罗八4 使律法义的要求，成就在我们这不照着肉体，只照着灵而行的人身上。

　　林后二10 你们饶恕谁什么，我也饶恕；我若曾有所饶恕，我所已经饶恕的，是在基督的面前，为你们饶恕的。

　　以色列人的顽梗是由于他们没有与神是一。例如，遗民的首领约哈难，坚决定意去埃及避难。他惧怕巴比伦人会来报复对基大利的杀害。但神要他们留在圣地，作祂百姓中的遗民。神要眷顾他们，恩待他们，甚至使用他们作祂的百姓，在地上作活神的见证。然而，他们因着自己的考虑和意见，而完全误会神。众军长以及众百姓曾央求申言者耶利米为他们祷告，关乎他们所当走的路，所当作的事，应许他无论是好是歹，他们都必听从耶和华的话（耶四二1~6）。他们说他们要顺从，因为他们期望耶利米赞同他们。他们期望他会给他们“裹糖衣”的话。耶利米不是说这种话的人，他告诉他们，他必照着他们的话祷告耶和华（耶利米书生命读经，二五九至二六○页）。

　　Rom. 8:4 That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.

　　2 Cor. 2:10 …Whom you forgive anything, I also forgive; for also what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, it is for your sake in the person of Christ.

　　The stubbornness of the children of Israel was due to their not being one with God. For example, Johanan, the leader of the remnant, strongly determined to go to Egypt to take refuge. He feared that the Babylonians would come to avenge the murder of Gedaliah. But God wanted them to remain in the Holy Land to be a remnant of His people. God would visit them and grace them and even use them to be His people as a testimony of the living God on earth. However, they altogether misunderstood God by their consideration and by their opinion. Nevertheless, all the leaders of the forces and all the people begged Jeremiah the prophet to pray for them concerning the way in which they should go and the thing which they should do, promising him that whether it was good or evil, they would listen to the voice of Jehovah (Jer. 42:1-6). They said they would obey because they expected Jeremiah to go along with them. They expected that he would give them a “sugarcoated” word. Jeremiah, who was not one to speak such a word, told them that he would pray to Jehovah according to their words. (Life-study of Jeremiah, p. 219)

　　耶利米没有急忙说话，却等候十天。过了十天，耶和华的话借着耶利米临到他们，告诉他们不要去埃及，乃要留在犹大。耶和华说，“你们若仍住在这地，我就建立你们并不拆毁，栽植你们并不拔出。”（耶四二10上）这指明祂要祝福他们，他们也要享受祂。然而，他们若不听从这话，反去埃及地，他们必死在那里。关于这点，耶和华说，“你们若定意要往埃及去，在那里寄居；你们所惧怕的刀剑，必在埃及地追上你们；你们所惧怕的饥荒，必在埃及紧紧的跟随你们；你们必死在那里。凡定意要进入埃及在那里寄居的，必遭刀剑、饥荒、瘟疫而死；他们必无一人存留，无人逃脱我所降与他们的灾祸。”（15下~17）

　　耶利米说完了耶和华的话，众百姓，包括约哈难，都指控他说谎〔四三2〕。……约哈难和一切军长拒绝听从耶利米的话留在犹大地，却带着遗民往埃及去。

　　他们一到埃及，那些知道自己妻子向别神烧香的众民，与旁边站立的众妇女聚集成大群，与申言者耶利米之间起了争论（四四15~30）。他们告诉耶利米，他们必不听从他。相反的，他们要向天后（宁录的妻子）烧香、浇奠祭，按他们在犹大的城邑中和耶路撒冷的街道上，素常所行的一样。他们甚至竟然说，他们烧香给天后的时候，吃饱饭，享福乐，并不见灾祸……（17~18）。那是谎言。他们在耶路撒冷时，被围困，甚至被迫吃自己的儿女。

　　以色列人是一班没有与神是一的百姓。他们若与神是一，就没有问题。他们若与神是一，就会接受神的话，认识神的心、神的性情、神的心思和神的定旨。他们若与神是一，自然而然就会活祂，并由祂构成，在地上作祂的见证（耶利米书生命读经，二六○至二六一页）。

　　参读：创世记生命读经，第六至七、十三至十四篇。

　　Instead of being in a hurry to speak, Jeremiah waited for ten days. After ten days the word of Jehovah came to them through Jeremiah, telling them not to go to Egypt but to remain in Judah. Jehovah said, “If you will still remain in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up” (Jer. 42:10a). This indicates that He would bless them, and they would enjoy Him. However, if they did not listen to this word but went to the land of Egypt, they would die there. Concerning this, Jehovah said, “If indeed you set your faces to go to Egypt and go to sojourn there, then the sword, which you fear, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, about which you are worried, will follow hard after you there in Egypt; and you will die there. And all the men who set their faces to go to Egypt, to sojourn there, will die by sword, by famine, and by pestilence; and they will have no survivors or any who have escaped from the evil which I will bring on them” (vv. 15b-17).

　　When Jeremiah finished speaking the words of Jehovah, all the people, including Johanan, accused him of lying…(43:2). Refusing to listen to the voice of Jeremiah to remain in the land of Judah, Johanan and all the leaders of the forces took the remnant and went to Egypt.

　　Once they were in Egypt, there was an argument between a great assemblage of those who knew that their wives burned incense to other gods and all the women who stood by, and Jeremiah the prophet (44:15-30). They told Jeremiah that they would not listen to him. Instead, they would burn incense to the queen of heaven (the wife of Nimrod) and pour out libations to her, just as they did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. They even went so far as to say that when they burned incense to the queen of heaven, they had plenty of food and were well off and did not see evil …(vv. 17-18). That was a lie. When they were in Jerusalem, they were besieged and even forced to eat their children.

　　The children of Israel were a people who were not one with God. If they had been one with God, there would have been no problem. If they had been one with God, they would have received God’s word and would have known His heart, His nature, His mind, and His purpose. If they had been one with God, then spontaneously they would have lived Him and would have been constituted with Him to be His testimony on earth. (Life-study of Jeremiah, pp. 219-220)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Genesis, msgs. 6-7, 13-14