The Word of God, spoken in faithfulness, is never without effect upon the hearer; it draws out the depths of the heart toward God, whether of the believer or the sinner—but O, how different the feelings aroused! What had been hidden (though well known to God and revealed to Jeremiah) under a fair appearance, came out fully as Azariah and Johanan and all the proud men shod their opposition to what Jeremiah told them. Poor, deluded servants, slaves indeed, of Satan! Men and women are either serving God or His—and their—enemy the devil, though it is quite coon to hear people speak of man’s “free will”—a term for which there is no Scriptural warrant.
The people left in the land of Israel were determined to leave it to go to Egypt, though they were assured that death awaited them there; the plain fact is that they did not believe God; in that respect they were no different from thousands today, though many would resent being told the truth about it.
There was over with these sons of disobedience, too, so that they were able to take with them to Egypt all of the people that were left, including Jeremiah and Baruch (verse 7). They went as far as Tahpanhes, a place which does not exist today; its site was not far from the northern end of the Suez canal.
But not all that men are able to do can keep God from speaking to His servants, telling them His purposes. The word of Jehovah could as well reach Jeremiah in Tahpanhes as in Jerusalem. Jeremiah’s first testimony to the Jews in Egypt was concerning the judgment of that land, and Nebuchadnezzar was to be the instrument of it. There could be no resistance to his power, when this Gentile to whom God had committed the government of the world should undertake the conquest of Egypt. Beth-shemesli (verse 13) means “House (or Temple) of the sun”, called by the Greeks Heliopolis; the Egyptian name was On,—the place where Joseph’s father-in-law was priest (Genesis 11:45).