Should We Leave or Should We Stay? What Jeremiah 42 Teaches About Seeking God’s Will

Jerusalem had fallen. The remnant of Judah left behind gathered around a new governor, Gedaliah — until he was assassinated, and the survivors faced a real, high-stakes decision: stay in the land under threat of Babylonian retaliation, or flee to the perceived safety of Egypt.

A Prayer With Strings Attached

The people did the right thing on the surface — they asked Jeremiah to pray and seek God’s direction, and promised in advance: “Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God” (Jeremiah 42:6). Ten days later, God answered clearly: stay in the land. Don’t go to Egypt.

They’d Already Decided

They went to Egypt anyway. Many commentators believe the ten-day delay was God testing whether the people would actually wait for an answer, or simply do what they’d already resolved to do and use prayer as a formality. The tragedy of Jeremiah 42 isn’t a lack of access to God’s guidance — it’s that the guidance was clear, and they overruled it. Egypt in Scripture consistently pictures the world’s answer to a problem rather than God’s. Wanting the Lord to bless a decision you’ve already made isn’t actually seeking His will.

The Same Pattern Today

This happens constantly in ordinary life — asking for counsel from a pastor, a mentor, or in prayer, while having already made up your mind, and then being frustrated or dismissive when the answer doesn’t match what you wanted to hear. The people accused Jeremiah of lying about God’s message, even suggesting his assistant Baruch had corrupted it (Jeremiah 43:2-3) — a convenient way to reject counsel without admitting they simply didn’t want to obey it.

The Cost of Going Anyway

Tradition holds that Jeremiah was eventually stoned to death in Egypt by the very people he’d followed there out of love, having warned them not to go. Faithfulness to God’s direction, even when it’s unwelcome, is explored further in The Prophet’s Final Message.

Read the full account in the Jeremiah case file — available on Amazon.