Why do the “insolent men of Judah” tell Jeremiah that he is lying, and accuse Baruch of setting Jeremiah against them?

What Jeremiah has already discerned in the hearts and minds of the remnant, and warned against, is now openly revealed. When Jeremiah finished speaking to all the people all these words of their Lord their God, with which the Lord their God had sent him to them, Azariah the son of Hoshaiah and Johanan the son of Kareah 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 (Jeremiah 43:1–2). The leaders are described as insolent. The Hebrew word is zid and it refers to people who assume authority that is not theirs. It is used of people who assume that the Lord’s law does not apply to them (see Psalm 119:21,Psalm 119:51, Psalm 119:69, Psalm 119:78,Psalm 119:85, Psalm 119:122) and who reject the Lord’s counsel without thinking about others (Nehemiah 9:29)¹. The people had passionately committed themselves to listening to the Lord and doing whatever he told them to do. But now that the message has come that they must remain in the land, the one thing they did not want to do, the people try and discredit the message. They accuse Jeremiah of lying. Trying to justify their disobedience, they suggest that the source of Jeremiah’s message is not the Lord, but rather Baruch whom they accuse of being in a conspiracy with Babylon. It is not clear why Baruch is drawn into their attempts to justify their disobedience. It may simply be a matter of not wanting to say such things about Jeremiah himself. They behave a bit like Zedekiah did. They cannot bring themselves to completely reject Jeremiah as the Lord’s prophet, because that would mean openly rejecting the Lord, and so they find another target to attack as they try to justify their disobedience. Baruch makes a convenient target because he was an essential part of Jeremiah’s ministry. What is very clear from the narrative is the stubborn disobedience of the people. Nothing has changed. They have the same attitude to the Lord’s word that led to the judgment that destroyed Jerusalem and left them vulnerable in their own land. Even at this last moment of opportunity, those who represent the remnant of Judah continue to reject the word from the Lord².