Daily Devotions
Jeremiah
"Because of their wickedness"
Text: Jeremiah 44:3
DEALING WITH THE PROBLEM OF WICKEDNESS
Israel had not learned what the LORD had been seeking to teach them about the problem of wickedness. The people from Judah who had fled to Egypt continued to walk in wickedness. This problem had to be dealt with firmly.
“The word that came to Jeremiah
concerning all the Jews who dwell in the land of Egypt, who dwell at Migdol,
at Tahpanhes, at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying,
‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:
‘You have seen all the calamity that I have brought on Jerusalem
and on all the cities of Judah;
and behold, this day they are a desolation, and no one dwells in them,
because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke Me to anger,
in that they went to burn incense and to serve other gods whom they did not know,
they nor you nor your fathers.””
Jeremiah 44:1-3
THE PENALTY OF PURSUING WICKEDNESS
1. “The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who dwell in the land of Egypt, who dwell at Migdol, at Tahpanhes, at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying”
a) Jewish communities in Egypt.
There were already many Jews in Egypt.
b) They lived in the following cities:
i) Migdol
ii) Tahpanhes
iii) Noph
iv) Pathros
c) The remnant of Judah wanted to join them.
d) Or create new communities in Egypt.
2. “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘You have seen all the calamity
that I have brought on Jerusalem and on all the cities of Judah;
and behold, this day they are a desolation, and no one dwells in them'”
a) A word to all the Jews in Egypt.
b) They were aware of the calamities that had taken place:
i) In Jerusalem.
ii) In all the cities of Judah.
iii) The whole land was in a state of desolation.
3. “Because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke Me to anger, in that they went to burn incense and to serve other gods whom they did not know, they nor you nor your fathers”
a) This was a word that served:
i) As a reminder.
ii) As a word of warning.
b) Judah and Jerusalem:
i) They had provoked God to anger.
ii) They burned incense to idols.
iii) They served these deities they did not know.
iv) These were idols that their forefathers had not acknowledged.