The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14.

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?” John 14:9.

Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of His servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. Isaiah 50:10.

It’s easy to read the pages of history, of what is already written that was lived, and shake our heads or not even care because it happened to a people long ago; but what about us today? What experiences will we live that will be written? Who or what will we trust in to our help or to our hurt? This chapter, Jeremiah 43, is shocking. When Jeremiah had finished telling the people all the words of the Lord their God – everything the Lord had sent him to tell them – Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The Lord our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to settle there.’ But Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Babylonians, so they may kill us or carry us into exile into Babylon.” v. 1-3. Do we expect God to tell us exactly what we want to hear based upon what we believe is right? So Johanan and all the army officers took everyone including Jeremiah into Egypt as far as Tahpanhes. v. 4-7. And then, In Tahpanhes the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “While the Jews are watching, take some large stones with you and bury them in clay in the brick pavement at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace in Tahpanhes. Then say to them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will set his throne over these stones I have buried here; he will spread his royal canopy above them. He will come and attack Egypt, bringing death to those destined for death, captivity for those destined for captivity, and the sword to those destined for the sword. He will set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt; he will burn their temples and take their gods captive. As a shepherd picks his garment clean of lice, so he will pick Egypt clean and depart. There in the temple of the sun in Egypt he will demolish the sacred pillars and will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.” v. 8-13. In the notes below: “43:10-13 Nebuchadnezzar invaded Egypt in 568-567 B.C. Like Judah, Egypt rebelled against him and was quickly crushed. So much for the great empire on which Judah had constantly placed its hopes!”

We have the witness of history. We have Scripture showing us Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit. What He tells us, He tells us for our good always. “I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me.” John 15:1-4.

The people in our chapter could not imagine God using as His servant a foreign king, Nebuchadnezzar. Can we truly be surprised? We can’t see the whole picture of what is. Creator God does see. Can we learn to trust His sight for our good in Him? What is the fruit we need that we find only in Creator God? But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22.