13 But if you are going to say, “We will not stay in this land,” so as not to listen to the voice of the Lord your God, 14 saying, “No, but we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the sound of a trumpet or hunger for bread, and we will stay there”; 15 then [i]in that case listen to the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “If you really set your [j]mind to enter Egypt and go in to reside there, 16 then the sword, which you are afraid of, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are anxious, will follow closely after you there in Egypt, and you will die there. 17 So all the men who set their [k]mind to go to Egypt to reside there will die by the sword, by famine and by pestilence; and they will have no survivors or refugees from the calamity that I am going to bring on them.”’”
18 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “As My anger and wrath have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so My wrath will be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And you will become a curse, an object of horror, an imprecation and a reproach; and you will see this place no more.” 19 The Lord has spoken to you, O remnant of Judah, “Do not go into Egypt!” You should clearly understand that today I have testified against you. 20 For you have only [l]deceived yourselves; for it is you who sent me to the Lord your God, saying, “Pray for us to the Lord our God; and whatever the Lord our God says, tell us so, and we will do it.” 21 So I have told you today, but you have not [m]obeyed the Lord your God, even in whatever He has sent me to tell you. 22 Therefore you should now clearly understand that you will die by the sword, by famine and by pestilence, in the place where you wish to go to reside.
Here we see the other side to the question. The people asked Jeremiah to ask God whether they should stay in Israel or seek refuge in Egypt. God promised to be with them and take care of them if they stayed, but He promised the exact opposite in Egypt. The very sword and pestilence they hoped to avoid would follow them in Egypt.
But in the last section here, Jeremiah sees, or is given insight into, what their hearts were really after. It seems the people (or many of them) had already decided Egypt was better, they just wanted God to affirm their decision. Their commitment to do “whatever the Lord our God says” was but a hollow promise, if He didn’t tell them to do what they already wanted.
So once more, I think of the words our pastor has said multiple times, “when you pray, ask what God wants to do.” That is, we don’t just blindly ask for what we want, and then say, but whatever you want. Rather, we should seek to pray His will, that it would be done, “…on earth as it is in heaven.” In this we have no better model than Jesus Himself, who said, “If there is any other way, let this cup pass. But They will be done.” So Jesus also taught His disciples when they asked Him how to pray in Matthew 6.
When we pray, we also need to be willing to seek God’s plan, and ready to follow it when He answers. For Israel, God’s answer didn’t make sense, Egypt should have been the safe bet, yet God told them otherwise. They got it half right, by asking for His will. Now, would they forsake their own way and follow Him, finally after all these decades of following other gods? Will we? Can we put aside our own agenda and sincerely seek our God and follow His way? Pray today, and every day, that God’s will be done, in your life and in the lives of those around you, and see what He can do.