They Walked Away. God Stayed.

Jeremiah 44:1a – “The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah concerning all the Judeans who lived in the land of Egypt…”

For me, Jeremiah chapter 44 has to be one of the saddest chapters in the Bible. God called Jeremiah, as a young man, to dedicate his life to speaking the word of God to the people of Israel, and after all these years and God’s faithful pleading, the people have rejected God. It’s horrible where that rejection has brought them.

Their entire country is destroyed and is basically rubble. Their kings and all the royals and nobles are either dead or slaves in a foreign land. Their homes, farms, livestock, vineyards, and orchards are destroyed and given to others. The Great Temple of God is destroyed and burned. And these last remaining Jews have rejected God’s will and run off to Egypt, a place where God told them never to return to.

Yet here they are, worshiping their idols in Egypt. You would think God would just open the earth and swallow them all. The amazing thing to me is that while these Jews have so abandoned God, God is still having Jeremiah call them back to Himself. The heartbreaking part is that after all that has happened to them, they are still adamantly rejecting God. They insist that life was better when they served their idols, and yet God still reaches out to them. How much further away from God can they get than where they are now,

but God is still there—still reaching out, still wanting to save them.

WHY?!

The answer is found in the next book, Lamentations, which is also written by Jeremiah. The book is called Lamentations because after all spending his entire life trying to turn rebellious Israel back to God, his heart was broken, not to mention God’s broken heart. It is almost overwhelming to read about this terrible disaster that came on Israel and know that it could have been prevented if they had only listened to God.

As hard as this was for Jeremiah, he understood why God tried so hard and he explained it to us in Lamentations 322-24:

“The steadfast love of the Lord NEVER CEASES;

his mercies NEVER COME TO AN END;

they are new EVERY MORNING;

great is your FAITHFULNESS.

‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul,

‘therefore I will hope in Him.’”

God continued to pursue His people even after they had so completely rejected Him, because that’s who God is—that’s His nature. It’s what He does!

If there is any encouragement in this sad story it’s this: God hasn’t changed. He tries just as hard to reach us when we mess up as He did pursuing them.

If you’re having a difficult day, whatever else you’re feeling, know this, that God has not abandoned you. He is right there with you calling your name as loudly and longingly as He ever has!

This story in Jeremiah chapter 44 confirms that fact as being absolute truth.