Jeremiah 42:11 “Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; be not afraid of him, says the LORD: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.”
Jeremiah 42-43 tells us an amazing story. Judah has now been conquered by Babylon. The Babylonian army has taken the strongest, the brightest and most productive men and women into slavery and left only the sickly, elderly and very small children to fend for themselves in the land. However, the King of Babylon appointed a Jewish governor to rule the land of while under occupation. The King of Babylon appointed a man named Gedaliah Ben Achikam to be a puppet leader for Judah. When many who had sought refuge in surrounding countries such as Ammon, Moab and Edom heard of this appointment, they returned to the land of Israel and enjoyed some sense of freedom and normal life attending to the vineyards given to them by the King of Babylon. In fact Judah was well on its way to recovery with the Babylonian garrison even providing protection to this remnant from any hostile enemies. A sort of peace was formed between the Babylonian King and the remnant and the people were allowed to carry on a normal life.
For whatever reason the King of Ammon was hostile or envious of the remnant of Judah and he collaborated with a Jew named Ishmael Ben Netaniah who was a descendant of the royal line of King Zedekiah the last king of Judah. Ishmael wanted to be king of Judah and plotted with the King of Ammon to overthrow the Babylonian rulers in Judah and establish himself as king. The first step in this process was to assassinate Gedaliah and his followers as well as the Babylonians who supported Gedaliah. The attempt was made and Gedaliah, his followers as well as many Babylonians were assassinated. To this day the Jews declare what is known as Tzom Gedaliah (Fast of Gedaliah) to be observed the day after Rosh Hashanah to commemorate this event.
The rest of the coup attempt quickly failed with Ishmael, tail tucked behind him, fleeing to Ammon for safety. The people of Judah were left to take the blame and pay for this attempted coup and were terrified that the King of Babylon would avenge the death of the Gedaliah and the Babylonians. So in Jeremiah 42 we learn that the people were packing their bags and preparing to flee to Egypt for safety. They came to Jeremiah and asked him to seek a word from God as to what they should do. The general feeling was that they should all flee to Egypt to seek protection from the vengeance of the King of Babylon. It was now 900 years since the Exodus from Egypt and the people felt they would find a haven in Egypt. Which, historically they did but is would prove to be short lived as the Pharaoh Hophra was himself assassinated and the King of Babylon used that opportunity to invade and conqueror Egypt, including the Jewish refugees who faced the terrors of a Babylonian invasion a second time.
Jeremiah sought a word from God on what they should do and it took ten days to get an answer. No commentator has been able to explain why God made them wait ten days for answer, the general feeling is that God allowed this time for the immediate panic to subside so they would hear His message. One thing I have experienced is that sometimes I get into a messy situation and I declare to God: “I need an answer right now.” Yet an answer does not come right away. Sometimes you have to wait.
When the answer came the people found it hard to believe. Basically Jeremiah said: “Hey, everything’s cool, you will live in peace, you will prosper in the land, don’t go to Egypt and depend upon the arm of the flesh, for God will save you and He willdeliver you out of the hand of the King of Babylon.
God will do two things, He will save and deliver. It seems these two words are the same, but they are not. The first thing to note is that both words have a preposition (to or for) in front of them and both are followed by a third person plural separable pronoun. So God is saying: “I am going to be a salvation for you and a deliverer for you.” These are the two things that the Jews sought from Egypt. They wanted Egypt, the arm of the flesh, to be a salvation for them and a deliverer for them. History shows that by going to Egypt, these Jews began to worship the Egyptian gods and fell into paganism forgetting their first love God Jehovah.
This word save is hosi’a from the root word yasha which means to help, set free or deliver. This word traditionally means a setting free, a helping or delivering in a physical and a spiritual sense. When used in conjunction with the next verb hatsil(deliver) from the root word natsal, hatsil (deliver) in this context would mean to strip away, snatch, or to plunder. Both verbs are in a Hiphal form, so God would set into motion events which would not only save His people from the hand of the King of Babylon who would seek vengeance, but He would also plunder him for the sake of His people, He would see to it that the people would again prosper under the King of Babylon.
Daniel, who was one taken into captivity by the King of Babylon, knew this promise first hand. He was not only saved from the King’s wrath to destroy all the wise men, but he and his three friends actually enjoyed the prosperity and influence of the King after Daniel interpreted the King’s dream. Note in Jeremiah 43:10 God calls this pagan Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, His servant. The one they most feared was merely God’s servant.
What do you fear most today? A boss would can fire you or lay you off, an illness, a broken relationship? All these in the hands of the Almighty God are merely his servants. The word for my servant here in the Hebrew here is ‘avadi which is one who is a servant without realizing it. God is promising that those things you fear the most are merely His servants and He will not only save you from them, but will plunder or use them to make you prosperous physically and/or spiritually once again.
Ah, but when you’ve got an angry king (problem, boss, illness, or broken relationship) breathing down you neck, you can be like the remnant and look toward Egypt (the arm of the flesh), something you can see, something that in your own understanding to save you and prosper you rather than just trust God.
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