Do You Really Want To Know?

“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.” (Jer 42:2-3 AV)

 

This sounds like a prophet’s dream!  A group of people who had just executed judgment on some disobedient people is now asking the prophet to pray for them as he seeks God’s will for them.  Further, they promise to do whatever the LORD would command through the prophet!  This is what every preacher prays for.  One can only hope the people of God would be so broken they would listen and obey the word of God from the mouth of the prophet.  But this is what these people promised.  They are the remnant left behind from the first invasion of Babylon.  They exacted judgment on Ishmael who killed the governor of the land left to rule for Babylon.  This Ishmael also invaded Mizpeh, killing all loyalists as well as the Chaldeans left there to co-habit with the Jews.  Now, this group who had killed Ishmael out of a sense of justice (and rightly so) were so stricken by the failure of their nation and her forefathers, they seem to be seeking God’s will at any cost.  The sad thing about this request was that it wasn’t genuine.

If one were to read further in the account, Jeremiah instructed this small band of Jews not to rebel against Babylon.  Rather, they were to go into captivity as their fellow countrymen did.  They would be the second wave that would be carried away.  This is not what they wanted to hear.  They believed since they killed those who killed the Chaldeans, they would be free.  Hearing that they would not, they escaped into Egypt.  While there, they continued to participate in idol worship.  The very idol worship that brought God’s judgment a few months back.  With one side of their mouth, they asked the prophet to seek the LORD’s will for them.  With the other side of their mouth, they practiced the sin which found them in the predicament of which they now suffered.  The thing is, if they were to go into Babylon, they would have to reject idol worship as a means to build community among the captive Jews.  When they asked for prayer, in their heart, they had no real intention of following what the LORD would require.

There truly are no deep applications here.  Just a simple thought.  When we pray, do we pray with a willing heart to accept whatever answer the LORD has for us?  Are we surrendered to the will of God when we seek His face?  Our group above was asking the prophet to pray with a preconceived idea of how the LORD would answer.  They assumed because they showed great courage in one area of life, the LORD would automatically grant the desire of the heart.  When we go to the LORD, do we entertain how the LORD might answer contrary to our hopes?  Do we prepare our hearts that how we may want it to turn out might not be the way we were hoping?  When we seek the LORD’s will, do we rid ourselves of all presumptions as to how He must answer?  Do we seek His face thinking we have done all we could do to realize the outcome we wish?  Would we be disappointed if, after all our preparation, He answered differently?  These people asked the prophet to pray for them.  But they were not serious.  They asked with a certain outcome in mind.  They did not ask with an open mind and willing heart preparing themselves to accept whatever the LORD said.