Jeremiah 41 tells us of Gedaliah’s murder by Ishmael and his men. Ishmael wreaked havoc on the small remnant of Judeans remaining in Jerusalem, but eventually a new cohort of Judeans came and attacked Ishmael and his men, forcing Ishmael to return to the Ammonites. At that point, the remnant decided they would go down to Egypt where they thought they would be safe from the “Chaldeans” or Babylonians.
In Jeremiah 42 Johanan the leader of the remnant of the Judeans asks Jeremiah to inquire of the LORD whether they ought to go down to Egypt. They tell Jeremiah they will do whatever the LORD says, but when the LORD responds, He tells them to remain in Judah. The LORD promised if they would stay in Judah, that none of the things they feared: sword, pestilence, or famine would come to them. But if they decided to go to Egypt to avoid these things, they would all die in the land of Egypt. The LORD also told the group that He knew they would not obey them, and they would go to Egypt.
In Jeremiah 43 Johanan and his men take all the remaining Judeans to Egypt, including Jeremiah, and Baruch, Jeremiah’s scribe. When they arrive in Egypt, the LORD tells Jeremiah to take stones and put them in the wall of the palace of Pharaoh. Then He tells Jeremiah to tell the people He is going to bring the King of Babylon to sit on a throne higher than those stones, in other words, he is going to rule over Egypt. The LORD tells them the Babylonians will take some off into captivity, and some will die by the sword, and some will die by pestilence. This is the result of the disobedience of Johanan. We would think after so much of what Jeremiah telling the people coming true, even though some of it was after considerable periods of time, the people would have listened to Jeremiah. Because they didn’t, everything Jeremiah said would happen to harm them would happen.
As we return to Matthew 9, we find Jesus again healing people, casting demons out of people, even raising someone from the dead. He calls Levi or Matthew the tax collector to be one of His disciples, which upsets the religious leaders, because Jesus associated with such “sinners.” Jesus simply responded that healthy people don’t need a doctor, but the sick. Jesus also had a conversation with some of the disciples of John the Baptist who wanted to know why Jesus and His disciples didn’t fast. Jesus pointed out no one fasts during the wedding feast. Calling Himself the bridegroom, He said His followers would fast when He was no longer with them. As Jesus saw everyone in so much need, He turned to His disciples and told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” Then He told them to pray for the “Lord of the harvest,” to send workers into the harvest. Hold that thought until tomorrow, because after calling the disciples to pray for the Lord to send more workers at the end of this chapter, He sends them out at the beginning of the next!