The trap of self-deception (Jeremiah 43)

Have you ever wondered why we often attribute the best intentions to ourselves, but assume the worst about others we don’t like so much? We do not just pretend, but often genuinely believe that our motives are pure. Some can even project their own feelings onto others when they cannot face something in their character. A colleague once had an extra theatre ticket to a sold-out show and although two of us were friendly with her, the ticket quickly went to the other woman. She insisted to me that she only accepted the invitation because our colleague really wanted her to go while the colleague privately apologised to me because seeing the woman’s desperation, she could not refuse her. This woman projected her own neediness and longing to be wanted onto our colleague until she genuinely believed that she only accepted the tickets because they were pressed on her.

Self-serving deception

Although an extreme case, at heart it speaks of the human desire to be in the right, to be the hero of our own narrative. It is this that explains the remnant’s shocking turnabout after God’s words through Jeremiah. The people were already on the way to Egypt (Jer 41:17) when they asked for God’s advice and, given their reaction here, it seems that they only wanted His stamp of approval on their plans. Instead, God stopped them in their tracks. It was too hard to admit their motivation honestly, repent, and do what God had advised. Instead, they convinced themselves that Jeremiah’s words did not come from God but were a lie (Jer 43:2-3). Sheqer (‘lie’) is a favourite word used of the false prophets in the book (e.g. Jer 5:12; 28:15) and is associated with being self-serving. In contrast, Jeremiah spoke the truth unswervingly even when it meant death threats and suffering. It is ironic, that the people’s own self-serving deception (of themselves) was projected onto the prophet. It was easier for them to assume that God had not spoken through him than to admit that they were blatantly disobeying God.

Disobedience and its consequences

However, Scripture’s estimate is clear: it was God who sent Jeremiah, though the people said that He did not (vv.2-3), and what they disobeyed was not merely human advice but the Lord’s voice (Jer 43:4, 7). The narrative is emphatic that all heard all the words of the Lord (Jer 43:1) and all disobeyed (v.4). All the commanders and the entire remnant, men, women and children, every person was involved and went to Tahpanhes (Jer 43:5-7), an Egyptian border town in the eastern delta of the Nile. Whether Jeremiah and Baruch were forcefully taken, or they felt that they had an ongoing ministry with this group is unclear, but they, too, ended up in Egypt. What a terrible reversal for God’s people to go back into what was once ‘the house of slavery’ (Exod 20:2) and to think that this represented their deliverance, their salvation![1] Sin always masquerades as liberation when it only enslaves and destroys us. Jeremiah’s symbolic action at the royal palace or government buildings in Tahpanhes, and his message that the remnant cannot escape Babylon (Jer 43:8-13) came true when Nebuchadnezzar’s army attacked Egypt around 567 BC and ransacked the country.[2]

What it takes to hear God right

This episode in Israel’s history is a sad object lesson of what happens when we are determined on our own ways. When we have already set our heart on something, we have a vested interest in a certain answer and are more likely to deceive ourselves. If we have any Christian commitment, we would not openly want to go against God’s will, so it is easier to convince ourselves that God did not say what He said in His Word or that we heard it wrong. Alternatively, we may blame the preacher explaining Scripture or the friend giving advice that they do not have our best interests at heart and simply want to make our lives miserable. That is why being open to God and willing to do whatever He says is essential to hearing God right. May we be honest with ourselves and seek the Lord.

[1] Walter Brueggemann states, ‘They ended up where the story of Israel had begun, back in Egypt, back in a bondage they misread as freedom.’ A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 399.

[2] Egypt remained semi-independent after the Babylonian campaign with the Pharaoh left in place, but it was subdued, which in Jeremiah’s prophecy is expressed in the image of a malleable cloak that a shepherd wraps round himself with ease (Jer 43:12). The Hebrew verb (ʿatah) for ‘wrap’ is a homonym (two unrelated words spelt the same way but with different meanings, like bank as a financial institution and the bank of a river in English). The alternative meaning is ‘delouse’, which evokes a shepherd picking lice off his cloak, i.e. picking Egypt clean of spoil.

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