Jeremiah 42:1-17   OT p. 707 or 978

[1] Then all the commanders of the forces, and Johanan son of Kareah and Azariah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, approached

[2] the prophet Jeremiah and said, "Be good enough to listen to our plea, and pray to the Lord your God for us--for all this remnant. For there are only a few of us left out of many, as your eyes can see.

[3] Let the Lord your God show us where we should go and what we should do."

[4] The prophet Jeremiah said to them, "Very well: I am going to pray to the Lord your God as you request, and whatever the Lord answers you I will tell you; I will keep nothing back from you."

[5] They in their turn said to Jeremiah, "May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to everything that the Lord your God sends us through you.

[6] Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, in order that it may go well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God."

[7] At the end of ten days the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.

[8] Then he summoned Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest,

[9] and said to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your plea before him:

[10] If you will only remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I am sorry for the disaster that I have brought upon you.

[11] Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, as you have been; do not be afraid of him, says the Lord, for I am with you, to save you and to rescue you from his hand.

[12] I will grant you mercy, and he will have mercy on you and restore you to your native soil.

[13] But if you continue to say, 'We will not stay in this land,' thus disobeying the voice of the Lord your God

[14] and saying, 'No, we will go to the land of Egypt, where we shall not see war, or hear the sound of the trumpet, or be hungry for bread, and there we will stay,'

[15] then hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you are determined to enter Egypt and go to settle there,

[16] then the sword that you fear shall overtake you there, in the land of Egypt; and the famine that you dread shall follow close after you into Egypt; and there you shall die.

[17] All the people who have determined to go to Egypt to settle there shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; they shall have no remnant or survivor from the disaster that I am bringing upon them.

[NRSV]

INTRODUCTION:

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses. We all us them don't we? We all have excuses why we did or didn't do something we should or shouldn't have done. Some of us are even pretty creative about our excuses.

A farmer asked his neighbor if he might borrow a rope. "Sorry," said the neighbor, "I'm using my rope to tie up my milk."

The neighbor looked at him like he was crazy and said, "You can't tie up milk with rope."

"Oh, I know," replied the neighbor, "but when a man doesn't want to do something, one excuse is as good as any." [1]

We all use excuses don't we. Probably the best example of our creativity is the excuses girls give when they refuse a date with a guy who ask them out:

"I'd love to go out with you, but I'm attending the opening of my garage door."

"I'd love to go out with you, but I'm staying home to work on my cottage cheese sculpture."

"I'd love to go out with you, but it's my parakeet's bowling night."

"I'd love to go out with you, but I need to spend more time with my blender."

"I'd love to go out with you, but it's my night to pet the goldfish."

"I'd love to go out with you, but I promised to help a friend fold road maps." [2]

As we read the passages from Jeremiah this we ran across a lot of excuses for the behavior of the nations and of Israel. But the amazing thing is the story we read here in chapters 42 and 43. This story tells us to BE CAREFUL WHAT WE PRAY FOR. It describes a FAITH THAT'S NOT FAITH AT ALL; and it reminds us that FAITH IS TRUST IN AND OBEDIENCE TO GOD.

I. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU PRAY FOR:

A. I can tell you first hand that you have to BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU PRAY FOR because God hears and answers our prayers and expects us to keep our promises.

When I was fourteen I wasn't very bright. One night, my friend Tom and I camped out in his backyard. It was great. We could stay up all night and do what ever we wanted. About midnight, we snuck over to the my house and took some M-80s out of my Dad's pickup. M-80s are very large firecrackers that were used in groundhog control. They were equivalent to about an eighth of a stick of dynamite and killed by concussion, but we didn't know that. We just wanted to have some fun.

With pockets full of M-80s we started roaming the neighborhood, looking for a stray cat or dog or maybe even some other kids to scare. It wasn't long before we heard the giggling and laughing of some boys with their girl friends. They were the perfect targets, so we hid behind some bushes in front of a house. We lit an M-80 and chucked it right into the middle of the group.

When it blew up, it sounded like a hand grenade going off. The sound echoed off all the houses throughout that part of the subdivision. The girls screamed, the guys hollered and lights all over the neighborhood started coming on. Tom and I felt a sinking feeling in our stomachs.

I told you I wasn't too bright. The bushes we were hiding behind were in direct line of sight from the front door of the house. That sinking feeling struck again when the porch light suddenly came on and a huge shadow was cast on the porch. We immediately recognized the Hulk whose body was filling the door frame. He had just graduated from high school and had been the State's Heavy Weight Wrestling Champion. He looked like the Incredible Hulk. And when he hollered out, "What the devil are you guys doing?" We thought we were dead.

By this time, the other teenagers had seen us. They weren't too pleased either. We stood there for a minute, scared to death, with thoughts of death and dismemberment running through our brains, we looked at each other and in a split second decided there was only one thing we could do: WE RAN. We took off like there was no tomorrow but so did the Hulk with the others right behind him. We ran, but every time we looked back, the Hulk was right behind us.

The others gave up, but not him. He just kept coming like the Terminator. We jumped over fences, swung around trees, and finally decided to split up and head in two different directions. I did the most sensible thing I could think of, I ran into the shadows, hid behind some bushes, checked to see if anybody had seen me, then I slid under an old car parked on the lawn with weeds growing up all around. I hid where I could see if anybody was coming and still have time to get away.

Tom kept trying to get away from the Hulk. Meanwhile, under the car, I prayed for the very first time in my life. I'd never really gone to church. I had gone to Vacation Bible School and to Youth Group once or twice to see the girls, so I knew at least what prayer was. Although I wasn't religious, that night I developed a strong case of fear faith.

Hiding under that car, afraid for my life; afraid that Tom would get caught and beat to a pulp; afraid that my Dad would find out and beat ME to a pulp; I prayed. I prayed one of those desperation prayers. I promised God that I'd do anything God wanted. I'd go to church every Sunday; I'd read the Bible, and if that wasn't enough I'd become a preacher, a priest, a Nun, anything God wanted, just don't let us get caught.

There's no telling how long I laid under that car and prayed but I finally came out. I crawled and snuck through every dark spot in the neighborhood trying to get home. I worried about what I was going to tell Tom's parents. I worried about what I was going to tell my own parents. I hoped the police weren't waiting to arrest me. When I finally wormed my way back to the tent, there was Tom, sitting on his cot quietly eating potato chips like nothing had happened.

Tom said he tried all the tricks he could think of but he couldn't shake the Hulk. Finally he decided to try and swing in front of the next parked car that he saw and cut back across the street and into the shadows of some back yards. However, when he tried to run past the car, he couldn't, it was keeping pace with him. When he looked down at the car he got real scared because it happened to be a Police car. So Tom stopped.

About that time the Hulk caught up and was getting ready to grab Tom but the officer got out of the car and started asking questions. The Hulk said Tom had been throwing fireworks at him. Tom lied and denied it. An argument broke out and to settle it the officer decided to frisk Tom. Tom stood there with his pockets full of M-80s.

Whether it was the work of God answering a desperation prayer or just the kindheartedness of a young police officer, I don't know. The officer didn't find anything. The officer said it must have been the other kid who had been throwing the firecrackers. Tom, too stunned to know what to say, agreed. The officer gave each of them a ride home.

I told Tom how I got back and how scared I was. I remember just sitting there in silence, eating potato chips. When the adrenaline and disbelief wore off, we both went to bed. And within a day or two we forgot the whole incident.

I didn't remember that incident or the promises I had made while hiding under that car until the night I was Ordained Deacon in the United Methodist Church. When Bishop Bob Goodrich placed his hand on my head and said, "Take thou authority to preach the Word of God" the whole incident just came flooding back. It was sort of like God saying, "Gotcha."

B. The whole point is, you have to BE CAREFUL WHAT WE PRAY FOR because God hears and answers our prayers. And God and expects us to keep our promises. In our passage today, all the commanders and all the people of Israel came to Jeremiah and asked him to pray to God for guidance. Nebuchadrezzar has conquered Jerusalem and carried off most of its citizens. The commanders and the remaining people want to migrate to Egypt but first ask for Jeremiah to tell them what God's will is in this matter. They promise to obey even if it's not favorable.

Jeremiah agree and prays for 10 days. He finally gets an answer. Unfortunately, it's not what the people wanted. They wanted God to bless THEIR decision. They wanted God to agree with them. Instead God says, "I don't want you to go. If you stay here, you'll be safe. I'll see to it. I'll even have the King of Babylon send everyone home."

Their response was, "Yes, But, we want to go the Egypt." They had a Yesbut faith. And that Yesbut faith lead them to break their promise to obey whatever God had to say.

II. FAITH THAT'S NOT FAITH AT ALL:

A. Why did it lead them to break their promise. Because Yesbut Faith is FAITH THAT'S NOT REALLY FAITH AT ALL. It's only the form of faith. But the minute it makes any demands it doesn't hold up. It dries up like water on a sidewalk on a hot summer day.

Reader's Digest reports that folks have seen many elaborate floats in civic parades around Wisconsin, but the one the author will never forget was a simple hayrack pulled by a tractor. Several men aboard the hayrack were madly sawing and nailing boards together. As the wagon passed, the puzzled looks on the faces of the onlookers changed to laughter when they saw the sign on the back of the wagon. The sign said: "We thought the parade was next week!" [3]

Those guys only had the form of a float, not a real float. The Israelites only had the form of faith, not real faith. They didn't really want to hear from God. They really wanted to do what THEY wanted to do. There was no faith involved.

B. Jesus encountered a lot of that Yesbut kind of faith:

The Rich young ruler was told to go sell everything and follow. His response was: "Yesbut, don't you think that's a bit too much?"

How about the unnamed man who Jesus called to follow who said: "Yesbut, let me bury my father first."

Even some of his own followers had that Yesbut faith at times.

Martha when Jesus asked her to sit and relax said: "Yesbut Mary hasn't even helped get dinner ready." And when her brother Lazarus died she greeted Jesus with: "Yesbut if you had been here this wouldn't have happened."

At the last supper Jesus said: "I go to prepare a place for you that where I am you may be also." And Philip responded by saying: "Yesbut where are you going and how do we get there?"

Paul even had his Yesbuts. After he had become one of the greatest evangelists, some of the other disciples began questioning. "Yesbut what about the dietary laws? Yesbut what about the authenticity of Paul's message? Yesbut what do we do about all these Gentiles?"

Yesbut Faith is FAITH THAT'S NOT REALLY FAITH AT ALL. It only looks likes faith until it is put to the test. Then like a balloon stabbed by a needle, it bursts and is seen for what it really is, empty and flat.

III. FAITH IS TRUST IN AND OBEDIENCE TO GOD:

A. Faith is much more than form. Faith is full, not empty. Faith shouts "Yes" to God without any "if, ands or buts," about it. FAITH IS TRUST IN AND OBEDIENCE TO GOD. And that was something these folks didn't possess. They wanted to do it their way, not God's way.

Years ago I read a story by Joe Schmitt about putting complete trust in someone based on their vision, not ours. Early one morning a father was awakened by the smoke detector in his basement. He woke his wife and they quickly went to their children's bedroom and woke them up and started heading for the door through the smoke which was getting quite heavy.

The father was carrying his one and a half year-old daughter in one arm and held the hand of his four year-old son with the other. The son, being scared and unsure of what was happening pulled his hand from his father's clasp and ran to what he thought was a place of safety -- a corner of his bedroom where his favorite stuffed toys were kept.

The father got outside and called to his son who appeared at the bedroom window crying and calling for help. The father called to him and told him to jump, but the boy yelled in reply, "But I can't see you!"

Then the father called back with a reassuring message: "That's all right, I can see you!" [4]

What a great parable of faith. That's what Faith is about. Faith is about TRUST IN GOD NOT OURSELVES. The remnant that remained with Jeremiah showed all the trappings of faith. They even talked a good faith. But when push came to shove, when it came time to carry through on their promise, they turned out to only have a Yesbut Faith. They trusted themselves, not God.

Faith, on the other hand, is having confidence in God, not in own our ability. Faith is trusting God's ability to see clearly and set the path of our journey. And the truth is that God can see us just fine! God is control not us. Faith Is Trusting God.

B. FAITH IS ALSO TRUSTING GOD ENOUGH TO OBEY. That's how you judge your faithfulness. That's how you measure your faith. Are you being faithful to what God has called you to do. Are you being faithful to who God has called you to be. If you're being faithful then you're being obedient. And if you're being obedient, then you're being faithful.

A group of children were asked:"What is love?" One little girl answered, "Love is when your Mommy reads you a bedtime story. True Love is when she doesn't skip any pages." [5]

Being faithful is not skipping any of the pages of the story our your faith journey which God is writing each and every day. You may not understand the direction the story has taken; the hardships that the main character encounters; or even all the characters who populate your faith story. But the Author does. God wouldn't put them in your story or your journey if they weren't essential.

We're called to trust the Author and not skip any pages because FAITH IS TRUST IN AND OBEDIENCE TO GOD.

CONCLUSION:

A few years ago, Dr. Eric Fellman visited Bangladesh right after that country had suffered through a period of horrible flooding. The country appeared to be in ruins. But when Dr. Fellman referred to the awful tragedy around him, a local citizen responded, "Oh, but let me tell you the happiness of the flood." He explained that floods were necessary to replenish the local farmland. Their land would wear out and their crops would fail if it weren't for the floods. The tragedy of the flooding resulted in greater fruitfulness for the land. [6]

The Israelites were so myopic that they couldn't see the "happiness of the flood?" The couldn't see or even envision the future, even after it had been spelled out for them by God. All they could think about was the then and now and saving their hides. As a consequence, they missed the blessing and figuratively speaking, sold themselves back into the land from which God had rescued them years before.

In rejecting God's will and supplanting it with their own, they sealed their demise by the very thing they were fleeing. Their Yesbut Faith left them high and dry.

What God wants is simple. God wants us to keep our promises. God wants us to be Faithful. God wants us to TRUST IN GOD AND TO SIMPLE OBEY.

Don't live a Yesbut Faith. There really is no excuse. Trust God explicitly. Obey your call.

1. #437, The Autoillustrator software, (Greeley, CO, 1993)

2. The Pastor's Story File (Platteville, Colorado: Saratoga Press), January 1998

3. The Autoillustrator software, (Greeley, CO, 1993)

4. Parables, Etc. (Platteville, Colorado: Saratoga Press), February 1983

5. The Pastor's Story File (Platteville, Colorado: Saratoga Press), July 1986

6. Eric Fellman, Guideposts 2000 (Carmel, NY: Guideposts, 1999), pp. 83-84.