Jeremiah 43:7: “So they went to the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the LORD. And they went as far as Tahpanhes.”

November 11th, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

There is great irony in this verse. God had rescued His people out of Egypt, the land of slavery, and brought them to the Promised Land, the land of freedom. And now they were leaving the Promised Land, by their own choice and against God’s word, and going back to the land of slavery. Their decision to walk back to Egypt was astounding! We could call this chapter “Back to Egypt.” It is the sad and tragic history of the people of God, who had once known the life of the Spirit of God, giving it up to return to slavery. Egypt was a place of such unbearable bondage that Scripture often uses it as a picture of the old life in the flesh, the life of bondage to sin. It is always hard to watch individuals who were freed from sin, turn around and go right back into the bondage God had delivered them from.

Niagara Falls holds a great danger for birds that swoop down to snatch a drink from its clear water. Locals tell of seeing birds carried over the edge of the precipice. As they dip down for a drink, tiny droplets of ice form on their wings. As they return for additional drinks, more ice weighs down their bodies until they can’t rise above the cascading waters. Trying to flap their frozen wings, the birds suddenly drop over the falls. Sin works in exactly the same way in our lives. We go in for just a little of it at a time until it slowly accumulates on our souls and we take a catastrophic fall.

“LORD, keep us from temptation this day we ask, in Jesus’ name.”