42:1-4
Then all the people sought out Jeremiah. They had seen all that Jeremiah had foretold come true, so they recognised that he probably did hear from God, and that God would pay attention to him. So they pleaded with Jeremiah to pray to the Lord for their safety. Their numbers had been vastly reduced by the Babylonians, and were now even lower after Ishmael’s exploits. They wanted Jeremiah to tell them what God wanted them to do. Jeremiah agreed to pray to God and promised to tell them everything that God told him.
42:5,6
The people who have inquired of Jeremiah then make a vow to obey everything the Lord commands them to do. They say they will do this whether the commands seem to be favourable or unfavourable, whether like them or not. Why will they do this? Because if they obey the Lord it will go well with them. Now this latter part is true, and this pledge they are making sounds good, but it is doomed to failure. Peter, infamously, promised to stick with Jesus come what may, and he no doubt said this with all integrity. But we all know what happened when it came to the crunch. We may have made similar vows ourselves only to fall flat on our faces, and no doubt know of others who have done likewise. The problem with such vows is that they are putting trust in ourselves, they are saying that we have the ability to be righteous. We don’t, and that is why the gospel is necessary.
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