Do You Really Want To Know?

“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.” (Jer 42:20 AV)

There is much context to consider before we become a bit too critical of those involved in the passage above.  In the previous chapter of Jeremiah, we read the historical account of abuse which happened after Babylon invaded Judah.  When Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah and Jerusalem, he left a man named Gedaliah as governor.  Gedaliah was secretary to the last king Judah had before captivity.  He was allied with Jeremiah and thus garnered Nebuchadnezzar’s favor.  He was left as an overseer of the poor of the land for the purpose of dressing and keeping the vineyards.  Along comes a man named Ishmael who killed Gedaliah, his attendants, and his loyalists.  This Ishmael then takes all the souls of the government of Gedaliah as captive and recedes to the land of the Ammonites.  These captives also include Chaldean guardsmen left to keep the government safe in compliant to Babylon.  If word of this got back to Babylon, surely Nebuchadnezzar would send more forces to deal with a territory that seemed out of control.  So, a man named Johanan with a  small force entered the land of the Ammonites, fought with Ishmael and his forces, and recovered all that was taken.  Johanan then takes all that he has, material and the souls of people, to Egypt for fear that Babylon will come and deal with it all without any care of the details.  Johanan asks Jeremiah for prayer.  He asks Jeremiah for the word of the LORD regarding their situation.  He does so with his mind pretty much made up.  This is the meaning of Jeremiah’s remarks in the first part of our verse.

It is not uncommon for a saint to ask the pastor to pray for him even though the mind was made up a long time ago.  Having experienced this many times, one can spot it right off.  Over the years, I have had requests from individuals who were dating or engaged, asking for God’s guidance concerning the possibility of marriage.  Emotions being what they are, a decision has already been made.  A young lady who recently divorced asked me to pray for her as she began to date again.  I gave her the counsel that the word of God forbids remarriage after divorce in most cases.  In the cases it does not explicitly forbid it, there is no permission given to remarry.  That does not mean in rare situations the LORD would say no, but what I couldn’t do was give her the comfort I could pray the LORD would lead her to a new husband.  In my view, biblically speaking, she was not permitted to remarry.  This did not go over well.  She left the church and became an adamant critic.

The word ‘…dissembled…’ means to vacillate.  In the case of Johanan, he was vacillating between wanting to know the word of the LORD verses staying put because he feared what the Babylonians might do.  The sad thing is, he would have been safer going back to Jerusalem than staying in Egypt.  The application is very simple.  Whether it is asking for prayer or searching the scripture, if we are not open to that which the LORD would answer, then we are vacillating between a request and the answer we might get.  I can imagine the LORD asking, “Well, do you or do you not really want an answer?”  We might respond, “Of course I do.  I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t want an answer.”  However, there are times we are asking because we want a pre-determined answer to bless the decision we have already made.  I don’t blame Johanan for his vacillation.  He had just rescued the remnant of Judah from an opportunist who killed Chaldeans.  If I am he, I am thinking the same thing.  Nebuchadnezzar will come and avenge the blood of his slain guardsmen without regard to justice or truth.  Johanan had every reason to be afraid.  Except one.  God promised as long as the people of God were subject to the authority of their captors, they would be just fine.  Faith and openness to obedience is the foundation required before we ask for guidance.  Otherwise, we have vacillating hearts.