Jeremiah 40:1-6 – Don’t neglect God’s Word

In Jeremiah 39:11-12, King Nebuchadnezzar gave an order to his captain Nebuzaradan to take Jeremiah and look after him. He was to ensure that no harm would come to him and to give him the liberty to decide on what he wanted. So Jeremiah was taken from the guardhouse in the court and placed under the protection of Gedaliah. Although Nebuchadnezzar ordered the release of Jeremiah, chapter 40:1-6 show that in the confusion of gathering the captives to be sent to Babylon, Jeremiah was not recognized, and was huddled and put under chains like the rest captives. When they realized their mistake, the captain had Jeremiah released.

Amazingly, a message from God came to the prophet through the lips of the captain of the guard. The words recorded in verses 2-3 are, “The Lord your God promised this calamity against this place; and the Lord has brought it on and done just as He promised. Because you people sinned against the Lord and did not listen to His voice, therefore this thing has happened to you.” A careful examination of what he said shows that they were exactly what Jeremiah had been proclaiming. The problem was that the people were too dense up there to receive what God was saying. Here even an ungodly Babylonian could see that their experiences were the Lord’s doing. If God could speak and warn through a donkey during Balaam’s time, he certainly could use an ungodly Babylonian to affirm His message. Discerning God’s word is important in life. God is speaking all the time through people and circumstances. It behooves us to cultivate a sensitivity to identify what the Lord is doing and saying to us through those events and experiences. None can indeed be so blind as one who refuses to see.

Realizing their mistake for taking Jeremiah along with the captives, the captain in verse 4 offered Jeremiah the choice of going with them to Babylon or remaining in Judah. Jeremiah chose the latter, so he remained in the homeland. He was also given the liberty to return to Gedaliah who was made the governor or to anywhere of his choice.  The captain also gave him a ration of provision for his sustenance as well as a gift and sent him along. Jeremiah then went to Gedaliah in Mizpah and stayed with him and among the remnant that Nebuchadnezzar did not deport to Babylon.   

It is undeniable that our predicament in life is often for the same reason as that of the Judeans in Jeremiah’s time. Even an ungodly Babylonian could see. The reason is stated in verse 3 said, “Because you people sinned against the Lord and did not listen to His voice, therefore this thing has happened to you.” We are thankful to God for the Bible that He had given to guide us in our Christian journey. Our problem is often not in rejecting the Word but in neglecting the Word. Here’s a word of caution – neglect of the Word is just as perilous as rejecting it.           

Jeremiah 39:11-18 – God will protect and preserve His own

Included in God’s call to the Prophet Jeremiah were these words in Jeremiah 1:8 that said, “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD.” God kept His word. Jeremiah 38:11-14 describe how God delivered and preserved the life of the prophet even as the Babylonians ravaged Jerusalem. Verse 11 said that Nebuchadnezzar ordered Nebuzaradan, a captain in his army to look for Jeremiah to ensure that no harm came to him. The king ordered that he be well-treated.

Why did Nebuchadnezzar show such compassion to this prophet? The obvious answer was that God was keeping His words to His servant. Since He was the One who had engineered the whole judgment on Judah. He included in His plan the rescue of Jeremiah.

 Humanly speaking Jeremiah also had people who respected him. Prophet Daniel was one of them. He was a boy when Jeremiah was ministering in Jerusalem and would have heard the prophet’s messages. In the first siege of Jerusalem, Daniel was one of the youths that was deported by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon. We were told in his book that he and some of his friends were being groomed for the king’s service. By the time of the fall of Jerusalem, Daniel would have had ample opportunities to tell the king about Jeremiah. We are told in Daniel 9:1-3, that his prayer for Judah was motivated by reading Jeremiah’s writing. So Daniel could be instrumental in why Nebuchadnezzar took notice of Jeremiah. we are told in verse 14 that the prophet was preserved and placed under the care of Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, who was a friend of Jeremiah. Ahikam was the man who had earlier protected the prophet (Jeremiah 26:24). Staying in Gedaliah’s home and among the people, Jeremiah was well protected.

Another person God remembered was Ebed-melech, the Cushite eunuch. He was the one who rescued Jeremiah from the cistern. Verses 15-18 describe how God remembered and delivered him. Jeremiah was sent to assure him. God's message for him was, “‘I will deliver you on that day… and you will not be given into the hand of the men whom you dread. For I will certainly rescue you, and you will not fall by the sword; but you will have your own life as booty, because you have trusted in Me,’ declares the LORD.” Ebed-melech’s life was preserved.

Lesson: we can trust God with our life and reputation. When we take care of His kingdom, He will take care of our life and reputation. Matthew 10:30 Jesus assured us that every hair on our heads is numbered. It is His assurance that when we do HIs work, He will take care of us. In Matthew 10:31, He also said, “Do not fear, you(we) are more precious than many sparrows.”

 

Jeremiah 39:1-10 – Be serious and don't trifle with God

Jeremiah 39 described the fall of Jerusalem. A simple calculation from the facts given in verses 1-2, shows that it took the Babylonians 18 months to break into Jerusalem and captured it. And in those days when a city had been conquered, the generals of the conquering army would normally seize it and take their seats at the city gate.  This was how the general claimed victory over the city in which they had been defeated. So verse 4 says that “all the officials of the king of Babylon came in and sat down at the Middle Gate: Nergal-sar-ezer, Samgar-nebu, Sar-sekim the Rab-saris, Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag, and all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon.” These Babylonian names show that they were people that spoke another language. These verses clearly indicate the fulfillment of what God had declared in Jeremiah 5:15 years ago.  He said, saying: “Behold, I am bringing a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel…It is an enduring nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say.”

Verses 4-6 tell us how Zedekiah and his officials tried to escape. They ran out of the city by night through the gates located at the king’s garden. But they were pursued and overtaken by the Babylonians and captured at the plain of Jericho and brought before Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah. Although Zedekiah was not killed, he and his family were severely treated. His sons and nobles were executed before him before he was blinded and bound in chains and brought to exile in Babylon where he died. How true  Ezekiel 12:13 was. It was said that he would be brought to Babylon, but his eyes shall not see it. The Babylonians also torched the palace and the houses of the people and had Jerusalem razed with fire. The rest of the people were also taken into captivity in Babylon. Only the poorer pleasant  were left behind in Judah and given vineyards to look after.

The fall of Jerusalem clearly proves that God says what He meant and meant what He says. He delivered the disaster as promised. Judah was punished for their disobedience, and refusal to listen to God’s warnings. What they had experienced is a reminder to us that disobedience always exacts a heavy price. We don’t need a disaster to wise up. This passage was recorded for our learning. Know that God meant every word He says.  So be wise up, take God seriously, listen to His Word, and be careful to obey. 

Jeremiah 38:24-28 – Stay truthful in God

We know that Zedekiah was an indecisive man and one that lived on the opinions of others. He had a meeting with Jeremiah to ask him what the future of Jerusalem would be. Yet at the same time, he did not want the people to know what really transpired in his meeting with Jeremiah. So before they parted ways, Zedekiah warned Jeremiah saying, “Let no man know about these words and you will not die.” Jeremiah 38:24-28 capture that warning he gave and how Jeremiah responded.   

He knew his officials who knew about his meeting with Jeremiah would want to know from the latter what he had said to the prophet. So he literally wanted Jeremiah to lie. The prophet was to tell the officials who would enquire of him that he came to petition and plea with the king not to make him return to the house of Jonathan to die there. As Zedekiah had anticipated, the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him. And Jeremiah literally did as the king had instructed. He lied. To get them off his back he did as he was told. So they left him alone in the guardhouse until the day Jerusalem was captured.

This account shows the imperfection of the prophet. His life had shown that he was passionate, patient and had a deep love for God as well as for His people. His prophecies show how fearless he was even in the fact of death. However, admit it or not, the prophet was far from perfect. He was still human after all and had trepidation like anyone else. At this juncture, he had allowed his faith to be overcome by fear. This is not an excuse for a man we respect and have learned much from. He was true to God in so many ways but for this one time, he chose to go along with the lie of Zedekiah. What do these verses teach us?  

Like Jeremiah, we too will face moments in life where we need to take a stand for God.  In those cross-road moments, will we remain firm and not fear for our personal reputation? Can we trust God to see us through the hardship? Will we allow fear to take the better of our faith in God? These are real questions we need to confront at some point in life. This is where we need to be circumspect and stay faithful to God. This is where we need to practice Paul’s admonition in Ephesians 5:15-17. “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” 

 

Jeremiah 38:17-23 – Be discerning.

Having had Zedekiah’s assurance he would be spared, Jeremiah then proceeded to give the king the message God had for him. Jeremiah 38:17-23 capture the message that was told the king. The message to him remained the same as he had already declared. Verses 17-18 were what Jeremiah said to the king. “Thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘If you will indeed go out to the officers of the king of Babylon, then you will live, this city will not be burned with fire, and you and your household will survive. But if you will not go out to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be given over to the hand of the Chaldeans; and they will burn it with fire, and you yourself will not escape from their hand.’” The word Jeremiah told the king were just as discouraging. Here’s where Jeremiah showed his consistency. He did not mince his words.

Verse 19 shows that Zedekiah had one concern, he dreaded just thinking about how the people of Judah who had surrendered to Babylon would react to him. We can tell that besides being afraid of being shamefully treated by the Babylonians, he also dreaded the thought of how those Judeans would abuse him. So he voiced his concern to Jeremiah. In verse 20, Jeremiah then told him that even then he should just surrender to the Babylonians. For even if he would not act accordingly, he would still be scorned by those Judeans, as well as the Babylonians. Jeremiah further told him that if he would not obey and surrender to Babylon, the women that were in the place of Judah would become victims of the soldier and officials and be ill-treated and even raped by them. And in their quandary, those victims would blame Zedekiah for putting them in their plights. They would bitterly blame him for believing the deceptive words of his counselors who were supposed to be his friends.

Zedekiah probably knew deep in his heart that Jeremiah would not lie to him. Yet his counselors had shared messages that were different and even contradictory to that of Jeremiah. Who should he believe? This is where having discernment would make the difference. Like Zedekiah, we also need discernment in our seeking to nurture godly living. Often time we are thrown into circumstances where we will need to discern the will of God. We live in an over-communicative world. Social media is full of messages from people claiming to be speaking for God. If we are undiscerning, we may be persuaded and hoodwinked. We need to know that spiritual truths are spiritually discerned. We not only need to know the Scriptures well, but we need also to have a quickened heart that will be able to identify God’s voice and respond to the leading of the Spirit of God. We all need to strengthen ourselves with God’s Word. Hebrews 5:14 tells us that “solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”

  

 

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.”

     

 

  

Jeremiah 38:7-13 – God qualifies our calling

Jeremiah was thrown into a muddy cistern, a dry unused well, and left to die. But God delivered him. For at the onset of his call, God in Jeremiah 1:8 had promised him saying,  “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you declares the Lord.” So while he left to die in a mud-filled cistern, God sent a man to initiate a move to secure his release. God will never fail in His promise.  His deliverance can come in the most unusual way and from people whom we often least expect. Jeremiah 38:7-13  narrate how Jeremiah was unusually rescued.

The man God used to initiate Jeremiah’s deliverance was a certain Ebed-melech. Verse 7 said that he was an Ethiopian, and a Gentile eunuch serving in Zedekiah’s court. His name “Ebed-melech” simply means “servant of the king.” What sort of name is that? In the Jewish context, his existence would count for nothing. He has no identity of his own and was only defined by his relationship with the king. But we have an indication  from verse 9 that he was a compassionate man. He could have ignored when he overheard what the officials had done to Jeremiah, but he didn’t. He made it his business to do something for the prophet.

Verse 8-9 said that he went out to the king who was seated at the Gate of Benjamin. There he openly told the king, “My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet whom they have cast into the cistern; and he will die right where he is because of the famine, for there is no more bread in the city.” In a sense, he forced the hand of Zedekiah to do something. So he ordered him to take thirty men with him to rescue Jeremiah from the cistern.

Verses 11-13 described how Jeremiah was rescued. “Ebed-melech took the men under his authority and went into the king’s palace to a place beneath the storeroom and took from there worn-out clothes and worn-out rags and let them down by ropes into the cistern to Jeremiah.” He then to Jeremiah, “Now put these worn-out clothes and rags under your armpits under the ropes”; and Jeremiah did so. “ So they pulled Jeremiah up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern, and Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guardhouse.

The lesson God will always come to the rescue of His true servant. He could use instruments we least expect. God does not need a person of significance. All it requires of us to be used by God is a willing and compassionate heart, one who dares to take the initiative. In God’s service, He qualifies the call.