Jeremiah 38:14-16 – We must obey God at all costs.

In both chapters 37 and 38 of Jeremiah, the prophet talked about his own  arrest and imprisonment. This led some to believe that both chapters were talking about the one and same incidence. However, a closer examination of the details will tell us that they are two separate incidences. Jeremiah 38 describes the second incidence. This time Zedekiah had allowed Jeremiah to be thrown into a dried cistern by his officials. But in Jeremiah 38:14, when Ebed-melech told him about what they were doing to the prophet, he then ordered him to have the prophet rescued.

After Jeremiah was rescued from the cistern, the king sent for him. And at the third entrance of the temple, they met. In Jeremiah 38:15-18, he then sought to find out from Jeremiah the future of Jerusalem.  He wanted to hear the truth from the prophet. At first, Jeremiah was reluctant to tell him for fear of his own life. But only told the king after the king had sworn secretly to spare the prophet and not deliver him into the hands of those who sought his life.         

From both accounts of Jeremiah’s arrests, we catch a glimpse of Zedekiah and the kind of man that he was. Jeremiah was an indecisive man. He vacillated often and didn’t seem able to make up his mind. The decisions he made were the result of pressures and opinions piled on him by others. This was clearly seen in the way he dealt with Jeremiah. In chapter 37:16, he sent the prophet to a dungeon then in verse 21 he took him out and place him under house arrest. While he refused to listen to Jeremiah, he would show interest in what the latter had to say. Here in chapter 38, we again see that he only had Jeremiah rescued from the cistern after being told by Ebed-melech of the situation.  

Zedekiah must have hoped that Jeremiah would tell him something different after having gone through some suffering. From Jeremiah's words to him, we learn that God’s plan will always come to pass. We must accept His will, repent from our wrongs, obey His word, and change and align our lives accordingly. No amount of denial or manipulation will ever change the situation. God had allowed. Obedience is a key factor if we are to progress with God. Ours is to obey, the outcome is God’s. We must obey Him at all costs much like the attitude of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Light Brigade: Theirs not to make reply…Theirs not to reason why…Theirs but to do and die.”