Did God Really Say...?

by Brent Goodge

There’s a story at the end of the book of Jeremiah that doesn’t often make it to the Bible bedtime storybooks. The story is touched on in five verses of 2 Kings (2 Kings 25:22-26), and the Chronicles don’t mention it. It’s the story of the “fortunate” Jews who survived the siege of Nebuchadnezzar and were not carried off to Babylon.

By direct order of Nebuchadnezzar himself, Jeremiah was released from prison after the Babylonian army took Jerusalem. Given the choice to travel to Babylon as a guest of Nebuchadnezzar or to stay behind with the other remaining Jews, Jeremiah chose to remain in Judah. He moved to Mizpah to live. There he joined Gedaliah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had appointed governor of the remaining people.

Read Jeremiah chapters 40-45 to get the entire story. In short, Gedaliah was murdered and the Jews remaining were at a loss for what to do. Some favored staying in Judah. Others favored escaping to Egypt in fear that Babylon would come to destroy them for the murder of Gedaliah.

Thankfully, Jeremiah was yet among them, and he could relate God’s instructions to them. Their request to Jeremiah could hardly have been more respectful. “Please let our petition be acceptable to you, and pray for us to the Lord your God… that the Lord your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing we should do” (Jeremiah 42:2,3). When Jeremiah promised to bring them God’s word, they added, “Let the Lord be a true and faithful Witness between us… whether it is pleasing or displeasing, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God” (Jeremiah 42:5,6).

Ten days later, Jeremiah brought them the word of the Lord. God instructed that the people stay in the land of Judah. God would move the heart of Nebuchadnezzar to spare them. Conversely, if they chose to go to Egypt, hardly any of them would survive to return. The devastation they were desperate to escape would find them in Egypt.

The leaders of the people, having already made up their minds to go to Egypt, proclaimed, “You speak falsely! The Lord our God has not sent you to say, ‘Do not go into

Egypt’” (Jeremiah 43:2). Having already promised to accept the word of the Lord through Jeremiah, they denied that God actually inspired the words His prophet was sharing with them. There is a much older story that reveals where this attitude originated. About 3,500 years before Jeremiah, a snake waited in a tree. The snake was eating fruit that Adam and Eve had been forbidden to partake of. His conversation began with “Did God really say…?” and quickly moved to “You shall not surely die,” in direct contradiction to the word of God. Then he added that, through disobedience, Eve could become like God (Genesis 3:15). Satan inspired the Jews who rejected the word of Jeremiah. Satan inspires all those today who, by their words and deeds implies the question, “Did God REALLY say…?”

About The Author Brent Goodge lives in Whitfield County, and he wants the quote of his life to be like Jesus, “It is written…” rather than “Did God REALLY say…?”