Post by Murph on Aug 13, 2011 18:01:02 GMT -6
Judah had fallen. Jerusalem lay in waste and on fire. The remainning people of any use to the Babylonians who survived had been taken into exile.
Slowly, as the dust settled a remnant of people began to emerge from the mountains and from hiding places...they were few in number. The Babylonians appointed a new fella, Gedaliah, as the leader of the rag tag group but he was assissinated and the remnant fearing retaliation by the Babylonians, prepared to flee to Egypt...
But along in the midst of the preparation it was decided to send a delagation to Jeremiah to ask him to pray for the Lord's will.
"And said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the LORD thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us:) That the LORD thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do." Jeremiah 42:2-3[/color]
Jeremiah agreeded and the people said they would do whatever the Lord said to do.
After 10 days Jeremiah gave then the message he had goptten from the Lord...very simple and very clear, "Don't go down into Egypt."
But...
The remnant apparently had already decided what they were going to do and apparently were just asking the Lord to give a stamp of approval on what they had already decided. When He didn't, the remnant did what they wanted to do instead of following the Lord's direction...they went down into Egypt.
My question...How do you reconize the Lord's direction? How do you decide if you are doing as the Lord has directed or are just asking for His approval on what you have already decided?