"Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even unto the greatest, came near,
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.
Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto the Lord your God according to your words; and it shall come to pass, that whatsoever thing the Lord shall answer you, I will declare it unto you; I will keep nothing back from you.
Then they said to Jeremiah, The Lord be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which the Lord thy God shall send thee to us."
Jeremiah 42:1-5
This story seems to be starting out really well because they are saying all of the right things, but later, even though Jeremiah tells them to stay in the land, and warns them about what will happen if they leave, they still go, and (of course) bad things happen. It almost makes you wonder why they asked God in the first place.
Except, this is something that we do as well, way too often. Hopefully on a lesser scale, but we turn to God in our distress and he gives us an answer that we don't expect, and often one that we don't want. We realize that we can't just give up, but that the Lord wants us to work at it... or we are super attached to something, and God wants us to give it up. Or, we want to stay or go and the Lord wants the opposite--so many things that could happen but what it comes down to is our will versus his will. In those situations, we should always let God prevail... his will is what should come first. But so often we get there and we either don't believe God that whatever he says is possible, or we realize that that isn't what we want to do, and so we bring ourselves into a situation where we are choosing our will rather than his, and that is never going to go well. His advice is by definition wiser than ours, and whether it is what we had in mind or not, part of faith is trusting that what God asks/suggests/commands is the right thing to do.
Today, let's try not to be like these people and turn to the prophet, but then refuse to listen. Let's not place our desires over God's will. Instead, let's listen to him and humble ourselves and realize that when there is a conflict like that, it is we that need to change, as hard as that is to accept sometimes. Let's get on our knees and plead for understanding and willingness and motivation to do as God asks, and then accept God's answers as the truth, and live by them.
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