The People’s Choice

Fearing retaliation for the murder of Gedaliah, the Jews had decided to go to Egypt for safety, but wanting God’s blessing, they asked Jeremiah to pray about what God wanted.  God told Jeremiah that if they would stay where they were, God would protect them but that if they went to Egypt they would be killed.  This was not what they had decided, and they refused to stay, accusing Jeremiah of setting them up to be killed, in Jeremiah 43:1-7.  “And it came to pass, that when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking unto all the people all the words of the LORD their God, for which the LORD their God had sent him to them, even all these words, Then spake Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely: the LORD our God hath not sent thee to say, Go not into Egypt to sojourn there: But Baruch the son of Neriah setteth thee on against us, for to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they might put us to death, and carry us away captives into Babylon.

So Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people, obeyed not the voice of the LORD, to dwell in the land of Judah.  But Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Judah, that were returned from all nations, whither they had been driven, to dwell in the land of Judah; Even men, and women, and children, and the king's daughters, and every person that Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah.  So they came into the land of Egypt: for they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: thus came they even to Tahpanhes.”

Determined to do what they had decided was est, they forced Jeremiah and Baruch the son of Neriah to go along with them even though they were trying to obey the Lord.   God warned them that their flight to Egypt to escape Nebuchadnezzars wrath would fail because the Babylonians or Caldeans would conquer Egypt as well. 

Their flight would only incense him, according to Jeremiah 43:8-13.  “Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, Take great stones in thine hand, and hide them in the clay in the brickkiln, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah; And say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them.  And when he cometh, he shall smite the land of Egypt, and deliver such as are for death to death; and such as are for captivity to captivity; and such as are for the sword to the sword.”

God had chosen Nebuchadnezzar to punish the various nations for their refusal to worship him and follow his commands, and Egypt was one of the Nations that was to be punished, as Jeremiah 43:12-13 tells us.  “And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and he shall burn them, and carry them away captives: and he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd putteth on his garment; and he shall go forth from thence in peace.  He shall break also the images of Bethshemesh, that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire.”