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So last week we went through Jeremiah 35 and 36. So in Jeremiah 35 we went back to the reign of Jehoiakim which was 18 years before the previous week and that's where God instructed Jeremiah to bring the Rechabites into the temple and offer them wine. They then refused because that was their their thing that they were doing for 250 years from their ancestors to not drink wine. And the object lesson that God was trying to show there was that the Rechabites could faithfully obey their earthly father while Judah refused to listen to their heavenly father despite God repeatedly sending prophets and all of them to him.
Then we went through Jeremiah 36 and that's where Jeremiah was instructed to written write down all the words that he had spoken that had been spoken to him during approximately 23 years of ministry and he dictated the words to Baruch and he wrote them on a scroll then he read them publicly and the king heard it and cut it to pieces and threw in the fire. Then God instructed Jeremiah and Baruch to do it all over again and write the scroll again and including even more words from God in the second scroll. So there was a kind of the main takeaways was he preached for 23 years with you know very little visible response but he continued to faithfully obey God.
And even after the king destroyed the scroll, they were faithful to do the work all over again. I mean, I know I would not be happy to do all that all over again. So, that's that's quite a feat there. And our time, our resources, our abilities belong to God. You know, some of the things that Clint mentioned last week was that if God wants to waste our time, he can let him. It's not our time to be wasted. It's his time. Any bit that we have is all because of him. So yeah, that was kind of the key from last week here. So we're going to start in Jeremiah 37, but let's open in prayer.
Dear Lord, I thank you for this day. I thank you for gathering us all here together to hear your word. Lord, I just pray that you guide guide me, guide us all and just let the words spoken be from you and just help us all to be willing vessels to serve and to be used of you, Lord. And that and give our time and our effort to you. And we thank you and praise you in Jesus name. Amen. All right. So, I think everyone here pretty much knows who I am, but for those who don't, my name is Micah Graph. I am usually hiding either back there or you know in the office or something because that's where that's where I like to be.
I like to be behind the scenes. But today we're I'm up here and praise the Lord. When I try my best when Clint says, "Hey, can you do this?" I'll just say yes. So that's that's the goal. But bear with me as this is my first Sunday morning. So yeah, we'll we'll do it together. All right. So we're going to start in verse one of Jeremiah 37. Now King Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Koniah the son of Jehoiakim whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah. But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land gave heed to the words of the Lord which he spoke by the prophet Jeremiah.
So we have jumped forward again in time. It's about 15 years after the last two chapters. And this is Zedekiah, another child of Josiah. But as it kind of mentioned, there was a king between Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. It was Jehoiakim's son, Koniah, also called Jehoiachin in other parts of Scripture., so don't let that confuse you., two different guys. And Kona only reigned for like 3 months before Babylon came back and subjected Jerusalem. And then Nebuchadnezzar didn't fully conquer it at this point. This is when he set up Zedekiah as basically his puppet king of Judah. Although Zedekiah is going to try and break out of that oath to Nebuchadnezzar here and trust in the power of Egypt and that won't go very well for him.
But yeah, this change of rulers didn't seem to change the state of the nation at all or the hearts of the people. Still the king and his servants and none of the people were listening to Jeremiah. All right. Verse number three. And Zedekiah the king went or sent Jehook the son of Shilomiah and Zephaniah the son of Ma Masiah the priest. So the prophet Jeremiah saying to the prophet Jeremiah saying, "Pray now to the Lord our God for us." Now Jeremiah was coming and going among the people, for they had not yet put him in prison. Then Pharaoh's army came up from Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news of them, they departed from Jerusalem.
So the king didn't listen to Jeremiah. No one did. But when he was desperate enough, he still asked Jeremiah to pray for him. And I find that interesting. Like there was many false prophets, we know that from other parts of Jeremiah, that easily could have prayed any prayer that Zedekiah would have told them to pray. But for some reason, he knew that Jeremiah was different. That having Jeremiah pray that prayer could mean something different., and the way it's worded here almost makes it sound like after that they prayed., it seemed like Pharaoh's army came up from Egypt and the Chaldeans left. It's most people actually think that four and five are basically giving background on verse three.
So he, it's just letting us know, hey, he's not in prison yet because Jeremiah's out of order. So we've seen some times where he's been in prison. He's not right now. And this is right after Pharaoh's army came up. And they think that their prayers are being answered. They think that this is it. God's liberating them from Babylon because Egypt's going to come and take away all all the Babylon Babylonians. That's what they thought. But and something that really stuck out to me when I first read this was they say, "Pray now to the Lord our God.", and he's only their God when it's convenient, it would seem.
So, like they wouldn't follow and listen to anything that their God would tell them until they need him to be our God. And how often do we only call upon God when it's convenient? He's only really our God, the God of our lives when it's convenient., that's something that I think I've been too often guilty of is during the good times, you don't really feel like you need God that much. So, it's like, yeah, I don't really tell him too much about what's going on. I don't really feel like I need to pray for too much because things are going all right right now.
And then as soon as something bad happens, it's like, God, why'd you let this happen? Like, like, come on. Like, save me. Get me out of this. And that's how they lived. They truly just didn't follow him until they needed him., so they wanted the protection, they wanted the blessings, but they didn't want to obey God. They didn't want to give up control of their lives as so many don't want to do today. And then we do see back in chapter 32 like some of his imprisonment. That's where he buys that bought that field. We will see him imprisoned later on in this in our reading today, but he is not imprisoned yet.
And the pharaoh that is coming up to fight against Egypt is actually named later in Jeremiah. So I'll just quickly read one verse out of Jeremiah 44. thus says the Lord, "Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hoffra, king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies, into the hand of those who seek his life. As I gave Zedekiah, king of Judah, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, his enemy who sought his life. So that's that same pharaoh eventually being judged for his cooperation in this., but yeah, so this is Egypt trying to come up and maybe answer this prayer. So it's more like Zedekiah is asking Jeremiah, is this it?
Is this the answer we're looking for? Is is this finally changing your prophecies to us? And spoiler alert, it doesn't really but all right, let's read on to verse number six and kind of see some of Jeremiah's response here. Then the word of the Lord came to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel. Thus you shall say to the king of Judah, who sent you to me to inquire of me. Behold, Pharaoh's armies which have come up to help you will return to Egypt to their own land. And the Chaldeans shall come back and fight against the city and take it and burn it with fire.
Thus says the Lord, "Do not deceive yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans will surely depart from us, for they will not depart. For though you had defeated the whole army of the Chaldeans who fight against you, and there remained only wounded men among them, they would rise up every man in his tent and burn the city with fire. So God's promises, his words stayed the same, as they always will. Babylon will destroy them. This point it's set. That is not going to change in any way, shape, or form., and he warns them that this little reprieve is very temporary. Pharaoh's army will turn around. They won't even go and fight.
They won't even help get rid of some of the army for them. They won't do anything. And sure enough, that's exactly what happened. They end up turning back and not fighting against the Babylonians. And then what's kind of interesting here is we see that this is God judging them. Not just that the Babylonian army is so great. As it says in verse 10, "For though you had defeated the whole army of the Chaldeans who fight against you, and there remained only wounded men among them, they would rise up every man in his tent and burn the city with fire." So even if only a few wounded men were left, they would still rise up and destroy the entire city.
It that that is because God was allowing this to happen and he was using them to do it. So it was going to happen whether they like it or not. We see kind of a similar instance of this in back in Jeremiah 21 as I'll read a couple verses from there starting at verse three. Then Jeremiah said to them, "Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, thus says the Lord God of Israel, behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the walls, and I will assemble them in the midst of the city.
I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath. I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence. And afterward, says the Lord, I will deliver Zedekiah, king of Judah, his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence and the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life. And he shall strike them with the edge of the sword.
He shall not spare them, no or have pity or mercy. So that was prophesied before as well, which chronologically is probably around the same time actually. But it is clear that God himself is against them in this. And if you're on the opposite side of God, there's nothing you can do. You need to be on his side. He's not going to jump over on your side. You have to get onto his side. As Jeremiah would basically just tell them like, you should just surrender to Babylon. That's your that's the only way to survive this thing is what he will tell them. And we'll read on more of that later.
But yeah, let's go on to verse number 11 here. And it happened when the army of the Chaldeans left the siege of Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's army that Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin to claim his property there among the people. And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the guard was there, whose name was Iah the son of Shilomiah, the son of Haniah. And he seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, "You are defecting to the Chaldeans." Then Jeremiah said, "False, I am not defecting to the Chaldeans." But he did not listen to him. So Elriah seized Jeremiah and brought him to the princes.
Therefore, the princes were angry with Jeremiah, and they struck him and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for they had made that the prison. So, we don't really know exactly what claim his property among the people means specifically. It seemed like there was some kind of family or land dispute that he was going to he finally able to go deal with because there was a reprieve in the siege. Some people think this might even be the same property he purchases in prison. It's not clear though because technically that hasn't happened yet. So it's could just even be some other family dispute, family property that he's supposed to inherit or something.
The Hebrew expression is to divide from thence among the people or in KJV it is to separate himself thence in the midst of the people instead of claim his property there. So the Hebrew expression is not something we can very literally translate and exactly understand what he was doing there. But some kind of property land dispute that wasn't the most important thing here obviously. But when he goes to his own land, that's where he was from that the people there call him a traitor. They believe he's defecting to the Chaldeans. They think that he should be arrested for saying, "Go and defect to the Babylonians."
And that's what they're mad at him for. We see that he said that back in Jeremiah 21:9. He who remains in the city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. But he who goes out and defects to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be as a prize to him. And we'll see that later on in Jeremiah 38:2 as well, where he'll continue preaching this, saying, "Thus says the Lord, he who remains in the city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. But he who goes over to the Chaldeans shall live. His life shall be as a prize to him, and he shall live."
So, is this defecting? Is this being a traitor? Well, no. He just wants them to live and he knows what's going to happen and he's trying to tell them what's happening and he's saying this nation's going to fall like and if you don't allow it to happen because it's what God wants to happen then you are going to fall with it and you have an opportunity to save your own life. But if you choose not to, that's on you. And that's what they considered being a traitor to him., and likewise, as Christians, we will definitely say things and do things that the world will consider us traitors or like how could you say that?
Like you're saying, if I don't believe your like this one way, I'm going to go to hell for all of eternity. Like that's too harsh. That's too that's too rough. And that's what the world will try to claim about us. But that's because they don't understand what God is doing, how merciful he actually is, and how much he's willing to give to us. They just see, oh, that's not tolerant enough. Oh, that's that. But like, I want to do it my own way. And people can try to work their way to heaven, but it's not going to happen. It's not it's not going to work.
And they're never going to earn their way. I mean, how many of you guys are never made a mistake? No. No one. Oh, one. Okay., I feel like you're lying. That's another mistake then. So but yeah, none of us can earn our way there. We can't pay off that debt. So, but we are too harsh for telling people the reality. And that's what Jeremiah was in trouble for. He's in trouble for speaking truth as this world is becoming more and more hostile to God's truth every day, it seems. So, all right. I'm going to actually read a quick section out of 1 Corinthians that just kind of reminds me of some of this as well.
So 1 Corinthians chap 1 18 through 25 here. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolishness foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through wis wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message to preach to save those who believe.
For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Now, obviously, he's not actually calling God's word foolish, but he's saying it will look that way to the world. They won't get it to like I'm a very rational-minded person. I want things to make sense when I think about them. That's why I have to ask a lot of questions.
I have to understand the wise and the why nots behind things. And that's good. And as a rational-minded person, I can say the Bible is rational. It's it's entirely makes sense. But and there obviously with an element of faith, but it's the only explanation that actually makes sense. If the world tells you that believing in God is not the rational thing to do, that's not true. They haven't done their research because it is. It's the only logical explanation. And the world will see all that we do, all that we give for God, all that we give up of our personal time is why would you why would you spend your time like that?
Why would you do that? They don't understand that we're not working for what we gain in this world. And they don't see that. And then until they can see that, none of it will make sense. None of it will be seem rational. But it is rational, just not to them. And so Jeremiah knew the truth. He was speaking the truth, but they couldn't get it. And it seemed backwards and wrong to them. Yeah. So, a fun little note I had in here was that actually some of the early Christians were thought to be cannibals because of communion. So they and that was a misunderstanding that the world had.
They're like, "Oh, you drink like like flesh and blood every time you get together." You know, it's like no. So there's so many times they confuse the things that we say. And this is the second time we'll see that Jeremiah got beaten and put into stocks here. Let me see if I and that is back in Jeremiah 20 verses 1 and two. It said, "Now Pes Pashes, the son of Emir, the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the Lord, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. Then Pashir struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the Lord."
So, that one was a while ago., but yes, this is his longer imprisonment that will last up until the fall of Jerusalem. So, it's about 15 years from last couple chapters. And the last two chapters, we actually saw some princes that were sympathetic to Jeremiah's cause. Like the princes were trying to like hide him from the king and help him approach in the best way. These princes are not those princes. This is a different generation and they are very different people. And we see that they immediately were angry at what was happening and put him in prison. We don't really know much about Jonathan the scribe.
Some people think that it was someone who did defect to Babylon or someone they also considered a traitor and they turned his house into a dungeon. But whatever it is, his house got picked to be the dungeon. So I don't know maybe he didn't keep it very clean and so but all right and then it makes me also remember how much we should expect suffering like this as Christians. I mean, at in young adult study, which is what I mostly teach, we were just this last two days ago, we were in first Peter chapter 4. And I'll just read a quick section out of there as well because I feel like it's very relevant to Jeremiah's situation here in this suffering where verse 12.
Beloved, I do not think it's strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you. But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part, he is blasphemed, but on your part, he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busy body in other people's matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.
So yes, he was suffering for what he believed in. Yes, he was put in prison wrongfully, but he can rejoice in that. He can know that he's suffering for God and that it's giving God glory ultimately. He doesn't feel like it in the moment. I'm sure he wasn't like in this dungeon and thinking this is bringing a lot of glory to God right now, but at the same time, it will. And we're reading through this and we're like, "Wow, he was still so obedient to do that." that's bringing God glory right now. We're we're part of that here and when we're reading through it and as so when we go through trials and tribulations and the fiery trial like it says here in first Peter, we can be glad and rejoice that we partake in Christ's sufferings.
And I'll just quickly read one more thing out of Matthew here as well about about that. And in Matthew chapter 5 10 blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. This prison that was made was temporary. It was like a station that they could stash him. It was not his permanent prison, but we'll get into that here.
Verse 16 in back in Jeremiah 37. When Jeremiah entered the dungeon and the cells and Jeremiah had remained there many days, then Zedekiah the king sent and took him out. The king asked him secretly in his house and said, "Is there any word from the Lord?" And Jeremiah said, "There is." Then he said, "You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.", so the word dungeon here basically is a pit, a hole. That's that's all that really means. So it's not even like nicely finished brick or something like no, it was like a hole in the ground that he was shoved in.
And he was there for days before Zedekiah the king took him out. I'm sure Zedekiah knew he was in there and probably hoping to break his spirit. Maybe maybe this time Jeremiah will finally prophesy something different., but this was a secret request, too. He didn't really want the rest of the people to know he was asking Jeremiah. Probably because Zedekiah's doesn't think these false prophets around are true at all. And like and he knows that they're false prophets, but he keeps up appearances with the people and he's like, "Hey, Jeremiah, like there's something different now, right? Like we got a chance now like any anything new?"
And Jeremiah's like, "Yep, here's the word from the Lord. You will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon." It does not change. I kind of like how abruptly he says it, too. It's not like like oh king like you're going to be okay like just follow the Lord and you're going to be delivered into the king of Babel. It's like no you are going to be delivered into king of Babylon just plainly. Sometimes we need to just say things plainly. And we spend too many too much time trying to figure out how to not offend someone in the way we say this.
But I'm bet you Zedekiah was offended by this and Jeremiah just said it plainly because that was the word from the Lord. We don't have to find a way to speak the Bible in a less offensive way. We can just say it. And if people are offended, that's on them, not us. And they are they have a problem with God, not us. And we don't have to figure that out, work that out. All right, let's go on to verse number 18 here. Moreover, Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, "What offense have I committed against you, against your servants, or against this people that you have put me in prison?
Where now are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, The king of Babylon will not come against you or against this land?" So Jeremiah is like, "Hey, what did I actually do that is a reason to put me in prison? And where's all those guys who said Babylon wasn't going to come in the first place and like who lied to all of you? Why aren't they here with me? If I'm supposedly a false prophet here, why aren't all these prophets who are objectively wrong here with me?" he's pointing out that his only offense is speaking the truth and is making it very clear to Zedekiah that is what's happening and his favored prophets that made errors and false promises, they didn't get imprisonment for that mistake.
And yeah, so we'll read on actually to verse 20 here., therefore, please hear now, oh my Lord the king. Please let my petition be accepted before you, and do not make me return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there." Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah to the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread from the baker's street until all the bread in the city was gone. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. So he asked the king, "Can I not go back to that messy guy's house?"
You know, like like I just that's that's terrible because again the dungeon there is was likely either like a used sistern, so basically just a place they would store rainwater and or whatnot, which he gets thrown in that later too. But it was not a pleasant place to be and he knew that he would die there if he was put back there for much longer. And even the way he promises more food here at the end or a piece of bread, which doesn't seem like a lot, but a piece of bread every day probably means he wasn't being fed at all when he was in the dungeon before.
So he, the king grants him this to a degree. He puts him in the court of the prison which is a little nicer place to stay. Not much. He was still confined., and he gets a daily allotment of food. But that's the thing like I don't think as Christians we have to accept that if something bad happens we have to be in the worst of the worst just because we're supposed to suffer. Like Jeremiah still just asked, "Hey King, can I just not go back there?" Like, and there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with trying to make the best of the situation and and asking even asking God like, "Hey God, I don't know if I can take this anymore.
Can you help?" And God will hear those cries. And it's not like he will anything he puts us through, he will help us get through it. And so it's not that he doesn't give us like more than we can handle. He does give us more than we can handle, but he gives us he doesn't give us anything we can't handle with him. And that's the point. He purposefully gives us more than we can handle. So we call upon him because we are pretty weak, but he is much much stronger. All right. So, let's go on to Jeremiah chapter 38.
We're not done yet, everyone. Hold on. Now, Sheff Shephetiah the son of Matten and Gedaliah the son of Pashper, Jukal the son of Shilmayiah, and Pashure the son of Maliah heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken to all the people, saying, "Thus says the Lord, he who remains in the city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes over to the Chaldeans shall live his life shall be as a prize to him and he shall live. Thus says the Lord, this city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon's army which shall take it.
So he just got arrested for this and he's still in the court of the prison. This is right after and he's preaching the exact same message. Like I love how much he just wasted no effort to get right back up there and start speaking. So they must have given him too long of a leash to let him Gil get out and publicly speak still. He found a way and he was talking to as many people as he could and warning them. He's doing this because he doesn't want to see them have to die and suffer if they don't have to because they didn't have to.
They could have accepted that this is God's judgment happening and gone and surrendered and it would have been a lot less bloody, a lot less pain. But we'll read on chapters down we'll read about how Babylon comes in and destroys them and it is not pleasant. It is not nice. It is a lot of pain, a lot of suffering and that could have been avoided but they refused to see that this was God's plan. So just like those who we see marching right down into hell and we say, "Hey, turn back. This is not the way. There's there is one way." and we tell them about Jesus, about the one way to be saved and they get offended.
They mock us and they imprison us for it. We do it not because we want to spread anger or make them afraid. We do it because we want to see them live forever. And so does God. And they don't see that. And that's hard. That's frustrating. And Jeremiah had basically no fruit in his ministry. Like that's hard. Although we will see someone later on in this section that does actually know come to know God or is a servant of God as well besides Jeremiah. These people mentioned right at the beginning here are those princes, the aristocrats that had him thrown in prison or in the dungeon the first time.
They're the same people. And yeah, we see that same reference back in the earlier section I read in Jeremiah where he's still repeating the same phrase of those who die by the sword like like remain in the city, they will die by the sword, by famine, by pestilence, but if you go out and defect to the to the Chaldeans, then you will live. All right. Verse four. Therefore, the princes said to the king, "Please let this man be put to death. For thus he weakens the hands of the man of men of war who remain in this city and the hands of all the people by speaking much words to them.
For this man does not seek the welfare of the people but their harm." So they Jeremiah is accused of demoralizing people. Like he's making our soldiers sad, you know? He's making them feel like they don't have anything to fight for because he keeps telling them they're going to lose. And it's because it's true. And that's that's their problem with them. They're like, he's doesn't have the welfare of the people in mind. But he does. He's the only one that actually cares about their lives. Everyone else is ignoring him. The princes ignore because what happens when Babylon takes over? Who's in charge? Not the princes.
Not not the nobility, not the king, not the aristocrats, they lose their power. So why do you think they're pedalling this message of no, we're going to be fine. We're we're going to be saved. Like Babylon's not coming back because then they lose their power. We as humans do terrible things to maintain our control and our power all the time throughout history. Instead of just giving them up to God. And he will do way better things with those leadership roles if we let him. Yeah, I think of how much hate and despise Jeremiah is getting here. And it reminds me of John 15.
I'll read verses 18- 20. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet, because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. So this is a common thing that we see throughout the Bible, throughout history now that those who preach Christ, who preach truth will get slandered, they will get attacked, they will get persecuted, they will get imprisoned.
And all around the world right now, we don't have as much physical violent persecution here, but we still have some. And we around the world it is still just as bad if not worse than it ever has been. So this is a real thing that they and we shouldn't even be surprised that it say it's like the world hated me first. What do you think they're going to they're going to do to you guys who just talking about me? You know like like it's it is because they hate Christ. They hate giving up control of their own lives. I even Jesus when he was on earth was accused of being demon-possessed when he would speak sometimes like I John 8:52 it said then the Jews said to him now we know that you are a demon.
Abraham is dead and the prophets and you say if anyone keeps my word he shall never taste death. So when Christ is talking about heaven and they basically call him a demon because of it. It's like, well, Abraham's dead, so that didn't work on him, right? And well, he is not all dead. You know, his physical body is dead, but Christ is talking about another eternal life., but they didn't understand. So, they just blame him and they write it off and they say, "Ah, that's just false. That's just a demon speaking.", because they didn't understand what he was saying. They didn't even try to understand.
All right. And then let's read on to I think I'm on verse five. Then Zedekiah the king said, "Look, he is in your hand, for the king can do nothing against you." So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeons of Micaiah the king's son, which was in the court of the prison. And they let Jeremiah down with ropes. And the dungeon there was and in the dungeon there was no water but mer. So Jeremiah sank in the mireer. So this is a classic example of the weakness of King Zedekiah here and how much like he's like ah the king can't really stop you.
Like aren't you the king? You know like I would think if anyone could it would be you. But he's basically tells the princes you can do whatever you want because I can't really stop you. And I think part of that's probably because he was set up as that puppet king by Nebuchadnezzar. So probably some of the people are still wary of him even being king. And he wants to again maintain as much power and control that he can have. But even that's a lie. He's ultimately answering to these princes or to this person or to that person. You're answering to someone. And if you think you're not, you're wrong.
We all serve one master. And I we should make that master God. That's he's the perfect master. But if you're not serving him, you are still serving a master. But yeah, and as we see here, he was afraid of other men, other peer pressure here. That reminds me of a verse in Proverbs, Proverbs 29, verse 25. The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe. So, if we let peer pressure, fear of other people's opinions and how they'll react to things drive us, well, it's going to snare us. It's going to trap us.
But if you trust in the Lord, you'll be safe. So, that means you stop worrying about how that one person you're talking to is going to react. And when you introduce the gospel into the conversation, you stop worrying about this and that. You just trust in the Lord. We never have to have that fear in Christ. There's one commentator that said that it seemed like Zedekiah and Pontius Pilate must have gone to the same political school where they just wash their hands of things and give in to the consensus. They like to make themselves feel less guilty by excluding themselves from the conversations, but ultimately they're just as guilty.
But I think we should also be careful not to be too quick to judge the weakness of Zedekiah here because would any of us do better? Would any of us have have have any of us never bent to the will of peer pressure? And can you say you've never been influenced by how someone else will think of you and made your decision because of that? I know I can't say that. There's definitely times where I'm like I kind of feel like I'm going to say this, but maybe maybe not today. Maybe I just keep my mouth shut today or whatever because you're afraid of what the your peers will think of you.
And if that's not something you struggle with, great. Like like that is a great boldness that you can have and it's something we can all improve on all the time. But yeah, like we all struggle with that. We all know what God's telling us sometimes and are just like, "No, no, Lord, not right now." Like like hold on. Like no, no, no. Like I don't want to do that. Even though we know that he's telling us to do that and we just want to pretend he's not. So Zedekiah knew the truth at this point. He knows fully well that Jeremiah is innocent, but he just doesn't want to deal with it.
He doesn't want to acknowledge it. He doesn't want to give up the status quo. I'll read another cross reference here from Galatians 1:10., for do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. So, who are we serving? Are we serving our opinions of other people? Are we serving other people in general?, that's fine to do, but not as our true master, right? We don't live to make other people happy. We don't live even to make our spouse happy. That's a great goal.
It's a great thing to do. It's a way to serve God, but it's not your primary goal. Your primary goal is to serve God. Every and by serving God, you should be doing those things, too. You'll be serving others. You'll be making your spouse happy. You'll be giving up your life for them. But the that's not because they're the most important thing in your life. It's because God is. And if you don't make God the most important thing, if you make your kids, your spouse, a friend, a job, it will backfire and they will not it will not work. It will not work.
Make God first. That's the only way for it to happen. I mean, I was just at a wedding recently and I mean, I really appreciated like the message that they were saying at the wedding and how that any good marriage has to be God first. And it's just kind of helped remind me of that perspective. It's I mean my lifelong friend got married and I just to like the perfect person but it doesn't mean that it will be a perfect marriage and they acknowledge that they realize that because no marriage is perfect. Nothing's going to go always according to plan and we just need to trust God and put him as the focus.
And if both people are focusing on God, if any of us e married or not married, if we make God the focus, we will be better off and all the other things that we're trying to do will be easier to do with God as the focus. But yeah, this was them trying to kill Jeremiah, them throwing him down this pit. Well, they didn't throw him. They were very careful to lower him down with ropes. A lot of people believe that's because they didn't want to actually be guilty of shedding his blood. So if they threw him down, he might bleed and then they would technically be shedding his blood.
So they're like, "Nah, we're not. We're just going to lower him down into this pit and let him starve." which doesn't seem any better. You know, I'd rather just be thrown down it. But you know, that's me. And but God uses this because this is not the end of Jeremiah's story, but this is what they intended to do to kill him. U let's read on in verse number seven here. Now, Ebed Mlec, the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs who was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon. When the king was sitting at the gate of Benjamin Ebed went out of the king's house and spoke to the king, saying, "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 likely to die from hunger in the place where he is, for there is no more
Bread in the city." Now, he says this to the king, who the king approved of his death, because that's what the princes asked. They actually asked, "Can we kill Jeremiah?" And the king's like, "Do whatever you want." But then this servant whose name actually just means servant of the king. That's I think Ebed means servant and mele means king. So he literally means king's servant or servant of the king. It could have even been a title. Some people think that that's not even really his name, but whatever it is, it's a fitting name. And he went and he's telling the king, he's like, "Hey they did evil to Jeremiah."
And like the king acts almost like he's surprised by this and he approved of his own death. But we'll read on here to verse number 10. Then the king commanded Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopians, saying, "Take from here 30 men with you and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon before he dies." So Ebed-Melech took the men with him and went into the house of the king under the treasury and took from there old clothes and rags and let them down by ropes into the dungeon to Jeremiah. Then Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, "Please put these old clothes and rags under your armpits, under the ropes."
And Jeremiah did so. So they pulled Jeremiah up with ropes and lifted him out of the dungeon. And Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. So the servant of the king was clearly used as a servant of the king of kings here as he remembers Jeremiah. He I mean seems to be the only one who is favorable towards Jeremiah in this entire reading that we have done here. His own people in Benjamin wanted him arrested. The people in Jerusalem wanted him arrested. The king kind of is tolerating him but also still gives in to everyone else's demands. So this is the one person who's it seemed like he waited for the king to be a little bit away.
He was at the gate of Benjamin and then he kind of talked to the king like hey can I can I go and get Jeremiah out of that pit now like and the king is seemingly easily influenced. So his servant was able to convince him of that. And clearly the Holy Spirit used him to save Jeremiah here. And what I think of is we don't learn a lot about this particular servant here, but he was willing to go and do what the Holy Spirit was leading him to do. And that's really all God asks us to do. We don't have to have all these great talents.
We don't have to have all these great skills. We just have to be willing. And this servant was willing to be the servant of the king of the king of kings and go and approach the king about this thing that the princes all were against. So he could have made many enemies for himself while doing this. He it could have backfired on him in a lot of ways. I'm sure he was playing through all these scenarios in his head, but he obeyed God and he went. And that's that's all God's looking for. He just wants people who are willing and go when he says go.
He'll he'll cover your weaknesses. I mean he will take care of any part of you that's not sure if you can do the job or do that thing. I mean if you talked to me even even a year or two ago about preaching in on Sunday morning, I would say not a chance. Yeah. Like I don't I don't talk in front of people. That's not my thing., but the Lord will use whatever and whatever weaknesses that we have or things that scare us or intimidate us. It doesn't matter to him because I'm not supposed to be the one you guys are thinking of when I'm up here.
It's supposed to be God. It's supposed to be the Holy Spirit working through whoever's up here. Doesn't really even matter., yeah. We do actually see though that Ebed-Melech was rewarded for this behavior in Jeremiah 39. I'll just read a quick couple verses out of there starting at verse 15. meanwhile the word of the Lord had come to Jeremiah while he was shut up in the court of the prison saying go and speak to Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian saying thus says the Lord of hosts the God of Israel. Behold, I will bring my words upon the city for adversity, and not for good, and they shall be performed in that day before you, but I will deliver you in that day, says the Lord, and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.
For I will surely deliver you, and you shall not fall by the sword, but your life shall be as a prize to you, because you have put your trust in me, says the Lord. So he is promised that he will be protected when Babylon comes in and he will live because of what he did for Jeremiah there. And likewise I think so many of those people around in like in Judah at that time they could have had that same opportunity like God was offering them solutions to save their lives. At this point their nation was already done like he made that very clear. Babylon's going to destroy you.
But he was offering them ways to continue living and they just didn't want to hear it. This was an opportunity that was open to everybody and he took it. He followed God. He was a servant of God and he took that opportunity. And I think a important little detail too is when he got Jeremiah out of that sistern is basically what most people believe that is. He was kind of stuck in the mud a little bit. So they had the ropes pull him out, but they got old clothes and rags and had him like pad the ropes with the old clothes.
So not only did he rescue Jeremiah, but he did it in a way that was as comfortable as possible, like the least painful as possible. And he actually just cared about the state of Jeremiah., and that's that's a great way, a great example of how we can serve others and help them and be advocates for others. U yeah, I think I'm going to stop there instead of going into the next section of 38 because it kind of is all one continuous thing and we're running out of time here. But yeah let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for this time that you gave us together and thank you for guiding us through this.
Lord, I just pray that you help us to be like Abed here and willing to go wherever you tell us to go. And like Jeremiah, just holding on to faithfulness of your word despite not seeing a lot of fruit from it, not seeing a lot of gains from it, but just continuing to follow you and going where you want us to be. And we just thank you and praise you for all that you do for us, Lord, in Jesus name. Amen. You can all let's all stand for the last song. I'm just going to tune my guitar a little bit. Just a second.