Asking for directions

Jeremiah 42:2-4 …Pray to the Lord your God for us … that the Lord your God may show us the way we should go, … Jeremiah the prophet said the them, … “I will pray to the Lord your God according to your request…”

This is a sad account for numerous reasons.  The Israelite people who have been under the control of the king of Babylon have an opportunity to see God help them be freed from that servitude but they have an idea of how to do it on their own.  One has to wonder why they even bothered to seek out Jeremiah the prophet when they already knew what they wanted to do.  Maybe they were attempting to show some semblance of reliance on the religion of their forefathers in order to ease their consciences.  Or perhaps they were trying to cover “all the bases” of religion they knew of, and they knew their religious heritage was to call on the prophet of God even though they were already following other religions.  Based on what I see in my own day and age, I suspect that both were true.  I see so many people fall back on the religion of their parents or grandparents when they need help from outside themselves, all the while they are practically ignoring God otherwise.  Anyway, it is especially telling in these three verses in chapter 42 when they ask Jeremiah to pray to his God (“pray to the Lord your God” [italics mine]).  I almost chuckled at his response to them:  “I will pray to the Lord your God” [again, the italics is mine].  It was as though Jeremiah was reminding them of the fact that their heritage as fellow Jews was one that gave them the privilege of praying to their God for help.  How sad that they did not see or understand that, and in fact, as you read further in this story, they determined even before that prayer of Jeremiah that they would do what they had already decided to do.  And again, I am so sad to see that same kind of spirit evident in people around me who have failed to walk in God’s ways but who know what they should do.  They just are not willing to make that move to actively obey God.  There are times when I want to take them by the shoulders and shake that spiritual sense into them!  But they have to decide for themselves that they will listen and obey the voice of God.  Jeremiah could not force the people to obey and neither can I.