Blinded by the Light

Jeremiah 42:1–43:7

God told Jeremiah over and over again how to lead the people. They now are in the exact position God wanted them to be in all along: they desperately want to hear from God. However, the problem is that it is too late for them to receive the benefit of receiving from God what he wanted to give them all along: peace during this transition. The transition was coming. God had already set the moving date. God had gladly provided them a way of escape, a way they did not take. So they will submit to God’s plans—we all do eventually—they will just do it without the benefit of God’s blessings.

After the people prayed for ten days, God finally answers their prayer. He presents them two alternatives.

First alternative: stay in the land (vv. 10-12).The first alternative they have is to stay in the land and obey God. They are commanded not to fear the king of Babylon.

Notice the logic of this affirmation. First, don’t fear the king that you fear (v. 10). This is as compelling as it is comical. Stop fearing what you fear. This is a command not to have an emotion. Stop feeling this way. This seems ridiculous to our modern sensibilities in which we are taught that the greatest violence we can do to ourselves is not to emote anything! We should always express every emotion in real time! After all, why even have social media if that were not the case? But God says to stop fearing what you are fearing. If this were not possible, he would not have commanded it.

So, is he telling them to play mental games and just pretend that the threat is not real? Not at all! The command to reign in the emotion of fear is based on solid truth. Here it is:

Here, at the beginning of the narrative, is an invitation to respond to the character of God. Of course, the choice to respond to the character of God is also a choice not to react to circumstances around them.

Second alternative: go to Egypt (vv. 13-22). The second alternative is to disobey God, leave, and go to Egypt. This is what the people want. They have a heart that is bent toward disobedience. Tragically, the God who wanted to give them a future and a hope is now prophesying terror for those who disobey (v. 18).

God is saying that wrath and punishment will take place “just as” it took place in Jerusalem. God is helping them with a mental picture. He is asking them to visualize what it had been like in Jerusalem a few days before. That is what waited for them in Egypt. Why would they not see this? Why did they only see what they wanted to see?

Jeremiah 43–44

After all the warnings, they act on their disobedience. They make their decision and choose to go to Egypt. Occasionally in the book of Jeremiah, massive movements and decisions are summed up in tight little concise statements.

Verse 7 is an example: “And they came into the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the Lord” (ESV).

That’s it. They heard the voice. They did not obey the voice. This is the disobedient relocation. So close to God they could not see him. They were blinded by the light.

Egypt is a world superpower. The people want to go there. God is telling them to stay in Judah. They are going to practice the deadly combination of selective hearing with a selective memory. Taken together, a selective memory with selective hearing can weave just about any narrative one wants. And the people reject God’s word that Egypt is a no go.

God warns them that he is not hurting them; he is actually protecting them from coming disaster. The pharaoh will be dethroned, and Egypt will be overrun by the Babylonians. Egypt will be taken out; and, as a dramatic example, even the famous Egyptian landmarks will be broken (v. 13).

God appeals to the people and asks them to see his patience. Even though the people have rejected him time and time again, he still sent prophets to warn them. Since they still refuse, God warns them that they would not survive in Egypt. God, who had been for them, is now against them. Why do they want to go to Egypt? The reason is that they cannot see what they do not want to see. They see Egypt as a symbol of prosperity and security. They could have in Egypt the best the world has to offer: peace, comfort, security. This logic made perfect sense—it always does—except that it’s false. They just did not want to see the truth.

The people respond tragically: “As for the word you spoke to us in the name of the Lord, we are not going to listen to you!” They are so blinded they believe this calamity has come because they have not been sacrificing to the queen of heaven. In the world of logic this is called a non sequitur. This is Latin for, “It does not follow.” Yes they stopped sacrificing, and yes they have fallen on hard times, but the two facts are not connected. They are only connected because, in the defiance of the people, they want them to be connected. They want anything but the light of the word.

The women then insist that what they did was done with their husbands’ permission. This is a fascinating insertion. According to the Levitical code the husband could veto a vow that was improper (Num 30:3-16). So the women are saying that they worshiped a false god with their husbands’ permission! In other words, they were taking a page out of Adam’s book by blame shifting. However, you cannot do the wrong thing the right way.

Jeremiah reaches a different conclusion. He notes that in reality these sacrifices to the queen of heaven were causing all the problems they were experiencing (v. 23).

God promised, through the words of Jeremiah, that those who sought refuge in Egypt were on a fool’s errand. No refuge would be found there. There was no hope in fleeing to Egypt. Why? Because in the same way that Zedekiah was taken out, the Egyptian pharaoh would be removed as well (v. 30). God was not the king of Egypt. That would be beneath him. He was not merely the king; he was the kingmaker. Israel then had a significant tactical advantage because God allowed them to see things no one else could see. They had insight no one else had. The problem is that sometimes God allows us to see, but we just can’t see it. We do not have a vision of what it would be like to walk in the light.

Recently I asked my young children what they would do if they could time travel. This is a remarkable fantasy! Any time. Any place. My eight-year-old replied that she would time travel forward and skip all the homework of third grade. My eleven-year-old replied that she would take money and travel back to the time when ice cream was a nickel (something I assume she heard from her grandmother) and buy tons of ice cream. Think of this! They could meet the great leaders of the world. They could stand on the beaches of Normandy or see Rome in all her glory. They could see the first Olympic games in Greece or walk with the disciples. Instead they go for skipping homework and cheap ice cream. Why can they not see all the possibilities?! I know, I know, I have some parenting to do. But did I mention they are eight and eleven? The great vistas that lay before them are invisible because they want sweets and free time. They are blinded by their own immediate desires.

As a pastor I have seen this numerous times but in far more serious ways. A couple is shown what the ravages of divorce will do to their family, but in that moment they do not want to see it. They just want the immediate false freedom from their marriage. A man is tempted to be unfaithful and ruin the most precious stewardship any man could ever have, but he will trade that beauty for a few moments of pleasure. An opportunity to live and die with integrity cannot be seen because a student just wants a quick grade, so he cheats in school. The truth is that the horizons of our sight are blocked by the urgency of our desires. Sin is so blinding that it is like the low-hanging lights that keep us from seeing the stars.

Jeremiah 45

In this short chapter God affirms that disaster is coming upon the land. Yet God has mercy. He will spare the life of Jeremiah’s friend Baruch. He had been taken off to Egypt (43:6), and he shares Jeremiah’s despondency over the whole situation. Evidently this was a young man with promise, yet now he is relocated with nothing to show for it.

Kidner notes, “This little chapter speaks volumes of the ‘quick-eyed love,’ the ‘severe mercy,’ and the ‘never-failing providence’ of God” (Message of Jeremiah, 135). God is protecting Baruch. Baruch is, in this sense, the opposite of the false prophets and of King Zedekiah. He does put his neck under the yoke, and he is spared.

So at the end of the story the people ask for insight, reject the insight, and continue in the way they were going. One would think that after seeing your nation demolished and brought to ruin, your leadership carted off, and your way of life forever altered, you would be more spiritually responsive.

Why did they act this way? Why did they want to stay blind when God was lighting their way? The reason is that they were blinded by physical realties. When life was good in Jerusalem, the spiritual reality of the prophet’s words did not match the physical reality that they were comfortable in their homes. Life was good. This is the same reason Jesus called us to divest ourselves of the world and to live for the world to come: the appearance of prosperity does not match the reality of spiritual desperation. If we cannot see that, then we are spiritually blinded.

We don’t naturally go there. God has to press this on us. This is why, in another shocking passage about blindness, God wrote to the church at Laodicea:

For you say, “I’m rich; I have become wealthy and need nothing,” and you don’t realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I advise you to buy from me gold refined in the fire so that you may be rich, white clothes so that you may be dressed and your shameful nakedness not be exposed, and ointment to spread on your eyes so that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be zealous and repent. See! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (Rev 3:17-20)

This is why, in a strange way, the persecution is good. The suffering is good. The homelessness is good. When we are without a home in this world, we are miserable, poor, blind, and naked—and we know it. The problem is not when we are these things; the problem is when we do not realize we are these things. Israel is finally in a place of seeking God. Yet the moment is lost because with all the light God gives them, they still reject him. It is odd that we reject healing. We resent sight. We forgo understanding and wisdom.

So there is something worse than blindness; it is spiritual blindness. The reason is that people who are spiritually blind do not know it. They keep moving forward, making a mess out of so much because they are not aware of what they cannot see. The only thing worse than being blind would be being blind and thinking you could see. Being blinded by the light.