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Daily Devotions

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 
Day 
Day 457

"You speak falsely"

Text: Jeremiah 43:2

REJECTION OF THE WORD OF THE LORD

The reaction of the remnant of Judah was not unexpected. The people rejected the word of the LORD outright. Jeremiah was even accused of speaking falsely.

“Now it happened, when Jeremiah had stopped speaking to all the people
all the words of the LORD their God,
for which the LORD their God had sent him to them, all these words,
that Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, Johanan the son of Kareah,
and all the proud men spoke, saying to Jeremiah,
‘You speak falsely! The LORD our God has not sent you to say,
‘Do not go to Egypt to dwell there.’
But Baruch the son of Neriah has set you against us,
to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans,
that they may put us to death or carry us away captive to Babylon.'”
Jeremiah 43:1-3

1. “Now it happened, when Jeremiah had stopped speaking to all the people
all the words of the LORD their God, for which the LORD their God had sent him to them,
all these words”

a) Jeremiah had sought the LORD on behalf of the remnant of Judah.

b) The LORD had given His counsel.

c) The remnant must stay in Judah.

i) The Babylonians would not harm them.

ii) They must exercise trust in the LORD.

2. “That Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, Johanan the son of Kareah,
and all the proud men spoke, saying to Jeremiah, ‘You speak falsely!
The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘Do not go to Egypt to dwell there””

a) Some of the leaders were identified.

i) Azariah the son of Hoshaiah.

ii) Johanan the son of Kareah (the leading captain)

b) They led a group of people called “the proud men”.

i) They refused to be in submission to the Babylonians.

ii) They rejected the word of the LORD.

c) They charged Jeremiah with falsehood.

i) They questioned what Jeremiah had said.

ii) Egypt was not mentioned by the LORD.

3. “But Baruch the son of Neriah has set you against us, to deliver us into the hand
of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death or carry us away captive to Babylon”

a) They declared that Baruch had influenced Jeremiah.

b) Baruch the son of Neriah.

i) He was the scribe of Jeremiah.

ii) He was the one who wrote what Jeremiah had dictated to him.

c) The accusation:

i) Baruch sought to put them to death.

ii) Or to cause them to be deported to Babylon.

iii) This was a wild and false accusation!

iv) This accusation was made to cover their intention to go to Egypt.