I want to continue our study through the book of Jeremiah and if you have your Bibles with you, if you would turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 37. As we mentioned, some of the books of Jeremiah aren’t in chronological order. We were studying that Zedekiah was the king.
Well, Zedekiah was the last king of Israel or the last king of Judah before the Babylonian captivity and was taken into captivity. But he had a brother that was king before him, actually two brothers that were king before him, and also a nephew that was a king before him. And we’d been studying last week about Jehoiakim, which was his brother, his second brother, that was appointed king.
And Jehoiakim had lost the kingship and he was replaced by the Babylonians by his son Jehoiakim, who also, as we’re going to see this evening, also went by the name of Conaniah. And one of the things when you study the kings of Israel is that you will find that some of the kings, especially the kings of Judah, had more than one name that they went by. It’s the same man, just different names.
And then also you’ll find that when Israel and Judah were both kingdoms, as we were going through the kings, we saw that there’d be a king in Israel that had the same name as a king in Judah, but yet they were two different kings. They weren’t the same man. And it’s just like there are popular names in our country, evidently there are popular names in Israel at that time as well amongst those in Judah and in Israel.
Well, tonight we’re going to be studying something that’s very interesting. You remember that a few lessons ago, we studied how that under Zedekiah, Jeremiah had brought prophecies that were speaking of the fact that Nebuchadnezzar was going to come. He was going to destroy Jerusalem.
He was going to destroy the temple. He was going to take those, you know, a lot of the people into captivity in Babylon. Others would be killed by the sword, by pestilence in Jerusalem and in the land of Judah.
And we saw a few lessons ago that Jeremiah brought that message as Babylon was surrounding the city. They were laying it under siege. And all of a sudden he called the people to repent.
And he said, one of the reasons that God is bringing this judgment upon you is because you have not obeyed the law. You have not obeyed his voice. And one of the things you have not done is they were supposed to honor the Lord in every seventh year.
They were supposed to let the land rest. They were supposed to let the people that had been indentured because of debt to be given their freedom from indentured servanthood and their debts forgiven. And they hadn’t done it.
They hadn’t done it for 490 years. But as they’re surrounded by the Babylonians, as it appears that everything that Jeremiah is saying is going to come true, all of a sudden the people have a change of heart. And they go to Jeremiah.
We’re going to let everybody go. We’re going to forgive their debts. We’re going to forgive their indentured servitude to us.
And all the people that are in Israel, that are our brothers and sisters that have this problem, they’re going to be forgiven. And we do that right now. And then all of a sudden they have a change of heart.
So they forgive them. They set them free. The people begin to go about their lives again.
And then all of a sudden they say, no, we’re calling you back. And they bring you back into slavery. And you’re probably wondering what happened to cause this flip-flop of attitudes? And why did they all of a sudden have this burden to confess their sin? And it appears they’re repenting of it.
And then all of a sudden they go back to do the same thing. Well, part of it was the circumstances that were surrounding them. And we saw that Nebuchadnezzar appeared to be ready to attack.
But as they have a change of heart, the event that’s revealed tonight is occurring. And that is, all of a sudden you have an army from the south and the Egyptians that appear to be a strong army. And they come up to fight the Babylonians at Jerusalem.
All of a sudden the people that had forgiven and confessed and all of this, now all of a sudden they have a change of heart. Because they think the Egyptians have come to deliver them. Let’s pick it up in chapter 37 this evening.
Jeremiah 37:1-3
And king Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah.
2 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.
3 And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Pray now unto the Lord our God for us.
I just want to pause here. Simply because someone asks you to pray for them doesn’t necessarily mean they really want you to pray for them. They really have to have a brokenness of heart.
This was evident during the life of Jesus’ ministry on earth. Because the Pharisees would often say one thing but they’d do the exactly opposite. And they say that they wanted to know the truth, but when Jesus would present the truth they didn’t want to hear it.
They would say that they wanted to follow God, but when the Lord would teach them and show them what they needed to do to follow Him, they didn’t want to follow Him. The same attitude is here. It’s a heart attitude.
And we’re going to see this evening that it’s not enough just to give lip service, but one has to have a desire to change the heart.
Jeremiah 37:4
Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people: for they had not put him into prison.
And later on Jeremiah does get put into prison.
5 Then Pharaoh’s army was come forth out of Egypt: and when the Chaldeans that besieged Jerusalem heard tidings of them, they departed from Jerusalem.
6 Then came the word of the Lord unto the prophet Jeremiah saying,
7 Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say to the king of Judah, that sent you unto me to enquire of me; Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land.
8 And the Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire.
Just pause here. They sent these men onto Jeremiah to pray for them because they thought they were in dire needs and danger. But the minute the Egyptians show up, the Chaldeans flee because at that particular time they didn’t think they were strong enough to overcome Pharaoh’s army. And so they fled. In a moment we’re going to see that the battle that was waged was evidently a battle that was dire to the army of the Chaldeans and that many of them were injured and harmed by the Egyptian army.
But God says that’s not what’s going to be the final outcome of all this. It’s not what appears to be today. One of the things that you need to look at even as what’s happening in our own country today is just don’t go on what’s happening today but really examine your heart and your relationship to God. That’s what’s important. And that’s what Jeremiah is bringing to these people. It’s not what is the outward appearance at the moment that’s significant.
What’s important is do you trust in God? Do you believe His word and are you giving your heart to Him? Because the people of Judah at this time, the vast majority of them, they were going on emotion, going on sight, going on feelings. You know, in something in America today, in a lot of Christians’ lives, we have people that built their whole relationship with God on feelings and emotions and what’s happening in my life. If things are going good, then I have a good walk with the Lord.
If things are going bad, then I cry out to God and say, you’ve got to deliver me from this. But God was bringing this circumstance into Israel’s life and these events into Israel’s life that they could see who was ultimately in control, and that is God. And we need to know in our lives, in the day in which we live, who is ultimately in control? Is it the president? Is it the government of the United States? Is it the army of the United States? Is it the armies of our enemies? Is it those who would seek to destroy the United States? Who’s in control? God’s in control.
And the thing is God will raise men up and take men down for His purposes, and this is a prime example of how He does that. Raising up Nebuchadnezzar, bringing Nebuchadnezzar in, but then raising up Pharaoh and bringing Pharaoh in to fight against Nebuchadnezzar, and then Nebuchadnezzar’s army fleeing, and Pharaoh going back to Egypt. And Judah is left with one thing, lesson to learn from all of that exchange, and that is who are you going to trust in? You going to trust in Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, or God? And the problem is Judah was always looking to men.
They were always looking to people, and they wanted to trust in what they could see and feel and hear, instead of trusting in God and believing that He was the Deliverer. And all they had to do was walk in obedience to His Word, and He would do everything He said in delivering them, but yet they continually chose not to.
So the Chaldeans shall come again, the Lord said fight against this city and take it, and burn it with fire.
And that is exactly what was going to happen. Thus saith the Lord, Deceive not yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us, for they shall not depart. And here you have Jeremiah specifically saying to the people what the Lord is saying is going to happen.
Do not believe in what you see, but believe in My word and My prophetic utterance, and that is the Chaldeans will take you into captivity. They will destroy your city. So are you going to trust in Me or aren’t you?
11And it came to pass that when the army of the Chaldeans was broken up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army, then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin to separate himself in the midst of the people.
And we are going to see that Jeremiah for a period of time, and it doesn’t tell us the total length of time, but there is peace around Jerusalem. And Bethlehem and Benjamin is just a few miles south of Jerusalem, southeast of Jerusalem. And so as the Chaldeans withdraw, the Egyptians withdraw, and there appears to be a period of peace.
And so what happens during that time, Jeremiah leaves Jerusalem and he goes to the land of Benjamin, which is just a little bit south of Jerusalem, the land of Benjamin and south and east and a little bit north. And he goes there and as he goes down there, he is going for personal reasons. He is not going because he is, okay, now is my chance to get out of Jerusalem.
I don’t have to suffer the consequences that God has said everybody else is going to suffer. But I want you to see that people don’t listen to God and they don’t look at what men are really saying, but rather they want to believe what they want to believe. And so they see Jeremiah leave and immediately they falsely accuse him of leaving Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 37:13
13And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he took Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans.
You are leaving Jerusalem and you are working some type of deal with the Chaldeans and you are betraying us.
14 Then said Jeremiah, It is false; I fall not away to the Chaldeans. But he hearkened not to him: so Irijah took Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes.
They really treated Jeremiah the same way that Jesus was treated. He was falsely accused, falsely imprisoned, falsely beaten. And that is the same thing that happened to Jeremiah hundreds of years before Jesus came.
But we see that all because Jeremiah had taken and wanted to take care of some business that he had to take care of. In reading and studying and preparing a lot, Jeremiah may have been very well going to take care of some personal business in land that was family issues in the land of Benjamin. And it had nothing to do with the war that was going on between the Egyptians and the Chaldeans, and the Chaldeans coming against Judah.
But it was personal things that needed to be done. And nobody would believe him. And so they beat him and put him, falsely accused him, beat him and put him in prison.
Jeremiah 37:15
15 Wherefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe: for they had made that the prison.
And Jeremiah was entered into the dungeon and into the cabins.
And Jeremiah had remained there many days. Now I want you to understand and look at that. Does it necessarily mean that when we simply believe and do what God’s will is, that everything is going to go, be a bed of roses for us and everything is going to be perfect? The answer is Jeremiah had done everything God had asked him to do.
He proclaimed the messages all the time that God had asked him to proclaim. Even, and done everything that God had told him to do when he first claimed, or called him rather, at the beginning, we saw at the beginning of the book of Jeremiah. And he preached what God had called him to preach.
And even when the people didn’t listen, he kept on preaching. Yet it didn’t mean that they weren’t going to persecute him and that there wasn’t going to come hardship against him. There’s false teaching that’s coming to the church today that says if they look at Jeremiah and they say, well he just didn’t have enough faith.
They wanted to silence Jeremiah because they didn’t like his message. His message was a call to repentance. His message was a call to trust in God and to abandon their own self-centered, selfish ways and abandon their false gods.
And they figured the best way you can do it is to silence the messenger. But that doesn’t take away the message. So they’re trying to silence Jeremiah.
Verse 17,
Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took him out: and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, Is there any word from the Lord? And Jeremiah said, There is: for, said he, thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.
I think it’s interesting you have Zedekiah who has all the earthly power in this situation in the land of Judah and had the power to free Jeremiah. He had the power over the princes. They were under his authority and yet he has to secretly go away to ask Jeremiah, Is there any word from the Lord? He’s not willing to say it out in front of everyone because he doesn’t want anybody to know that he’s even seeking the Lord.
But Zedekiah doesn’t seek God because he wants to hear him either. He’s much like Ahab. Ahab surrounded himself with false prophets that would tell him what he wanted to hear.
But he had one prophet that would speak for God and that prophet would always speak the truth. And Ahab viewed him as a thorn in his side and someone that always brought him trouble because he spoke about how because of Ahab’s sin God would judge him and various judgments came upon Ahab that God spoke through the prophet would come. Well Zedekiah in this instance is much like Ahab.
Ahab knew the true prophet, knew that he could speak the true word of God. If you remember that when he was getting ready to go to battle with the Syrians and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came up to fight with him, Jehoshaphat asked, is there another prophet? And he said, well I’ve got this one prophet. And he came in and he prophesied how Ahab would end up being killed.
And he said, see what did I tell you? All he ever does is say bad things about me. And that’s exactly what happened to Ahab. Ahab was killed in the battle just like God said he would be and just as the dogs had lapped up the blood of the man that he stole his vineyard from the dogs lapped up Ahab’s blood.
And we see that Zedekiah is much like Ahab in the sense that he doesn’t want people to know that he’s speaking to the real prophet but when he hears what the message is he doesn’t want to change. He really doesn’t want to adhere to the message but he knows where to find the truth. And he finds the truth with Jeremiah.
And Jeremiah says thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon. Moreover Jeremiah said unto the king Zedekiah, what have I offended against thee and against thy servants and against this people that ye have put me in prison? Why have you put me in prison? I haven’t done anything wrong. All I’ve spoken is the truth and I was going about my own business.
I wasn’t being a spy for the Chaldeans or trying to work with them but I was doing my own thing and I’ve done nothing but tell you the truth. What have you done against me? Where are now your prophets which prophesied unto you saying the king of Babylon shall not come against you nor against the land. And remember Zedekiah throughout all that we studied earlier and Jeremiah was coming before him and he was telling them that the Chaldeans were coming.
The Chaldeans are coming. They’re going to take you away. All these things are going to happen.
All these other false prophets kept saying don’t believe them. Just believe us. Peace and prosperity.
That’s where it’s at. Peace and prosperity. I just want you to be aware the day in which we live there’s a lot of people that want peace and prosperity but don’t want to look to repentance and following God.
And the false prophet always will bring a message that tickles the ear but doesn’t touch the heart. And that’s the difference between Jeremiah and the false prophets. Jeremiah spoke the truth.
The truth goes directly to the heart. The false message tickles the ears and gives people what they want to hear but leads them to destruction. And that’s what the false prophets were doing with Zedekiah and Jeremiah brings this to his attention.
Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city were spent. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.
Okay I’ll do what you say Jeremiah.
I won’t return you to Jonathan’s prison but I’m going to return you to the prison of the court in my house. You’re still going to be in prison. I want you to see here there’s more than just presenting the truth to people because if people aren’t going to respond to the truth God’s judgment will come.
It’s one of the things that concerns me about even what’s happening in America today because the Bible talks about the fact that in the last days there’s going to be peace and prosperity and then sudden destruction shall come. And you’re seeing the groundwork laid for peace and prosperity and many people say isn’t it marvelous how God is bringing and hearing and answering our prayers and all these marvelous things are happening. Stock market’s up.
All these things are happening and yet you look around the world and there are literally hundreds of Christians being martyred literally every week and day in various countries around the world and nobody says hardly anything about it. And people don’t want to change their lifestyles in America. Don’t want to change their values in America.
Don’t want to really turn to worship God but just give lip service like the people in Judah did. Well do what God says until the circumstances change and then if God takes the pressure off then we’ll go back. No God wants to change a heart not just a change of appearance.
Zedekiah never ever responded to the message of Jeremiah from his heart or he would have set him free and not put him back into a prison and he would have changed his attitude. May we understand God desires to change hearts not just outward actions and outward circumstances but transform lives. That’s his closing prayer.
Lord I pray you just help us understand this. Help us to learn from the message of Jeremiah. Lord help us to see the attitude of obedience that Jeremiah had to bring a message in very difficult circumstances when he was constantly persecuted for doing that which was right.
But yet he continued on. Lord help us to always do that which is right and to walk in truth even in the face of adversaries and those that would seek to harm us. But may we realize that you are with us and you will give us the strength to accomplish what you have sent for us to do.
This we ask in Jesus name. Amen.