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Jeremiah 43:2-3. "Azariah and all the insolent men said to Jeremiah, 'You are telling a lie. The Lord our God did not send you to say, 'Do not go to Egypt to live there'; but Baruch ... has sent you against us, to deliver us into the hands of the Chaldeans, that they may kill us or take us into exile in Babylon.'" 

 

Azariah and the insolent men represented the "remnant of Judah," those left alive and behind after the first Babylonian attack. They had come to Jeremiah asking him to ask God what they should do, and promising to do whatever God said (Jeremiah 42:1-6). Jeremiah did ask the Lord, and He responded by saying the people should stay in Judah and, if they did, God would give them strength and protection; He would deliver them from the hand of the King of Babylon, and cause him to have mercy on them and allow them to stay in their land. But, God said, if they did not stay and instead fled to Egypt for "safety," "the sword which you fear shall overtake you ... and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow hard after you to Egypt; and there shall you die." (Jeremiah 42:10-16). But after all of this, the people, once again, refused to believe Jeremiah. Instead, they called him a liar, accused him of wanting them dead, and fled to Egypt (Jeremiah 43:2-7).

 

For what are probably obvious reasons to many, I have been learning a lot about gaslighting lately. Yesterday, I listened to an episode of a podcast by psychologist Peter Malinoski that was all about gaslighting. Dr. Malinoski referred to two definitions of gaslighting, one from Elizabeth Bates: gaslighting is "a form of manipulation where a person seeks to sow seeds of doubt, hoping to make [the other] question their own memory, perception, and sanity," and one from Kate Abramson, who says a gaslighter tries to induce in someone the sense that her memories, thoughts, or perceptions, are not just mistaken, but utterly without grounds.

 

Later in the episode, Dr Malinoski answered a listener who asked if the gaslighter always knows what he or she is doing, and he said while they used to think yes, that gaslighting is always a form of malicious manipulation, now they think there are people who gaslight without realizing they are doing it. This really hit home to me, because I know I have been experiencing gaslighting, but I also really do not believe that many of the people doing it to me realize what they are doing. They seem to truly believe a false narrative so strongly, that they simply cannot allow themselves to hear anyone who questions it. They believe that the perceptions and thoughts of the questioners, like me, are utterly without merit, and so they find a way to rationalize the fact that they know me, but can't believe what I am saying, by assuming that I am repeating lies, in need of psychological help, or have been manipulated myself (by "misinformation"!).

 

So why am I talking about gaslighting? Because Azariah is gaslighting Jeremiah here, and he and the people are also gaslighting themselves. Jeremiah has spoken to God and relayed a message that the people did not want to hear (that is the story of Jeremiah's life!). At this point, the people know Jeremiah well enough to know he really does hear God's word (they even asked him to talk to God for them!), and they have experienced the first wave of the Babylonian conquest, just as Jeremiah had prophesied, so they have no reason to doubt what Jeremiah tells them is actually God's Word. But they want a reason to doubt, they have allowed their fear to overcome their faith and reason, and they want, above all else, to flee to Egypt for safety. It seems they thought God would approve of their plan, and were really just looking for Jeremiah and God to "rubber stamp" the decision they had already made. When Jeremiah instead came back with God's request that they stay, and a very strong admonition against them going to Egypt, they simply couldn't believe it. They were so wedded to the narrative they had told themselves, that Egypt was the only safe place for them to go, they could not reconcile Jeremiah's words with what they had already decided they had to do. They could not hear the truth (God's Word is Truth), so they gaslit themselves and Jeremiah. They called the truth a lie, and they made up a reason Jeremiah would lie - he must be in league with the Chaldeans, he must want to turn them over to Babylon to be killed or exiled. This is an example of unintentional gas lighting, they are not trying to manipulate themselves or Jeremiah, but they are looking for any reason to reject him and his words in order to cling to the lies they have told themselves. They will casually assassinate his character without a second thought in order to protect those lies. It is incredible what machinations our brains will go through to protect these narratives we wed ourselves to!

 

All of this is exactly what we as a country (and world) have been going through for the last few years! People who question the narrative (that has so many obvious flaws!) are slapped with a label that makes them easily dismissible and then ignored. No matter that doctors lost licenses; no matter that children are having irreversible surgeries that will affect them for the rest of their lives; no matter that people without COVID vaccines could not receive life-saving transplants; no matter that despair and othering led people to suicide, the narrative has to be protected at all costs! Reality itself is on the chopping block!

 

In Jeremiah, the remnant believed their narrative, fled to Egypt, and suffered the consequences that God promised. We have yet to fully see what will happen due to the fierce defense of the lies we are being told and telling ourselves, but we have already seen many dire consequences of the assault on truth and reality, and many more are happening without our noticing (the truth doesn't care if you notice it, it just is). Dr. Malinoski said the very first instance of gaslighting in history was in Genesis Chapter 3, where the serpent said "Did God say 'You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?" (Genesis 3:1) Satan got Eve to doubt what she knew was true, with the direst of consequences. He's doing it to us again now, at a scale never before permitted (he does nothing without God's permission).

 

No matter what the scale, whether it is Satan just whispering in one person's ear, or shouting through every television set in the world, when faced with gaslighting, our adherence to the truth should become even stronger. It is the only way we will defend our souls, our faith, our families, our country, and this world. If we stay in the truth, God will strengthen and protect us, just as He promised the remnant of Judah.