Mar 06 2025 23 mins 9
Today’s Bible Translation
Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 42-46 NLT
Associate Producer
Jørn Rune Reinertsen
Podcast Introduction
It’s Prophecy Friday, and we’ll read Jeremiah 42-46. I’m calling this episode “The Inevitability of God’s Judgement.”
Comments on Jeremiah 42 and 46
Thoughts on Jeremiah 42
Have you ever made a bargain with God? You’ve been in trouble or in some other hard place, and you said, “Lord, help me here and I will never sin again! I’ll devote my life to you!” And then the trouble passes, and you go right back to your old ways. Yeah. Most of us probably have done that, and let me say that it’s not a good thing to do. We may forget, but God doesn’t. Thankfully, God understands our foolishness and we have forgiveness in Jesus, but making a promise to God is still a serious thing. My suggestion is that you take your promises very, very seriously.
In chapter 42 the people came to Jeremiah and said, “Please pray to the Lord your God for us. Pray that the Lord your God will show us what to do and where to go. Whether we like it or not, we will obey the Lord your God to whom we are sending you with our plea. For if we obey him, everything will turn out well for us.” So they made a promise that they would do whatever God told them to do, didn’t they? Let’s see how they followed through on their promise.
But first, did you notice that in the first sentence, they said to Jeremiah, “…pray to the Lord YOUR God”? Isn’t that interesting? These were supposed to be God’s chosen people, and yet they didn’t say “pray to the Lord OUR God.” But when Jeremiah replied to them, he reminded them of this when he said, ”All right, I will pray to the Lord your God, as you have asked…”
Beloved, either He is our God or He isn’t. Either we follow Him or we don’t. Sure, we are weak and we fail, but if we are His, when we fall we get back up and, with His help, we try again.
But that’s not what these people did in chapter 42. You heard what happened. They did NOT keep their promise to do whatever God told them to do. God told them to stay there in Babylon and not go to Egypt. He told them that he would bless them if they stayed and bring disaster on them if they went.
They said in essence, “Yeah. No. We’re going to Egypt. We don’t care what you tell us to do.”
So they told it like it was when they referred to God as “the Lord YOUR God”, didn’t they? They had no intention of listening if what He said was not what they wanted to hear.
But God did keep his promise, and disaster came down on them.
Let’s not play games with God. Let’s understand that He truly does want to bless us, and let’s do our best to please Him so that He can.
Thoughts on Jeremiah 46
Don’t you sometimes wonder why God allows evil people to continue in their evil for so long? Doesn’t it sometimes seem like God isn’t even paying attention to what’s going on?
Well, of course He’s paying attention, and yes, He will bring justice. But as we have seen as we’ve been reading through Jeremiah, God sometimes uses bad people to do His will. Now, please DO NOT misunderstand me. I am not saying that God always causes evil people to do the things they do. Far from it. Most of the time, evil people do evil because they are evil. But sometimes, *sometimes* God brings punishment on those He loves through evil people, to bring those He loves back into relationship with Himself.
We’ve seen that God used Nebuchadnezzar to do that with His chosen people, haven’t we?
But God always brings judgment to evil people. They do not get a free pass, ever. In chapter 46 we heard what judgment God had planned for Egypt. He was going to use the evil king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon this time to bring Egypt down.
Nations and people can never escape the notice of God. He sees all the cruelty and injustice that man brings against man. He hears the cry of the innocents and the victims. And the day is coming when He will bring judgment to those who do wrong. Perhaps in their own lifetime, perhaps when they stand before Him, but they will certainly know His judgment.
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Transcript
Steve Webb 0:00
Either He is our God or he isn’t.
Steve Webb 0:10
This is the Lifespring one year Bible coming to you from Riverside, California and they say it never rains in Southern California. It’s been raining all day and my friend Dale up near Lake Arrowhead has been shoveling still onboarding podcasting since 2004. I’m your og Godcaster. Steve Webb. This is the daily podcast where we’re reading through the entire Bible in a year. Thanks for inviting me to be with you today. It’s prophecy Friday, and we’ll read Jeremiah 42 through 46. I’m calling this episode the inevitability of God’s judgment. Before we read, let’s pray. Our gracious heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for Your Word. We thank you for revealing yourself to us so that we can know you so we can grow to love you. As we read today, I pray that You would bless our time together and I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. All right, beloved, let’s begin.
Steve Webb 1:08
Jeremiah, chapter 42, then all the military leaders, including Joe Hainan, son of Korea, and Jasmine is nfo, Shia, and all the people from the least to the greatest approached Jeremiah the prophet. They said, Please pray to the Lord your God for us. As you can see, we’re only a tiny remnant compared to what we were before. Pray that the Lord your God will show us what to do and where to go. All right, Jeremiah replied, I will pray to the Lord your God as you have asked, and I will tell you everything he says, I will hide nothing from you. Then they said to Jeremiah, may the Lord your God be a faithful witness against us if we refuse to obey whatever He tells us to do. Whether we like it or not, we will obey the Lord our God to whom we are sending you with our plea. For if we obey Him, everything will turn out well for us. 10 days later, the Lord gave his reply to Jeremiah. So he called for Joe Hanan the son of Korea and all the other military leaders and for all the people from the least to the greatest. He said to them, You sent me to the Lord, the God of Israel with your request, and this is his reply. Stay here in this land. If you do, I will build you up and not tear you down. I will plant you and not uproot you. For I am sorry about all the punishment I’ve had to bring upon you. Do not fear the king of Babylon anymore, says the Lord, for I am with you and will save you and rescue you from his power. I will be merciful to you by making him kind. So he will let you stay here in your land. But if you refuse to obey the Lord your God and if you say we will not stay here, instead, we’ll go to Egypt where we will be free from war, the call to arms and hunger. Then here the Lord’s message to the remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel says, if you are determined to go to Egypt and live there, the very war and famine you fear will catch up to you and you will die there. That is the fate of waiting every one of you who insists on going to live in Egypt, yes, you will die from war, famine and disease. None of you will escape the disaster I will bring upon you there. This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel says, just as my anger and fury have been poured out on the people of Jerusalem, so they will be poured out on you when you enter Egypt, you will be an object of damnation, horror, cursing and mockery. And you will never see your homeland again. Listen, you remnant of Judah, the Lord has told you do not go to Egypt. Don’t forget this warning I’ve given you today. For you. We’re not being honest. When you sent me to pray to the Lord your God for you. You said, just tell us what the Lord our God says, and we will do it. And today I’ve told you exactly what he said, but you will not obey the Lord your God any better now than you have in the past. So you can be sure that you will die from war, famine and disease in Egypt, where you insist on going.
Steve Webb 4:08
Jeremiah chapter 43. When Jeremiah had finished giving this message from the LORD their God to all the people, as Darius and of Oceania, and Joe Hainan, son of Korea, and all the other proud men said to Jeremiah, you lie, the Lord our God hasn’t forbidden us to go to Egypt. Berek son of Nuria has convinced you to say this because he wants us to stay here and be killed by the Babylonians or be carried off into exile. So Joe Hainan and the other military leaders and all the people refuse to obey the Lord’s command to stay in Judah. Joe Hainan and the other leaders took with them all the people who had returned from the nearby countries to which they had fled. In the crowd were men, women and children, the king’s daughters, and all those whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with get Elia. The prophet Jeremiah in Beric. Were also included people refuse to obey the voice of the Lord and went to Egypt going as far as the city of top and he’s then at Tampines, the Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, while the people of Judah are watching, take some large rocks and bury them under the pavement stones at the entrance of Pharaoh’s palace here on top and he’s then say to the people of Judah, this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel says, I will certainly bring my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon here to Egypt, I will set his throne over these stones that I have hidden, he will spread Israel canopy over them, and when He comes, He will destroy the Land of Egypt. He will bring death to those destined for death, captivity to those destined for captivity, and war to those destined for war. He will set fire to the temples of Egypt’s gods, he will burn the temples and carry the idols away as plunder. He will pick clean the land of Egypt as a shepherd picks flees from his cloak, and he himself will leave unharmed. He will break down the sacred pillars standing in the Temple of the Sun in Egypt, and he will burn down the temples of Egypt’s gods.
Steve Webb 6:08
Jeremiah chapter 44. This is the message Jeremiah received concerning the Judeans living in northern Egypt in the cities of Migdol colonies in Memphis, and in southern Egypt as well. This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel says, you saw the calamity I brought on Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah, they now live deserted and in ruins. They provoked my anger with all their wickedness. They burned incense and worshipped other gods gods that neither they nor you, nor any of your ancestors had ever known. Again, and again, I set my servants the prophets to plead with them, don’t do these horrible things that I hate so much. But my people would not listen are turned back from their wicked ways. They kept on burning incense to these gods. And so my fury boiled over and fell like fire on the towns of Judah and into the streets of Jerusalem, and they are still a desolate ruin today. And now the Lord God of Heavens, armies, the God of Israel asks you, Why are you destroying yourselves for not one of you will survive, not a man, woman or child among you who has come here from Judah, not even the babies in your arms? Why provoked my anger by burning incense to the idols you have made here in Egypt? You will only destroy yourselves and make yourselves an object of cursing and mockery for all the nations of the earth. Have you forgotten the sins of your ancestors, the sins of the kings and queens of Judah, and the sins you and your wives committed in Judah and Jerusalem. To this very hour, you have shown no remorse or reverence. No one has chosen to follow my word and the decrees I gave to you and your ancestors before you. Therefore this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel says, I am determined to destroy every one of you. I will take this remnant of Judah, those who were determined to come here and live in Egypt, and I will consume them. They will fall here in Egypt killed by war and famine, all will die from the least to the greatest, they will be an object of damnation, horror, cursing and mockery. I will punish them in Egypt just as I punished them in Jerusalem by war, feminine disease of that remnant who fled to Egypt hoping someday to return to Judah, there will be no survivors. Even though they longed to return home, only a handful will do so. Then all the women present and all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense titles, a great crowd of all the Judeans living in northern Egypt and southern Egypt, answered Jeremiah, we will not listen to your messages from the Lord, we will do whatever we want. We will burn incense and pour out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven just as much as we like, just as we and our ancestors, and our kings that officials have always done in the towns of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem. For in those days, we had plenty to eat, and we were well off and had no troubles. But ever since we quit burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and stopped worshiping her with liquid offerings, we have been in great trouble and had been dying from war and famine. Besides the woman added, do you suppose that we were burning incense and pouring out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven? And making cakes marked with her image without our husbands knowing it and helping us? Of course not? Then Jeremiah said to all of them, men and women alike who had given him that answer. Do you think the Lord did not know that you and your ancestors, your kings and officials, and all the people were burning incense to idols in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? It was because the Lord could no longer bear all the disgusting things you were doing, that he made your land and object of cursing, a desolate ruin without inhabitants as it is today. All these terrible things happen to you because you have burned incense to idols and sinned against the Lord. You have refused to obey Him and if not for follow his instructions, his decrees and His laws. Then Jeremiah said to them all, including the women, listen to this message from the Lord, all US citizens of Judah who live in Egypt. This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel says, you and your wives have said, we will keep our promises to burn incense and pour out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven. And you have proved by your actions that you met it. So go ahead and carry out your promises and vows to her. But listen to the message from the Lord, all you do, Dan’s now living in Egypt, I have sworn by my great name, says the Lord, that my name will no longer be spoken by any of the Judeans in the land of Egypt. None of you may invoke my name or use this oath as surely as the Sovereign Lord lives, for I will watch over you and bring you disaster and not good. Everyone from Judah who is now living in Egypt will suffer war and famine until all of you were dead. Only a small number will escaped death and return to Judah from Egypt. Then all those who come to Egypt will find out whose words are true, mine or theirs. And this is the proof I give you says the Lord, that all I have threatened will happen to you and that I will punish you here. This is what the Lord says. I will turn Pharaoh Hoffer, king of Egypt over to his enemies who want to kill him, just as I turned King Zedekiah of Judah over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
Steve Webb 11:25
Jeremiah, chapter 45. The prophet Jeremiah gave a message to Barrick son of North Korea in the fourth year of the reign of Jehovah Kim, son of Josiah, after barrack had written down everything Jeremiah had dictated to him. He said, This is what the Lord the God of Israel says to you Berek, you have said, I am overwhelmed with trouble. Haven’t I had enough pain already? And now the Lord has added more. I am worn out from sighing and confined no rest. Barrick, this is what the Lord says, I will destroy this nation that I built. I will uproot what I planted. Are you seeking great things for yourself? Don’t do it. I will bring great disaster upon all these people, but I will give you your life as a reward wherever you go. I the LORD have spoken.
Steve Webb 12:16
Jeremiah chapter 46. The following messages were given to Jeremiah the prophet from the Lord concerning foreign nations. This message concerning Egypt was given in the fourth year of the reign of Jehovah Kim, son of Josiah the king of Judah, on the occasion of the Battle of Carchemish. When Pharaoh Nikko king of Egypt and his army were defeated before the Euphrates River by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Prepare your shields in advance into battle. Harness the horses and mount the stallions. Take your positions, put on your helmets, sharpen your spears and prepare your armor. But what do I see? The Egyptian army flees in terror, the bravest of its fighting men run without a backward glance. They are terrorized at every turn, says the Lord. The swiftest runners cannot flee. The mightiest warriors cannot escape by the Euphrates River to the north, they stumble and fall. Who is this rising like the Nile at flood time overflowing all the land? It is the Egyptian army overflowing all the land, boasting that it will cover the earth like a flood, destroying cities and their people. Charge you horses and chariots attack you mighty warriors of Egypt. Come all you allies from Ethiopia, Libya and Lydia who are skilled with a shield and bow. For this as the day of the Lord the Lord of Heaven’s Armies a day of vengeance on his enemies. The sword will devour until it is satisfied Yes until it is drunk with your blood. The Lord the Lord of Heaven’s armies will receive a sacrifice today in the North Country beside the Euphrates River. Go up to Gilead to get medicine Oh virgin daughter of Egypt, but your many treatments will bring you know healing. The nation’s have heard of your shame. The earth is filled with your cries of despair. Your mightiest warriors will run into each other and fall down together. Then the Lord gave the prophet Jeremiah this message about King Nebuchadnezzar has plans to attack Egypt. Shout it out in Egypt, publish it in the cities of Migdal Memphis and top Annie’s mobilized for battle for the sword will devour every one around you. Why have your warriors fallen? They cannot stand for the Lord has knocked them down. They stumble and fall over each other and say among themselves, come let’s go back to our people to the land of our birth. Let’s get away from the sort of the enemy. There they will say Pharaoh the king of Egypt is a loudmouth who missed his opportunity. As surely as I live says the king whose name is the Lord of Heaven’s armies. One is coming against Egypt who is as tall as Mount Tabor or his Mount Carmel by the sea. Pack up, get ready to leave for exile you sit of Egypt, the city of Memphis will be destroyed without a single inhabitant. Egypt is as sleek as a beautiful heifer. But a horsefly from the north is on its way. Egypt’s mercenaries have become like fattened calves, they too will turn and run for it as a day of great disaster for Egypt, a time of great punishment. Egypt flees silent as a serpent gliding away. The invading army marches in. They come against her with axes like woodsmen, they will cut down her people like trees, says the Lord, for they are more numerous the locusts, Egypt will be humiliated, she will be handed over to people from the North. The Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel says, I will punish Amman, the god of thieves, and all the other gods of Egypt. I will punish its rulers in Pharaoh too, and all who trust in him, I will hand them over to those who want them killed to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his army. But afterward the land will recover from the ravages of war. I the LORD have spoken. But do not be afraid, Jacob My servant, Do not be dismayed Israel, for I will bring you home again from distant lands and your children will return from their exile, Israel will return to a life of peace and quiet and no one will terrorize them. Do not be afraid, Jacob My servant, for I am with you says the Lord, I will completely destroy the nations to which I have exiled you, but I will not completely destroy you. I will discipline you, but with justice, I cannot let you go and punished.
Steve Webb 16:38
Beloved, have you ever made a bargain with God, you’ve been in trouble or in some other hard place and you said, Lord, help me here and I’ll never sin again. I’ll devote my life to you. And then the trouble passes. And you go right back to your old ways. Yeah, most of us have probably done that. And let me say that’s not a good thing to do. We may forget, but God doesn’t. And thankfully, God understands our foolishness, and we have forgiveness in Jesus. But making a promise to God is still a serious thing. My suggestion is that you take your promises very, very seriously. In chapter 42, the people came to Jeremiah and they said, Please pray to the Lord your God for us pray that the Lord your God will show us what to do and where to go. Whether we like it or not, we will obey the Lord your God to whom we are sending you with our plea for IF we OBEY Him, everything will turn out well for us. So they made a promise that they would do whatever God told him to do, didn’t they? Let’s see how they followed through on their promise. But first, did you notice that in that first sentence, they said to Jeremiah, pray to the Lord your God, isn’t that interesting? These were supposed to be God’s chosen people. And yet they didn’t say pray to the Lord, our God. And when Jeremiah replied to them, he reminded them of the fact that they were supposed to be God’s people. He said, All right, I will pray to the Lord, your God is you have asked, listen, either He is our God, or he isn’t. Either we follow Him or we don’t. Sure we are weak, and we fail. But if we are his, when we fall, we get back up and with His help we try again. But that is not what these people did in chapter 42. You heard what happened, they did not keep their promise to do whatever God told them to do. God told him to stay there and Babylon and not go to Egypt. He told them that he would bless them if they stayed and bring disaster on them if they went. And they said, in essence, yeah, no, we’re going to Egypt, we don’t care what you tell us to do. So really, they told it like it was when they refer to God is the Lord your God, didn’t they? They had no intention of listening, if what he said was not what they wanted to hear. But God did keep his promise, and he brought disaster on them. Let’s not play games with God. Let’s understand that he truly does want to bless us and let’s do our best to please Him so that He can. And now let’s look for just a moment at Jeremiah 46. Don’t you sometimes wonder why God allows evil people to continue in their evil for so long? Doesn’t it sometimes seem like God isn’t even paying attention to what’s going on? Well, of course, he’s paying attention and yes, he will bring justice. But as we have seen as we’ve been reading through this book, God sometimes uses bad people to do His will. Now please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that God always causes evil people to do the things they do. Far from it. Most of the time, evil people do evil because they’re evil. But sometimes, sometimes God does bring punishment on those he loves through evil people to bring those he loves back into relationship with Himself. We’ve seen that God used Nebuchadnezzar to do that with his chosen people, haven’t we? But God always brings judgment to evil people, they do not get a free pass ever. In chapter 46, we heard what judgment God had planned for Egypt. He was going to use the Evil King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, this time to bring Egypt down. nations and people can never escape the notice of God. He sees all the cruelty and injustice that man brings against man. He hears the cry of the innocence and the victims. And the day is coming when he will bring judgment to those who do wrong, perhaps in their own lifetime, perhaps when they stand before him, but they will certainly know God’s judgment. Do you think the timing of God’s judgment of evil people makes a difference? Let me know what you think. Call the Lifespring family Hotline at plus 1-951-732-8511 Or comment via boostagram or by going to comment.lifespringmedia.com. Tomorrow will be gospel Saturday and we’ll read Luke chapters five and six.
Steve Webb 21:25
Our associate producer today is Jørn Rune Reinertsen, who came in with his monthly $20 donation. Thank you, Jørn and God bless you. Beloved, if you’re receiving value from the Lifespring, one year Bible, if it’s helping you to stay in God’s word, would you be willing to help support the show? As you know, I do not accept any advertisers on the show? Because advertising equals censorship. We’ve talked about that before. Would you be willing to assign some sort of a number to reflect the value you receive from the show? Pray about it, would you and then go to Lifespringmedia.com Sasha thoughts. I’ll thank you and I believe God will bless you.
Steve Webb 22:10
I’m drawing the names of three Lifespring family members tomorrow, Saturday, February 25 2023, at 4pm pacific time to receive a copy of the book Jesus Revolution. If you haven’t sent in your name yet, and you’d like to have a copy of the book, be sure to email me at Steve at Lifespringmedia.com or send a boostagram with these words, “I want a Jesus revolution.” If you want one, now is the time to send an email or boostagram with those words. Send the email to me at
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title="This contact has been encoded by Anti-Spam by CleanTalk. Click to decode. To finish the decoding make sure that JavaScript is enabled in your browser.">st***@li*************.com or send a boostagram right now. Have you seen the movie yet? What do you think of it? Let me know.
Steve Webb 22:53
Thanks to Sister Denise, Michael Haner, Scott Snider, Jason Paschall who did today’s art, and Brittaney. They help the show out by doing things that I just flat don’t have time for. Thank you guys. God bless you. And thanks to today’s associate producer Jørn Rune Reinertsen for helping to make this episode possible. And beloved, thank you for inviting me to be a part of your day today. Until tomorrow may God bless you richly. My name is Steve Webb. Bye.
Announcer 23:23
The Lifespring media family of programs are made possible by the generous support of listeners like you, thank you.
Announcer 23:32
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Transcript not yet corrected.
