28th.: The Pretenders
After Gedaliah's death, Johanan, and the armed Jewish forces chased down Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, and recovered the captives.
Everyone then became afraid that Nebuchadrezzar would come back and punish them for killing Gedaliah.
The remaining Israelites went to Jeremiah to ask the Lord what to do,
Let we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the Lord our 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 show us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do.” (Jer. 42:2-3).
Their words were good words. They tried to foresee the evil. They gave the appearance that they wanted God's advice.
Ten days later, God answered (Jer. 42:7).
If the Israelites would stay in Judah, God would protect them from Babylon (Jer. 42:10-12).
But if they departed for Egypt, they would die (Jer. 42:13-19).
Jer. 42:20 says that the ones who asked, had actually pretended to show real interest in what the Lord had to say.
In reality, they had already made up their mind what they were going to do.
Let us not pretend with God. He knows our real hearts.
“I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers.” (Ps. 26:4)