Jeremiah 41:44: A Fatal Mistake

Has there even been a people or nation so stubborn as Israel?  No matter what the Lord said or promised them, they refused to obey.  This is true after the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon.  They did not heed God's word that they would prosper in exile, instead they continued to take matters into their own hands.  First they killed Gedaliah, the governor appointed by the King of Babylon. Then they abandon the land for safety in Egypt in spite of Jeremiah's warning.

"O remnant of Judah, the LORD has told you, 'Do not go to Egypt.' Be sure of this: I warn you today that you made a fatal mistake when you sent me to the LORD your God and said, 'Pray to the LORD our God for us; tell us everything he says and we will do it.'  I have told you today, but you still have not obeyed the LORD your God in all he sent me to tell you. So now, be sure of this: You will die by the sword, famine and plague in the place where you want to go to settle."  - Jer. 42:19-22 NIV

It was a fatal mistake.  There was nothing ,in any fiber of their being, that wanted to trust in God's provision.  Once they were in Egypt, they resumed their own ways and started worshipping the gods of Egypt and the 'Queen of Heaven' and flaunting that worship in front of Jeremiah and the Lord.  Jeremiah realizes that they are without hope.  A remnant will be saved, but it will not be those who fled to Egypt, or trusted their own actions or in any other gods.

"Go ahead then, do what you promised! Keep your vows! But hear the word of the LORD, all Jews living in Egypt: 'I swear by my great name,' says the LORD, 'that no one from Judah living anywhere in Egypt will ever again invoke my name or swear, "As surely as the Sovereign LORD lives."  For I am watching over them for harm, not for good; the Jews in Egypt will perish by sword and famine until they are all destroyed.  Those who escape the sword and return to the land of Judah from Egypt will be very few. Then the whole remnant of Judah who came to live in Egypt will know whose word will stand—mine or theirs. - Jer. 44: 25-28 NIV