Stay Put!

Based on Jeremiah 40-42

"10: If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you." Jeremiah 42:10.

Patience is truly a virtue. It's the hardest things to have, especially when you see opportunity ahead. Again, patience is a virtue...but timing is everything! Especially GOD's timing! Sometimes, you just have to stay put until God says go!

The remnant of Israel had a choice: they could stay put where they were planted under the king of Babylon, in their own land, where God would rebuild them...or, they could run away to Egypt, the place where help was just a mirage. Egypt was just a temptation. It looked good & promising...in fact, they had been there before...but it was just a side-track off God's path!

Had their world been shaken up countless times when they stayed put? Yes. But that's exactly what God wanted! He was trying to break their hearts of stone and make them tender toward Him again. Why choose Egypt over Babylonian rule anyway? This remnant was still alive (even after Ishmael tried to take control). Going to Egypt would just make things worse! What seemed like the lesser of 2 evils was really just plain evil itself, because Egypt represents going back to sin. It wasn't God's plan, and Jeremiah warned them:

"15: And now therefore hear the word of the LORD, ye remnant of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there;
16: Then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, whereof ye were afraid, shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die." Jeremiah 42:15-16.

...But the remnant couldn't wait:

"20: For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us unto the LORD our God; and according unto all that the LORD our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it.
21: And now I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, nor any thing for the which he hath sent me unto you.
22: Now therefore know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither ye desire to go and to sojourn." Jeremiah 42:20-22.

In dissembling their hearts, they dissemble themselves...and they died by desire. Of course, God still calls out & reaches to people, even until this day! The question is, will we stay put & listen for Him to direct us closer to Himself, or will we chase after the worldly things which only seem to be good? Be careful & stay put in the church!