UNROLL
Late afternoon where a dusty desert road from the north-east meets the first green fields and palms of the Nile delta; far off, a low mud-brick fortress town; fresh donkey tracks in the dust.

After the fall

Jeremiah 43

Can you run from God’s word and find it waiting for you when you arrive?

13 verses≈ 3 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

  1. 1The callJosiah’s thirteenth year (about 627 BC): a prophet to the nations
  2. 2–6Return to MeBroken cisterns, faithless Judah, disaster from the north
  3. 7–10The temple gateThe temple sermon, a weeping prophet, the living God
  4. 11–20Covenant and complaintThe broken covenant, the potter, Jeremiah’s confessions
  5. 21–29Shepherds and prophetsKings judged, the Branch, seventy years, the yoke, the letter
  6. 30–33The Book of ComfortRestoration, the new covenant, a field bought in a siege
  7. 34–39The last days of JudahThe scroll burned, the cistern, Jerusalem falls (586 BC)
  8. 40–45After the fallGedaliah at Mizpah, the flight to Egypt, a word for BaruchChapter 43
  9. 46–51The nationsEgypt to Babylon: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
  10. 52Jerusalem fallsThe record of 586 BC, and a king released

Jeremiah Taken to Egypt

When Jeremiah had finished telling all the people all the words of the LORD their God—everything that the LORD had sent him to say— Azariah son of Hoshaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying!

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The arrogant men
The arrogant men

The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to reside there.’ Rather, Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to deliver us into the hands of the Chaldeans, so that they may put us to death or exile us to Babylon!”

EgyptBethlehemJerusalemMizpah (site uncertain)Tahpanhes (site uncertain)Migdol (site uncertain)MemphisOn (Heliopolis)

Stylised map · locations approximate

Where it happened

Down to Egypt

From near Bethlehem to Tahpanhes on the edge of the Nile delta is nearly 200 miles. Judeans later lived at Migdol (site uncertain), Tahpanhes and Memphis, and far up the Nile in Pathros (44:1).

So Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces disobeyed the command of the LORD to stay in the land of Judah.

Evening in the dry, stony hills of the Negev, seen from far off: a long, thin straggling line of small walking figures, families with bundles and laden donkeys, heads southwest toward a hazy horizon, their dust hanging in low gold light.

Instead, Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces took the whole remnant of Judah, those who had returned to the land of Judah from all the nations to which they had been scattered, the men, the women, the children, the king’s daughters, and everyone whom Nebuzaradan captain of the guard had allowed to remain with Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, as well as Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah.

Evening at the mud-brick gate of an Egyptian frontier town: weary Judean families with bundles and donkeys arrive while Egyptian guards in white linen watch, spears grounded; palms and a canal beyond.

So they entered the land of Egypt because they did not obey the voice of the LORD, and they went as far as Tahpanhes.

0:06

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Reflect

Reflect

Jeremiah was taken where he would never have chosen to go, and even there “the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah at Tahpanhes.” Where are you that you never chose to be? Write down one way God might still speak to you there.

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah at Tahpanhes:

God
God

“In the sight of the Jews, pick up some large stones and bury them in the clay of the brick pavement at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace at Tahpanhes.

God
God

Then tell them that this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will set his throne over these stones that I have embedded, and he will spread his royal pavilion over them.

God

He will come and strike down the land of Egypt, bringing death to those destined for death, captivity to those destined for captivity, and the sword to those destined for the sword.

God
God

I will kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar will burn those temples and take their gods as captives.

God

So he will wrap himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself in his garment, and he will depart from there unscathed.

God
God

He will demolish the sacred pillars of the temple of the sun in the land of Egypt, and he will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.’”

Question

Quick question

In Egypt the LORD gave Jeremiah one more acted sign. Look at 43:9.

Where did Jeremiah bury the large stones?

You’ve experienced

Jeremiah 43

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A verse to carry with you

So they entered the land of Egypt because they did not obey the voice of the LORD, and they went as far as Tahpanhes.

Jeremiah 43:7

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