Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, conquered Judah, just as Jeremiah had prophesied. Huge numbers of Jews went into exile. The Babylonian government set up a puppet king to rule over the poor who were left behind.

The puppet king was assassinated. The Jews who still lived in Judah were terrified. They imagined the return of avenging Babylonian soldiers. They made a plan: “Let’s flee to Egypt.”

Turning to God in prayer

Before they left their country, they approached Jeremiah and asked him to pray. “Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do” (Jeremiah 42:3).

Sounds good, doesn’t it. Troubled people were facing a challenging moment, and they turned to the Lord.

It seems to get better. The Jews told Jeremiah, “Whether [the answer] is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the Lord our God” (Jeremiah 42:6). Not only did they want a prayer. They confessed they would submit to the Lord’s will.

Sounds wonderful.

All may appear wonderful as we turn to the Lord in prayer too. Our dilemma may not involve Babylonian soldiers but an illness or a decision or a loved one. We might even pray, “Lord, let your will be done.”

Could such a prayer be a problem?

Disliking God’s answer

These frightened Jews received an answer. “Don’t flee to Egypt. Stay where you are. God will protect you from the Babylonians.”

They didn’t like that answer. They said all the right things, but in the end they didn’t like the answer.

Do we pray prayers that say all the right things but after discovering God’s clear guidance in Scripture or observing how events turn out, we feel lingering anger, disagreement, and bitterness toward God?

Jeremiah’s audience did. Jeremiah responded, “You made a fatal mistake when you sent me to pray. With your prayer you told God that you would accept whatever he determined, but in your hearts you felt the opposite.” Judgment followed. They did go to Egypt, but God killed them there.

We may think back to some of our own prayers and recognize that our sinful flesh promoted a very similar contradiction—lips that confess confidence in God’s will but inner thoughts that hang on to our own will.

Can our prayers be fatal mistakes?

Confessing our sinful prayers

To see the judgment we deserve is to have a new fear, not of what might happen because of a sickness or a dilemma but of what should happen when we meet our God.