2 Kings 25:22-26. After conquering Judah and taking most of its inhabitants into exile, Nebuchadnezzar leaves Gedaliah as governor there. When all the captains of the Hebrew forces who had been out fighting hear of this, they come back and Gedaliah swears to them that if they settle down and serve the king of Babylon all shall be well. But Ishmael gathers ten men together and they attack and kill Gedaliah and the Jews and Chaldeans who were with him. Then all the people left in Judah, including the captains of the forces, flee for Egypt because they are afraid of the Chaldeans.

What would have happened if they did not flee to Egypt? We will never know, but we do know that God had told his people not to flee to Egypt prior to being conquered by Babylon (see Jeremiah 42). These commanders must have remembered that prophecy, and yet they and the remaining people fled anyway. So just like God told the exiles in Babylon, through Jeremiah, to settle down and live in exile for a while, God must have wanted the ones left behind to stay put in Jerusalem. But they did not, and God of course still loved them and still eventually brought them back home. I wonder if the exile would have been shortened if they had trusted and stayed?

Those left behind no longer had a prophet - Jeremiah had gone into exile as well, so they did not have the benefit of someone telling them what God wanted them to do. Then again, they had been told once before what to do and had not listened, so would they have listened this time? There is a reason God did not raise up another prophet for them - this had to play out the way it did for some reason.

God's plan is so mysterious. But if we truly surrender to him and to it, things always work out for the best. It is when we take matters into our own hands that we start going wrong. His plan sees all our missteps, though, and accounts for them. He will eventually bring us home if we let him, but our failure to trust prolongs our suffering.