ROOTED - Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Jeremiah 43:1, 2; 44:16-17, 26

1  When Jeremiah finished speaking to all the people all these
words of the Lord their God, with which the Lord their God
had sent him to them, 2 Azariah the son
of Hoshaiah and Johanan the son of Kareah and all the insolent
men said to Jeremiah, “You are telling a lie. The Lord our God did
not send you to say, ‘Do not go to Egypt to live there,’

16 “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of
the Lord, we will not listen to you. 17 But
we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of
heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and
our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the
streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no
disaster.

26 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah
who dwell in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by my great name,
says the Lord, that my name shall no more be invoked by the mouth of
any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, ‘As the
Lord God lives.’

Reflection: Judah Following After Israel

Written By: Pastor Jesse Caro

Israel (remember… Israel is the Northern Kingdom) had already
rejected the words of the prophet Isaiah. They had told Jeremiah, collectively,
that they would continue down their own rebellious paths, thank you very
much!!!!! “We will not believe you… that Babylon is taking us to captivity. Now
Judah (the Southern Kingdom) is being told by the same prophet of God… “if you
go to Egypt, where you think you will be safe, beware that you will die.” A
clear choice God has for Judah: if you stay in Judah, I will protect you and
multiply you… but if you go to Egypt, you will die.” Johanan, the leader of the
remnant of Judah, rejected Jeremiah (as Zedekiah did), and he rejected God! What
Judah did not know is that Babylon would soon invade Egypt and destroy the
Egyptians and all who lived there.

It is a wonder how hard-hearted the people of God were. They
seemed to never learn from their mistakes or stop following after other gods.
The prophets were seldom heeded, and those who preached, “thus sayeth the
Lord,” were too often ignored. It is quite a broken record, playing on repeat…
the same tune over and over and over again. Prophetic words are disobeyed,
followed by rebellion. As a reader I am wondering what more I might learn from
this story. It is repetitive and a bit annoying to read. I think that my mind
goes to a particular refrain when these stories pop back up, namely, that I too
repeat the same sorts of patterns in my life. It is the human condition to
stiff-arm God and reject him, over and over and over again. I am a broken
record. We often are like Judah and Israel, falling into behaviors that don’t
honor God. So, don’t be annoyed by these repetitive stories, but be reminded
that we are not so different than they were. We too can be stiff-necked and
rebellious to our own peril.

Prayer

Lord,
forgive us for being rebellious to you and dishonoring you with our repetitive
actions.