Jer 42:10-16, Gal 3:13

It may seem incredible that the remnant in Judah would attempt to find shelter, safety and provision outside of God’s will, but our fear and unbelief that leads us to doubt the goodness and kindness of God towards us, will also blind us to the insanity of running to the waste places in our own lives that God has previously delivered us from.

The people of Judah had just recently experienced the devastation of their land, the exiling of their own leaders to Babylon and the occupation of their land by the Babylonians.  Fearing the wrath of the king, they were looking to relocate to Egypt to avoid further trouble.  Jeremiah, at their request, brings them this promise.

If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will build you up and not tear you down, and I will plant you and not uproot you; for I will relent concerning the calamity that I have inflicted on you. Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you are now fearing; do not be afraid of him, declares the LORD, for I am with you to save you and deliver you from his hand.

But if you are going to say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ so as not to listen to the voice of the LORD your God, saying, ‘No, but we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the sound of a trumpet or hunger for bread, and we will stay there’; then in that case listen to the word of the LORD, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, If you really set your mind to enter Egypt and go in to reside there, then the sword, which you are afraid of, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are anxious, will follow closely after you there in Egypt, and you will die there.

Jeremiah goes on to prophesy about the different nations around Israel that God will judge for their corrupt societies, snapshots of destruction.  The picture is clear that outside of living in God’s will, there is no safe place.  Sin offers no shelter or covering, and we cannot hide from the curse on sin.  We can only find shelter in the one who bore the curse for us, Christ, who “having become a curse for us–for it is written, ‘cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,’” has provided us the only shelter from our own destructive habits and God’s judgment on sin.