Jeremiah 44:1a The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt
Recently we enjoyed a long weekend here at the Bill Rice Ranch. We had Friday through Monday off and on the next day back, Tuesday, it seemed like Monday because we hadn’t had a work day on Monday. At any rate, it is good to take a break, a vacation, or a getaway. Vacations can be very significant. It is good to get away, to have an escape.
But there are some things in life from which you cannot escape. One of those things is your responsibility to God. In Jeremiah 44:1 it says, “The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt.” These were Jewish people who had been chastened by God. God had said, “I’m sending my servant Nebuchadnezzar and he is going to chasten my people for their sins, their idolatry, and their rebellion.” These were people who instead of submitting to God had doubled down and trusted Egypt and idols and had fled to Egypt instead of doing what God had suggested.
Earlier Jeremiah had said, “Inhabit the land you dwell in.” That is, they were to grow where they were planted. Plant vineyards, have families, build houses, pray for the peace of the land in which you find yourselves because it is all part of God’s being with you as with sons. So, you cannot escape your responsibility to God. There are a couple of reasons for this.
First, He is everywhere. He was in Egypt. We make our own problems sometimes and we take our problems with us. In verse 7 God says, “Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls.” Well, they weren’t just sinning against God. They were sinning against themselves because God wasn’t the problem. They had made their own problems. In verse 8 he says “Burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt.” In other words, even in Egypt they were doing the same things that had got them into trouble in the first place. In Jeremiah 44:10 God says, “They are not humbled even unto this day.”
So, God is everywhere. We can make problems, we can take our problems, and we don’t cease our problems merely by a change of scenery. Usually, the things we battle with are things within our own soul. God is everywhere. That is a good thing. So, you can’t escape responsibility because you cannot escape yourself and you cannot escape God.
Secondly, God knows everything. Verse 15 talks about the idolatry of people in Egypt and it says, “All the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by.” Jeremiah then says, “We won’t hearken unto thee.” Who was he addressing? He was addressing men who knew their wives had been in idolatry and did nothing, and he was talking to other women who knew what was going on but had stood by doing nothing.
The ladies who had been guilty of idolatry basically said in verse 19, “We didn’t do this without our men.” So, God was judging everyone. Sometimes it is easy to say, “Well, I’m not doing wrong. I just know people who are.” We need God’s wisdom to know when we need to involve ourselves in the lives of others, but certainly if a couple is married one of them cannot say, “Well, that’s them, not me.” God knows what I do, but He also knows what I don’t do. And, God knows what I know. I’m not just responsible for what I do. I am responsible for what I don’t do and for what I know. That is because God loves me, and God owns me. I belong to God.
Even in Egypt these people could not escape, and even though they were able to say, “We’re not doing it. We are not the ones committing idolatry. It’s my wife,” they should have been helping their wives and leading in the home. The other women who were standing around should have done something. It has been my observation that many times ladies have a keener sense of God than men. They seem to be more spiritually interested for whatever reason. That was the case here, yet the men were passive. Their passivity did not absolve them from wrongdoing; it was their wrongdoing.
Ultimately, you can’t escape your responsibility to God and that is because you can’t escape your relationship to God. When you think of it that way, aren’t you glad? Aren’t you glad that no matter what you are, who you are, or what you do, God knows and God is there.? You cannot escape your responsibility to God, and you certainly don’t want to escape your relationship with God.