We often pray to God for direction.

We pray in moments in our lives where we truly don’t know what to do. Our greatest desire is that we would receive a clear answer from God that would make the next move in our lives more certain. It may not make that next move easy to choose, but it would at least give us assurance that we were moving in the right direction.

One thing I have realised when we are at these crossroads moments is that we are rarely unbiased in the decision. It’s rare that we would be happy to accept the decision either way. Often we have a bias, a lean, a preference towards which direction we would like to do. Whilst we still want the Lord to speak, often we are hoping for a confirmation of the direction we would really like to take.

This makes these moments really tricky. It makes it hard to truly hear what God would like us to do.

I feel a Bible story coming……….

In the history of the people of Judah there were many occasions where they turned to the Lord for help and direction. In the middle of the exile to Babylonia we come across some people who remained in Judah when everyone else had been removed. The King of Babylon had appointed a man named Gedaliah to rule over these people. This didn’t make Gedaliah particularly popular with the people who were left behind.

He didn’t last too long.

A man named Ishmael struck down Gedaliah and all the men with him. He made captives of everyone else in the city of Mizpah.

Things didn’t go great for him either.

Another man named Johanan heard about the evil Ishmael had committed and came to fight with him. All the people who Ishmael had captured defected to Johanan leaving Ishmael pretty weak. We are told that he and 8 of his men ran away from the city giving Johanan the victory.

That’s all background. What caught my attention was what happened next.

After all of this, Johanan and all this men came to Jeremiah the prophet. They asked the question that many of us have asked in the crossroad moments.

Pray that the LORD your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.” Jeremiah 42:3

Jeremiah agrees to do this and promises to tell them everything that the Lord says about their situation. Johanan and his men are pleased with this and asks the Lord to hold them accountable for their actions once they hear His instruction to them. They said this line which I loved.

Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the LORD our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the LORD our God.” Jeremiah 42:6

This sentence is the crux of obedience for me when it comes to the Lord’s direction in moments of decision. What we are saying is; Lord, regardless of my bias, or desire, I will do whatever you say. We are declaring that obedience is more important than desire.

We are told that after 10 days the Lord speaks to Jeremiah about the situation the men find themselves in and through Jeremiah’s reply we hear some of what their decision was about. It is clear that they were asking the Lord whether they should remain in Judah, a land ravaged by Babylon, a land with no King, a land where the best had been exiled, or whether they should go to Egypt and seek refuge there. There, they would be in a land of plenty, in a place that wasn’t facing war and most likely be safe.

Can you guess where their bias might have been? Judah or Egypt?

Jeremiah’s information from the Lord is pretty simple. He tells them if they stay in the land of Judah, their land, the Lord will plant and not uproot them. He will build them up and not tear them down. The Lord tells them that the King of Babylon will show compassion to them and restore them.

On the other hand, God tells them if they leave the land and go to Egypt war would find them. Famines and plagues would be their story. If they go to Egypt they would be a curse, an object of horror, and an object of reproach and they would never get to see the land they are currently in ever again.

At least the Lord was clear right? There’s no way the men could be in any doubt regarding what they needed to do. Whilst it would be difficult to choose the option that ‘seemed’ the least attractive, the word of the Lord would trump all of that, especially given that they had already declared they would do whatever the Lord said – good or bad.

Are you sensing a twist here?

Yeah, in the first two verses of the next chapter we read this.

When Jeremiah had finished telling the people all the words of the LORD their God—everything the LORD had sent him to tell them — Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to settle there.’ Jeremiah 43:1-2

Wow, things have changed here haven’t they? They even go on to accuse Jeremiah of working with an enemy of Judah to try and hand them over to the Babylonians.

In the end we are told that they do go to Egypt in disobedience and the warning they were given would come to pass. They would be killed and they would suffer. We also know that Judah was restored, the people did return. These men didn’t stick to their word – their bias was what led them.

The application is obvious here but I feel like this story can serve as a stark example to us of the importance of obedience when it comes to following the Lords voice. We must realise that what we can see and sense is only a part of the story. God sees beyond what we can, He knows infinitely more than we do, His perspective is much more favourable than ours. When He instructs we must trust, even if it seems strange, even if it seems wrong, even if it moves us away from our desires.

We must stand before Him in the crossroads moments and say what these men said – “whether it is good or bad, we will obey” BUT we must follow through even if the ‘bad’ option is the one that God directs us towards!!