Jer 44:1-14 I Sent Unto You All My Servants The Prophets

[Study Aired June 26, 2022]

Jer 44:1  The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt, which dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying,
Jer 44:2  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah; and, behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwelleth therein,
Jer 44:3  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 knew not, neither they, ye, nor your fathers.
Jer 44:4  Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending
them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.
Jer 44:5  But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods.
Jer 44:6  Wherefore my fury and mine anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as at this day.
Jer 44:7  Therefore now thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls, to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah, to leave you none to remain;
Jer 44:8  In that ye provoke me unto wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, whither ye be gone to dwell, that ye might cut yourselves off, and that ye might be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?
Jer 44:9  Have ye forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they have committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?
Jer 44:10  They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.
Jer 44:11  Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, and to cut off all Judah.
Jer 44:12  And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed, and fall in the land of Egypt; they shall even be consumed by the sword and by the famine: they shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine: and they shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.
Jer 44:13  For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence:
Jer 44:14  So that none of the remnant of Judah, which are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or remain, that they should return into the land of Judah, to the which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none shall return but such as shall escape.

In this 44^th chapter of Jeremiah we have another commandment from the Lord to Jeremiah instructing Jeremiah to point out Judah’s sins and to warn them of the Lord’s impending judgments upon those sins. However, the sins of these Jews are being committed immediately after witnessing the punishment of Judah and Jerusalem.

Jerusalem had fallen to the Chaldeans on “the fourth month” of Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

2Ki 25:3  And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.
2Ki 25:4  And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king’s garden: (now the Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king went the way toward the plain.

Gedaliah was made the governor of the land at that time, and he was assassinated in the seventh month of the same year:

2Ki 25:22  And as for the people that remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler.

2Ki 25:25  But it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldees that were with him at Mizpah.
2Ki 25:26  And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the armies, arose, and came to Egypt: for they were afraid of the Chaldees.

All Judah, and even King Nebuchadnezzar, knew that Jeremiah had been prophesying for decades concerning  what would happen to the Lord’s people who wanted His name but did not want to wear the clothing He wanted them to wear, neither did they want the food He was serving them.

Isa 4:1  And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread [believe our own doctrines], and wear our own apparel [live like this world]: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

These “seven women” here typify the “seven churches of Asia” who in turn signify the completely apostatized church of Christ.

Rev 1:4  John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

These “seven churches” signify all Christianity who have the name of Christ and have endured so much persecution while serving the Lord. These seven churches are typified by the remnant Jews under Gedaliah, and then under Johanan, who had performed many commendable and good works, and yet they feared what the world would think of them and what the world would do to them if they obeyed the Lord. These remnant Jews, and the seven churches, feared men more than they feared what the Lord would do if they disobeyed Him. These Jews, in practical effect, “have lost [their] first love” and are being warned:

Rev 2:2  I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
Rev 2:3  And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
Rev 2:4  Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Rev 2:5  Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

These seven churches are called “the seven churches of Asia”, and this is what they have done to the Lord and to His apostles like Paul and John:

2Ti 1:15  This thou knowest, that all they [seven churches] which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.

Paul had spent years ministering to these churches just as Jeremiah had spent so much time and energy in prophesying to the Jews who were carried away with Kings Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, and now to these Jews who were left in the land. Yet “all they which are in Asia” forsook the apostle Paul, and in doing so, they forsook the Lord Himself and went right back into the world just as these Jews before them went right back into Egypt:

Jer 44:1  The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt, which dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying,

Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Noph were prominent Egyptian cities of that day, and Pathros is just another word for Egypt, as these verses demonstrate:

Jer 44:15  Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,

Eze 29:14  And I will bring again the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation; and they shall be there a base kingdom.

Jer 44:2  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah; and, behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwelleth therein,
Jer 44:3  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 knew not, neither they, ye, nor your fathers.

The holy spirit inspires Jeremiah to point out that all these Jews “[had] seen all the evil that [the Lord] had brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah”. They could not deny that “this day they are a desolation, and no man dwells therein”. Nevertheless, because of their stubborn, self-righteous nature they cannot humble themselves to “acknowledge [their self-righteous] iniquity [and] transgressions against the Lord”:

Jer 3:13  Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.
Jer 3:14  Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:
Jer 3:15  And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

Jeremiah himself typifies these “pastors according to [the Lord’s] heart”, but this story typifies how we all first receive the Lord’s spokespersons:

Jer 44:4  Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.
Jer 44:5  But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods.

As Ezekiel puts it, the Lord answered these Jews, who are types of us, “according to the multitude of [their] idols”:

Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;
Eze 14:5  That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.

When we approach the Word of God, we are coming to Christ. When we do that with a preconceived false doctrine, then we already have a made-up mind that will not be affected by the Lord’s Words, nor by those whom He sends to us to guide and persuade us concerning what His Word is telling us. When we refuse to believe the Lord through His proven leaders and speakers, we are actually living under His wrath, even if He is deceiving us by ‘answering us according to the multitude of the idols of our hearts’:

Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

‘Believing on the Son’ entails believing those whom the Son has sent to lead and persuade us in His Words.

These words come straight out of the mouth of Christ Himself:

Luk 10:16  He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.

What Christ tells us today about rejecting His prophets and leaders was just as true in Old Testament times:

Mar 6:11  And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.

Luk 10:16  He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.

Knowing the voice of the True Shepherd is a matter of spiritual life and spiritual death:

Joh 10:4  And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
Joh 10:5  And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

When we listen to the voice of a stranger, and we don’t even recognize the voice of Christ, we are living under His wrath:

Jer 44:6  Wherefore my fury and mine anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as at this day.
Jer 44:7  Therefore now thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls, to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah, to leave you none to remain;

Just casually reading about how we see what the Lord has done to others, it does not seem possible that we could forget so quickly and cut ourselves off from Him and His people so soon after having witnessed what He did to our own people and His people after just a few months. However, that is what is written in the books of these Jews and in the books of all those who do the exact same things today.

Jer 44:8  In that ye provoke me unto wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, whither ye be gone to dwell, that ye might cut yourselves off, and that ye might be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?

Offering incense typifies and signifies our prayers:

Rev 5:8  And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.

Rev 8:3  And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
Rev 8:4  And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.

When the Lord takes from us that which we had, then everything we think we are doing to serve Him, and even our prayers, become an abomination to Him:

Pro 15:8  The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

Pro 28:9  He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.

Luk 8:18  Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.

If we have lost our ability to hear and discern the Lord’s voice, we have “cut [our]selves off” from Him, and He is now asking:

Jer 44:9  Have ye forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they have committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?

It is a rhetorical question because the Lord Himself caused them to forget that just yesterday they were proclaiming their desire to please Him and obey Him, and just yesterday they saw what He had done to those who had forgotten His words and His commandments, and now they are doing the exact same thing and are turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to His words.

In our next study, we will see that these men and their wives in Judah and Jerusalem and even these remnant Jews and their wives, who had coalesced around Gedaliah, were “burning incense to… pouring out drink offerings unto… and making cakes to worship… the queen of heaven”.

Jer 44:17  But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.

Jer 44:19  And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men?

This is what consistently afflicted the Lord’s people throughout their entire history until this very day. This is what has caused more people to leave the fellowship of the body of Christ in this generation, more that any of the other false doctrine of the enemy. What these words translate into is the observance of days, months, times, and years… the traditions of men”, against which we have been warned, but which warning from the Lord in His Word means less to most men and women than the fear of what this world, their families and friends and society as a whole will think  of them. We will cover this in more detail in next week’s study of the remainder of this 44^th chapter of Jeremiah.

Jer 44:10  They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.
Jer 44:11  Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, and to cut off all Judah.

We do not just casually ignore the Lord’s words and get by with doing so. When the Lord warns us with this question:

Gal 4:8  Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

What are these “weak and beggarly elements whereunto the whole world desires again to be in bondage”?

Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years [praying to, pouring out drink offerings to, and baking cakes to observe days, months, times, and years]
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
Gal 4:12  Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.

Paul tells us, “Be as I am… as I follow Christ.” Christ did not even keep the weekly sabbath and not the holy days of His time. It is until this very day that this is the trigger which will make most of those who come to Christ decide that the way is just too taxing, and they will forsake Him to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and pour out drink offerings and bake cakes to her, telling ourselves all the while that we are doing so to the Lord and not to the queen of heaven.

The Lord will have none of it when we are determined to go back into this world.

Jer 44:12  And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed, and fall in the land of Egypt; they shall even be consumed by the sword and by the famine:  they shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine: and they shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.

This is the same judgment pronounced upon their fathers who were forced to wander in the wilderness for forty years until that generation, except for Caleb and Joshua, died there in the wilderness. It is in that sense, that these remnant Jews signify those who “find no place of repentance”. It is in the sense that we are told “they shall die, from the least even unto the greatest… as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”

Jer 44:13  For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence:

“As I have punished Jerusalem” refers to what the Lord had done just three months ago, when others of their own people and their own family were punished for refusing to listen to the Lord’s words from His prophets. Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in the fourth month of the 11^th year of Zedekiah. All these events involving the remnant that was left in the land, including the assassination of Gedaliah, happened in the seventh month of that same year:

Jer 39:2  And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.

Jer 41:1  Now it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, and the princes of the king, even ten men with him, came unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and there they did eat bread together in Mizpah.
Jer 41:2  Then arose Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men that were with him, and smote Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword, and slew him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.

Gedaliah’s government lasted just three short months before it was terminated by one of the very people who had not gone to Babylon. Such is the fate of those who turn their backs on the Lord’s proven and faithful leaders like the prophet Jeremiah.

Eating with the Lord Himself, as the seventy elders of Israel did in the mount with Moses and Aaron, and living in the promised land, as these remnant Jews have lived, typifies having been “once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and [being] made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and having tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come”, and yet they fall away.

Exo 24:9  Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel:
Exo 24:10  And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.
Exo 24:11  And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.

Heb 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2  Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3  And this will we do, if God permit.
Heb 6:4  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
Heb 6:5  And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
Heb 6:6  If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

This remnant saw what the Lord had done to Judah and Jerusalem. They were right there all those years Jeremiah had been prophesying of the Lord’s impending judgments upon them if they continued rebuffing His judgments upon them. King Solomon had warned the Lord’s people many years earlier:

Pro 29:1  He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

Having accepted the Truth that “as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” I used to think and teach that the word ‘impossible’ in Hebrews 6:4, simply meant that it was impossible for men. However, this is not ‘men’ speaking. This is the Lord himself speaking to us and telling us that it is impossible to renew to repentance those who have been so very blessed and are yet given to turn their backs on all those blessings.

Verse 18 of this same chapter reveals that this Greek word is being used to inform us of the Lord’s perspective. Those words are not from man’s perspective:

Heb 6:17  Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
Heb 6:18  That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible [G102: ‘adunatos’] for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

This is the definition of the Greek word G102, ‘adunatos’, translated as ‘impossible’:

G102
ἀδύνατος
adunatos
ad-oo’-nat-os
From G1 (as a negative particle) and G1415; unable, that is, weak (literally or figuratively); passively impossible: – could not do, impossible, impotent, not possible, weak.
Total KJV occurrences: 10

This Greek word appears ten times in the New Testament, and it is most often translated as ‘impossible”:

G102
ἀδύνατος
adunatos
Total KJV Occurrences: 10
impossible, 6
Luk_18:26-27 (3), Heb_6:4, Heb_6:18, Heb_11:6
could, 1
Rom_8:3
impotent, 1
Act_14:8
possible, 1
Heb_10:4
weak, 1
Rom_15:1

The fact that this Greek word ‘adunatos’ is listed as ‘possible’ in Hebrews 10:4 demonstrates that computers cannot think, because the fact is that it is not translated as ‘possible’ at all. Rather, it is translated as “not possible” in:

Heb 10:4  For it is not possible [G102: ‘adunatos’] that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

These Jews had witnessed the veracity and accuracy of the words of the Lord from the mouth of His prophet, Jeremiah. They had heard and witnessed the fates of all of King Josiah’s sons, King Jehoahaz, King Jehoiakim, Jehoiakim’s son, King Jechoniah, and King Jehoiakim’s brother, Zedekiah. They had witnessed how the false prophet, Hananiah, had died just three months after Jeremiah has prophesied that he would die that same year, and still they refused to be obedient to the Lord’s words forbidding them from returning to Egypt instead of submitting to the princes of the king of Babylon, and the Lord by the word of Jeremiah had commanded them to do.

It is in that sense that these remnant Jews signify those of whom the Lord tells us they will “be cut off and that without remedy”, and that “it is impossible to renew them again to repentance”.

Jer 44:14  So that none of the remnant of Judah, which are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or remain, that they should return into the land of Judah, to the which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none shall return but such as shall escape.

They “have a desire to return there” in the same sense that the “seven women” have a desire to wear the Lord’s name, but they refuse to wear His garments or eat the food He supplies.

Isa 4:1  And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

The words “but such as shall escape” refer to those who, like Jeremiah and Baruch, and like Caleb and Joshua, were sent by the Lord to witness against the disobedience of those who find no place for repentance.

Heb 12:15  Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
Heb 12:16  Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
Heb 12:17  For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

I’d like to end every study on a positive note because everything is indeed ‘yea’ in Christ:

2Co 1:18  But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay.
2Co 1:19  For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea.

Heb 6:9  But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.