Judgement on Egyptian Jews

Jeremiah 44

  • 44:4 “Do not do this detestable thing I hate!” - Like every good parent: “This hurts me more that it will hurt you.”
  • 44:7 “Why are you doing such great harm to yourselves?” -
  • 44:14 “none will return” - their ancestors had left Egypt with great suffering, and now they had returned to meet the very fate decreed by the ancient Pharaoh.
  • 44:16 “We will not listen to you!” - Did they not believe Jeremiah was speaking the words of God? Or were they actually telling God to stuff it?
  • 44:18 “from the time we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven” - they were attempting to correlate prosperity with religious rituals. They didn’t care about obeying God - their god was at root, prosperity.
  • 44:19 “not without our husband’s knowledge” - we rebel utterly against God, but we submit to our husbands.
  • 44:22 “the Lord could no longer endure your evil deeds and abominations” - the real cause and effect of their calamities was spiritual.
  • 44:25 “Go ahead! Keep your vows!” - vows of rebellion against God.
  • 44:26 “I have sworn by My Great Name” - “that never again will any man of Judah living in the land of Egypt invoke My name or say, ‘As surely as the Lord GOD lives.’ " This is what Calvin calls “reprobate”. As God said to Noah, “My Spirit will not always strive with man.” They are turned over utterly to their rebellion and its deadly consequences.
  • 44:29 “This will be a sign to you” - when they see this, they will remember the sentence pronouced against them. How terrifying.
  • 44:30 “I will deliver Pharaoh Hophra into the hands of his enemies, just as I delivered Zedekiah to Nebuchadnezzar.” They had watched Nebuchadnezzar set up his throne in Jerusalem, and judge Zedekiah and the officials. They will recognize the same thing as Nebuchadnezzar sets up his throne in Tahpanhes of Egypt - over the very stones buried by Jeremiah.