still, able to give light to all that are in the house” (J. G. B.).
Returning to the story of the remnant in Jeremiah’s day, we shall find it has warning as well as instruction for us. Having given them the word of the Lord as to the way of blessing, Jeremiah proceeds to utter the word of the Lord in the way of warning (vv. 13-17). If the remnant say “We will not dwell in the land,” we fear if we do it will mean conflict, and continual warnings by the sound of the trumpet, and possibly even lack of bread, and so we propose to leave the Land and seek escape from these things in another land—if they speak and act thus—they are warned, that the very things they seek to escape will overtake them. Moreover, the most solemn thing of all will be, that instead of having the Lord with them in blessing, they will have the hand of the Lord upon them in government. They shall not escape says the Lord “from the evil that I will bring upon them” (vv. 13-17).
Has this no warning voice for us today? Are we not at times tempted to weary of God’s path, and seek in some manmade system an easier path—some system in which, by the introduction of worldly principles and methods, we shall escape the continual call for the exercise of faith? Do we not at times weary of the continual conflict in seeking to maintain the truth, and shrink from being disturbed by trumpet calls as to dangers that assail; are we not tempted to say, ‘if we have to continually face conflict we fear we shall suffer spiritual starvation?’ Are we not thus at times fiercely assailed by the tempter to give up God’s truth for God’s Assembly? In the presence of such arguments, whether arising in our own hearts, or whether suggested to us by others, let us remember the warnings of the Lord to the remnant of Jeremiah’s day.
Firstly, to take a false step to escape trouble is the surest way to fall into the trouble we seek to escape. To leave God’s ground to escape the difficulties of the path of faith, will entangle us with the world and overwhelm us with difficulties in the path of self-will. Secondly, the remnant are warned that those who take such a path will fall into reproach, and “see this place no more” (v. 18). It is a solemn consideration that those who have walked for a time in the light of the truth for God’s Assembly, and have then given it up for an easier path in some manmade system have seldom if ever been recovered. They “see this place no more.” When God in His government says “no more” there is an end of the matter.
Alas! those to whom Jeremiah spoke refused the instruction, and heeded not the warnings of the Lord. Jeremiah is not ignorant of the reason. He says, “Ye dissembled in your hearts,” or according to a better translation, “Ye deceived yourselves in your own souls” (v. 20). The self-will that was determined to take a certain course deceived them. Nothing will so warp the understanding, and hinder the apprehension of the truth as self-will. It will not see what it does not want to see. And, as ever, behind the self-will there was pride that would not admit they were wrong, as we read, “All the proud men” came to Jeremiah saying, “Thou speakest falsely: the Lord our God hath not sent thee to say, Go not into Egypt to sojourn, there” (43:3).
Moreover they tell Jeremiah that he is not governed by the word of the Lord, he is simply repeating man’s word. They practically say, We asked you for the word of the Lord, and you have simply told us what Baruch says, and if we follow what you say it will simply bring us all into bondage (43:1-3).
Thus with hearts deceived by self-will and pride they turn from the instruction of the Lord and miss His “way.” They leave God’s ground for His people, take a path of their own choosing, and “see this place no more.”
Would we know “the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do” let us obey the Lord’s word and “abide in this land.” Let us take heed to His warning, lest turning aside to some other path we too “see this place no more.”