This afternoon we want to continue our study in the book of Jeremiah. And so if you have your Bibles and will turn with me to Jeremiah. And we are looking at chapters 37 and 38 as Jeremiah has been in prison.
And you know, sometimes we just don’t understand why God allows certain things to happen. And I’m sure Jeremiah was wondering about this as well. Jeremiah had been doing everything God had told him to do.
And yet he’d been met just as the Lord said he would be with rejection of the message that he had proclaimed. And first they had imprisoned Jeremiah. And now they come and they’ve got him out of there.
And now they’re going to place him into really a pit. And it’s not a very fun place for Jeremiah to find himself in. And let’s pick it up.
Reviewing 37 and getting into 38 this afternoon. And King Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, reigned instead of Conaniah, the son of Jehoiakim, when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, made him king in the land of Judah. But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land did hearken unto the words of the Lord, which he spake by the prophet Jeremiah.
And Zedekiah, the king, sent Jehuchal, the son of Nehemiah, and Zephaniah, the son of Mahasiah, the priest, to the prophet Jeremiah and saying unto him, the Lord our God for us. And so last week, last Wednesday night, we were studying this. And we saw that they really didn’t want Jeremiah know what Jeremiah really had to say.
They just they wanted him to pray that he would deliver them from the Babylonians is what they wanted. But they didn’t want to change their heart. And they saw Pharaoh’s army coming up from the south and thought that that was an answer to their prayer because the Pharaoh was going to come.
And the Babylonians, for a period of time, as we saw on Wednesday, left them. And it appeared that what they were attempting to do had happened, but it didn’t because the Chaldeans didn’t leave. The Lord said the Chaldeans are going to come back, and they’re going to destroy everything.
And those who will not go with them will die by pestilence, with sword, and starvation in the city of Jerusalem. And so we see that these events begin to unfold. They capture, they take Jeremiah and they imprison him and now that brings us to chapter 38, where we find that they’re going to even make life more difficult for Jeremiah.
So let’s just take a look at chapter 38.
Then Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashur the son of Malchiah, heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken unto all the people, saying,
2 Thus saith the Lord, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live; for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live.
3 Thus saith the Lord, This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which shall take it.
4 Therefore the princes said unto the king, We beseech thee, let this man be put to death: for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them: for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt.
And I just want to pause here.
As usual, those that are in opposition to God tell lies. Jeremiah did not seek the hurt of the people, but he said, go with the Babylonians and you’ll live. Stay and you’ll die, because this is the word of the Lord.
These aren’t my words, Jeremiah said, these are the words of the Lord. And this is the same people that had asked Jeremiah to intercede on their behalf before the Lord. But they don’t want to hear what God’s got to say on how they can live.
Instead they just, like so many people today, they want their answer because they want to be God and determine their future in their terms and their way. And so they want to go to God and look at God as their great deliverer, but if God’s answer is not what they want to hear, then they want to silence the messenger and claim that God is in God. And that’s exactly where the men of Judah, the leaders of Judah were.
And they wanted Jeremiah put to death. They were tired of hearing his message. They wanted him totally silenced and put to death.
5 Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your hand: for the king is not he that can do any thing against you.
In other words, the king wasn’t going to stand up to those that were in opposition to Jeremiah speaking the truth. He wasn’t going to do anything. It’s just like a lot of people today.
They say, okay, I’ll listen to you, but I’m really not going to do anything. And the same answer that he gave to them was something very similar to what Pilate gave to the Jews. He basically said, I wash my hands of it, there’s really nothing I can do.
And do with him what you want. And that’s really what the king is telling you then. Go and do with him, put him to death if you want.
6 Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.
Now they took him and they imprisoned him and they put him down into, if you would, it would be a well or a dungeon that had water in the bottom, but there wasn’t any water, but there was a lot of mud and muck and everything else that goes with the mud and muck in the bottom of a dungeon. I know that we used to have a cistern on the farm, and in that cistern, if the water got full, you’d see all kinds of salamanders and all kinds of fun things in the cistern. Well this was in essence a cistern, and they lowered him into the cistern and the water was gone, but the muck was there.
There was no food in the cistern. People couldn’t come and visit Jeremiah in the cistern. This is a beautiful place to be found in, and this is where they leave Jeremiah, and their full intent is to allow Jeremiah to stay down there until he dies.
And so that’s where they took him and put him.
Now when
7 Now when Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs which was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon; the king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin;
8 Ebedmelech went forth out of the king’s house, and spake to the king saying,
9 My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon; and he is like to die for hunger in the place where he is: for there is no more bread in the city.
10 Then the king commanded Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, Take from hence thirty men with thee, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon, before he die.
11 So Ebedmelech took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took thence old cast clouts and old rotten rags, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah.
Now I think it’s interesting to notice who is the one that comes to Jeremiah’s defense. He’s not even Jewish.
He’s an Ethiopian. He is not someone who is a man of power and authority because he’s a eunuch, and a eunuch would be a servant to those that were in authority. So he would actually be a servant to the king or a servant to the princes, and the king had washed his hands and said to the princes, Go do what you want, and the princes had took him, and yet the eunuch sees that Jeremiah is going to die if he stays where he’s at, and he pleads on his behalf, intercedes on behalf of Jeremiah to the king, and tells him that Jeremiah faces certain death.
It’s interesting that oftentimes God raises up unlikely people to help those that are his servants, and people that you wouldn’t expect to be those that would help, and this is such a case here. The very person that has no authority and has no power, yet he is the one that has the king’s ear. Oftentimes God will use us to intercede on behalf of others or to share with people, and we say, well, I’m nobody.
Why should they listen to me? Well, the eunuch in the eyes of the king stood a lot lower than the princes, but the king listened to him, and why did he listen to him? Because God had prepared the heart of the king to listen to him, because the Ethiopian eunuch was speaking on behalf of Jeremiah, and the Lord had placed in his heart to do that, because the Lord was hearing Jeremiah’s cries as he was in great dire straits.
So Ebed-Melech took the men with him and went into the house of the king under the treasury and took out old cast, clouts, and old rotten rags, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah. Now, they didn’t have a lot of fancy equipment back then, but they needed to get Jeremiah out.
So what they did is they took and got what they could have, old clothes, that Jeremiah could put together and put under his arms, and then take these cords and they would pull him up, really lifting him up as he tied these clothes to these cords, and they’d lift them up so that he could be lifted out of this dungeon. That doesn’t give us the depth of the dungeon, but it would have been more than just a couple of feet, because they had to lower this down, and this is the way they got Jeremiah out. And Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian, said unto Jeremiah, Put now these old cast clouts and rotten rags under thine arm holes, and under the cords, and Jeremiah did so.
So they drew up Jeremiah with the cords and took him up out of the dungeon, and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. So he wasn’t let go from being a prisoner, but he was let go from facing certain death and being put down in the cistern dungeon, where he had no chance of surviving. Then Zedekiah the king sent and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him into the third entry, that is the house of the Lord, and the king said unto Jeremiah, I will ask thee a thing, hide nothing from me.
And so the king is asking him to speak out the truth no matter what it is. Now, I don’t think the king is going to like what Jeremiah is going to say, because he usually hasn’t liked what Jeremiah is going to say. Because it involves a change in attitude, a change in behavior, and a lack of reliance upon his own ability to deliver himself.
We saw that when the princes came and they put Jeremiah in the dungeon, as they asked the king to be able to do it, what did they say Jeremiah was doing? He was discouraging the people and causing them to become faint, so that they would not fight. The soldiers wouldn’t fight, the people wouldn’t fight, and why would you fight if you were going to be defeated anyway? And the people knew that, because Jeremiah said they would, but somehow these princes were deluded into thinking that somehow they would be able to defeat the Babylonian army. The Babylonian army that had destroyed all the cities, the Babylonian army that had surrounded Jerusalem, the Babylonian army that had laid siege to the city, so that they couldn’t bring food in, nor could they take things out, and they were running out of food, people were dying from starvation, they were dying from disease, and they were about to die from the sword unless they went with the Babylonians.
That was evident, but they wouldn’t believe what they saw, and were deluded into thinking that somehow with their own strength they would be able to deliver themselves. Well, Jeremiah’s message had said they wouldn’t. Well, what did Jeremiah do? Verse 15, then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, If I declare unto thee, wilt thou not surely put me to death? And if I give thee counsel, wilt thou not hearken unto me? Those are two very logical questions.
What I’m going to tell you, are you going to put me to death because I’m going to tell you, or are you going to listen to what I’m going to tell you, and follow my counsel? Because those are really the two choices, and Jeremiah sees that this is the reality of the situation, and he’s asking the king this question. So Zedekiah the king swears secretly unto Jeremiah saying, As this soul I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand of these men that seek thy life. So he’s saying, I will preserve your life, I’ll make sure you live, please tell me what it is that you have to tell me.
Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon’s princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire, and thou shalt live in thine house. But if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon’s princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand. And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me.
Zedekiah is continually concerned about himself, but he never listens to the counsel of Jeremiah, which will give him a means of deliverance. He’s saying, go and talk to the princes of the Chaldeans and give yourself into their hands, and they’re not going to burn the city. But he’s not going to do it because he’s afraid of his own princes, that they’re going to mock him if he would do such a thing.
And yet on the other hand, he’s afraid of the Chaldeans. So Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I’m afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me. And Jeremiah said, they shall not deliver thee.
Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the Lord which I speak unto thee, so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live. He tells him, listen to me. And he’s getting stronger with his counsel.
He’s saying, I beseech you. Now whenever you see the word beseech, it means that they’re emphatically giving him the words that they want him to act on, and it’s not something to be taken lightly. It’s not just some minor advice, but I’m beseeching you that you need to do this if you want to live.
If you want to preserve the city of Jerusalem, this is what you need to do. And so I’m giving you this counsel. I’m beseeching you to do this.
And then he goes on and he says, and Jeremiah said, they shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the Lord which I speak unto thee, so shall it be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live. But if thou refuse to go forth, this is the word that the Lord hath showed me.
Now for Calvinists, I want you to understand something. Who had the choice here? Ultimately, who’s the authority here? God’s the authority, right? God’s got all the power. God’s got the power over the situation.
God is revealing to Jeremiah the circumstances that are about to happen. But he tells Jeremiah there are real consequences to Zedekiah’s choice. And the choice is Zedekiah’s.
He can either choose to give himself into the hands of the Chaldean princes, or he can choose not to and to listen to his own princes and to remain in defiance of Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. The choice is his. God says the choice is yours.
Jeremiah tells him the choice is his. Do you realize that Calvinists would say, well the choice wasn’t Zedekiah’s, God had predetermined it all, and Zedekiah had nothing to do with this. Well then why does God? Does God try to deceive us by putting down the fact that Zedekiah had the choice? He could make a choice.
Just like people can make a choice. They can make a choice to follow God or not follow God. They can make a choice to believe in Jesus or not believe in Jesus.
The choice is theirs, but God says these are the consequences to your choice. If you believe in Jesus, then your sins are forgiven and you’ll have eternal life. If you choose not to believe in Jesus, you have chosen the path of judgment and your ultimate goal will be the lake of fire and eternal damnation.
The choice is yours, just like the choice is Zedekiah’s. And behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah’s house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon’s princes. And those women shall say, Thy friends have set thee on and have prevailed against thee.
Thy feet are sunk in the mire, and they are turned away back. So they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand. And thou shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon, and thou shalt cause this city to be burned with fire.
So if you choose not to do what I’m telling you, to go to the Chaldean princes and willfully give up yourself, these are the consequences. Your wives and your children will be taken away by the Babylonians. The city is going to be burned, and you will be taken into captivity.
Then said Zedekiah unto Jeremiah, Let no man know of these words, and thou shalt not die. In other words, he wanted Jeremiah to tell him the truth. He wanted to hear what the choices were, but he didn’t want anybody to know that God had presented him with these choices.
Why? Because he feared men more than he feared God. He feared his own princes more than he feared God. If he feared God more than his own princes, he would have gone to his princes and said, This is what the terms are.
We are giving ourselves up to the Chaldeans, that we may live and that Jerusalem may stand, because that’s what the Lord has said. But instead, he doesn’t even want them to know that that is one of the options. Instead, he tells Jeremiah, Don’t reveal this to anyone, but if the princes hear that I have talked with thee, and they come unto thee, and say unto thee, Declare unto us now what thou hast said unto the king.
Hide it not from us, and we will not put thee to death, also what the king said unto thee. Then thou shalt say unto them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan’s house to die there. And so what Jeremiah is saying, All that I did was plead on my own behalf, that I didn’t have to go back to the Meiri Pit at Jonathan’s house and die in the Meiri Pit.
That’s the only thing that we talked about. That’s what the king wants him to say to the princes. He in essence wants Jeremiah to lie on his behalf, that the princes won’t become upset with the king and upset with Jeremiah even further.
Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah and asked him, and he told them all according to all the words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him, for the matter was not perceived. So Jeremiah abode in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken, and he was there when Jerusalem was taken.
So in other words, the end of this portion of Jeremiah’s letter or record indicates the king’s choice. Jerusalem was taken. The king sided with his princes.
He didn’t side with the Lord. He yielded to men’s pressure instead of yielding to God’s word. And consequently, he suffered the consequences and Jerusalem was taken and burned and the walls destroyed.
Now, it’s interesting. Oftentimes, we don’t want people to know that we’re thinking about making a decision for God. There’s a lot of people that are in that situation.
They feel convicted by God. The king evidently felt convicted. He went to Jeremiah in secret so that they could have a talk which would just be between the two of them.
And because he felt convicted by God, I want to know the truth. I want to know what are my choices here. And Jeremiah laid them out.
Trust God. This is your choice. Deny God.
This is your choice. And the king’s answer was, don’t tell anybody that we’ve ever had this talk because I don’t want them to know we’ve had this talk. How many times are people like that? They’ll come and they’ll want to talk to you about certain things, but once they’ve talked to you, they don’t want anybody to know they’ve talked to you.
They don’t want anybody to think that they’re thinking about obeying God and following God and His will and His purposes. This was King Zedekiah, a man that was really much like Saul. Saul was motivated not by truth and not by the word of God, but by pressure.
Wherever the pressure came on Saul and he perceived was the greater pressure, that’s what he dealed to. That’s like what Zedekiah does. It’s like he’s a current politician.
He sticks his finger up in the air and where’s the wind blowing and who’s got the strongest position against me. So I can preserve my own situation instead of seeking truth. The thing is we’re called not to be relativists or situational ethics people.
We are called to be people who stand on the word of God and for His truth. This is what Jeremiah did. He only told the truth.
He didn’t tell lies. He stood for the truth and consequently he was constantly getting in problems, getting him in trouble with those that wanted to speak only in relativistic terms and look at a situation and try to manipulate themselves out of it by their own wisdom and strength instead of trusting and relying on God. Let’s just close in prayer.
Father I pray that you just help us to understand and look at this situation and realize Zedekiah made a very foolish decision. He should have listened to you. You told him what would happen.
You gave him the choices. One of obedience and one of disobedience and he chose to disobey. How many times do people have the choice and choose the wrong choice? Lord help us to be able to present people with the truth and Father that the truth may set them free from walking in obedience to lies.
Lord I pray that you just help us to learn from the position of Jeremiah and also help us to see that you were there to help him in his time of need when it appeared totally hopeless yet he was delivered out of the miry clay and brought back into the king’s court. Lord I pray that you would just help us to realize that you do the same for us as well. Go with us and we pray in Jesus name.
Amen.