Jeremiah In Prison
Chapters 37-38 happen about 8 years after the scroll-burning incident with Jehoiakim.
😐 Who is now very dead and UNburied.💀
Right.
Zedekiah, (the 4th of Josiah’s sons to sit on the throne), has been appointed king by Nebuchadnezzar – which is an indication that Judah’s standing as a nation is already in question. If another king appoints your king are you in a sovereign nation? Zedekiah is not interested in anything Jeremiah has to say. And neither is anyone else in Jerusalem.
😧 But… how is that possible? Don’t they see that what Jeremiah told them is actually happening? Why would they ignore him?!
Well, it’s easy for us to wonder that – sitting here thousands of years later and knowing what the next several centuries of the future will hold for them. But they didn’t know that story.
Think of all that has happened just in Jeremiah’s lifetime. Pharaoh subjugated Judah; treating them like a colony and collecting taxes accordingly. Then Nebuchadnezzar had come and made himself the new landlord. He took members of the royal family, the nobility, and some of the most skilled craftsmen and most educated to grace his court in Babylon.
Then Pharaoh and his army come back out of Egypt, (presumably to take back their little colony), and Nebuchadnezzar calls a time-out. His army returns to Babylon and Judah and Jerusalem breathe a sigh of relief. It’s a case of “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”
It’s very likely that most people think the worst is over; that all the doom and gloom of the prophets turned out to be – if not a “nothing burger,” then at least not as extreme as they had predicted. They’re ready to get on with their lives under “the new normal” of this vassal relationship with Babylon. Or Egypt. Or whoever. As long as there will be food to eat does anyone care?
It is in this situation that king Zedekiah sends a couple of officials to ask Jeremiah to pray for them.
🤔 They don’t want to listen to the messages he’s preaching, but they want him to pray?
Exactly.
🤨 Sounds like a lot of church people I know.
Hey – you said it not me.
Jeremiah’s response to Zedekiah’s “prayer request” is a word from Yahweh. Nebuchadnezzar is the Terminator.
He’ll be back.
“This is what the Lord says: Do not fool yourselves into thinking that the Babylonians are gone for good. They aren’t! Even if you were to destroy the entire Babylonian army, leaving only a handful of wounded survivors, they would still stagger from their tents and burn this city to the ground!” Jeremiah 37:9-10 NLT
But in the meantime, the Babylonian army is in the process of withdrawal. Jeremiah packs up his gear to go home to Anathoth.
He is accosted by a sentry at the gate, accused of defecting to the Babylonians; an accusation he denied to no avail.
“They were furious with Jeremiah and had him flogged and imprisoned in the house of Jonathan the secretary. Jonathan’s house had been converted into a prison. Jeremiah was put into a dungeon cell, where he remained for many days.”
Jeremiah 37:15-16 NLT
We don’t know what exactly prompted Zedekiah to have Jeremiah brought out of the dungeon and to the palace. Jeremiah wasn’t the only prophet in Jerusalem. But the others were preaching the same old things – peace and prosperity. Maybe Zedekiah finally began to question if they were really hearing from Yahweh.
When you have lots of people – all who claim to be hearing “a word from the Lord” – how do know who’s speaking the truth?
We benefit today from having the indwelling Holy Spirit to prompt and guide, as well as the full counsel of God (the written Word). Zedekiah had neither. Maybe summoning Jeremiah was like finding another doctor for a second opinion. All the doctors prophets the king has consulted say the same thing.
“Your test results came back negative.”
“We can’t find anything.”
“It’s probably just in your head.”
“You’re fine. Nothing to worry about.”
But things just don’t feel right in Jerusalem. Zedekiah knows that Jeremiah will shoot straight. A man who goes around town for years wearing a yoke doesn’t care what people think.
“King Zedekiah secretly requested that Jeremiah come to the palace, where the king asked him, ‘Do you have any messages from the Lord?’ ‘Yes, I do!’ said Jeremiah. ‘You will be defeated by the king of Babylon.’”
Jeremiah 37:17 NLT
Jeremiah is moved from the dungeon to courtyard of the guard 💂♂️ and given a daily ration of 1 small loaf of bread. 🥖
We don’t know exactly how long he was there, but it was a substantial amount of time- probably most of the reign of Zedekiah, so perhaps as long as 10 years. And in that time, the Babylonian army had returned and once again laid siege to Jerusalem.
Like the Apostle Paul, Jeremiah didn’t let prison stop him from preaching. He preaches to the soldiers who guard him and anyone else who passes by.
“Thus says Yahweh, ‘The one who stays in this city will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague. But the one who goes out to the Chaldeans will live. And his life will be for him as booty, and he will live.’ Thus says Yahweh, ‘Surely this city will be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.’ ””
Jeremiah 38:2-3 LEB
Not exactly morale-boosting.
“Then the officials said to the king, ‘Please, this man must be killed, because he is making slack the hands of the soldiers who are left in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking to them words like these, for this man is not seeking for welfare to this people, but only for harm.’”
Jeremiah 38:4 LEB
So – like Joseph – they throw Jeremiah into a cistern. Note that they intend for this to kill Jeremiah, but in a way that kind of distances them (just a little) from outright murder.
Ironic isn’t it? Remember how Jeremiah preached to them about their “broken cisterns that can hold no water,” (2:13). Now Jeremiah is lowered into a broken cistern that holds no water. But there is plenty of mud.
The situation in Jerusalem is desperate. There is no more bread. People that can get out are attempting to escape or else surrender to the Babylonians. Jeremiah can do neither because he is stuck. He will die. And soon.
Enter Ebed-Melek the Ethiopian eunuch.
Ebed-Melek was probably not his name. It means “servant of the king,” so it may have been a title. And the king he was a servant to seems to have been none other than Zedekiah. He hears of Jeremiah’s situation and gets involved.
Ebed-Melek is not a random guy. Jeremiah knows him. While Jeremiah had been in prison, before he was put in the cistern, Yahweh gave him a message for Ebed-Melek:
“Say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will do to this city everything I have threatened. I will send disaster, not prosperity. You will see its destruction, but I will rescue you from those you fear so much. Because you trusted me, I will give you your life as a reward. I will rescue you and keep you safe. I, the Lord, have spoken!’””
Jeremiah 39:16-18 NLT
The fact that Ebed-Melek is:
- An Ethiopian and
- A eunuch
…tells us that he was most likely in the Egyptian army (which included Ethiopians), captured in battle, and had his man-card confiscated (if you will). It’s also possible he escaped after the disastrous Battle of Carchemish and was “lying low” in Jerusalem. We aren’t told his backstory, but no man signs up to be a eunuch. He’s been through some stuff. Egypt and Babylon are currently on opposite sides of a regional war. He would have good reason to fear the Babylonians. And yet he trusts in the God of Israel, bless him. And Yahweh knows it.
Friend, you might be far from home and you may have been through some battles that have left you scarred, but you aren’t invisible to the Almighty.
“The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.” Nahum 1:7 KJV
Ebed-Melek is granted 30 men to help rescue Jeremiah. Why 30 men? Well, Jeremiah probably wasn’t ankle-deep in mud. And after a decade of meager rations, he wasn’t a heavy man. I’d say they needed 30 guys because Jeremiah was in deep trouble.
This is Phillip Denny from Tennessee. He found out how hard it is to get out of deep mud when you sink into it. Click here to watch the news report (2min) on his rescue.
There are some practical lessons on helping others that we can learn from Ebed-Melek. This was something I heard preached years ago and it stuck with me. If you are trying to pull someone out of a pit, here are 2 pro-tips:
- Ebed-Melek didn’t attempt to rescue Jeremiah alone. He got help.
- Before attempting to pull him out, Ebed-Melek collected and sent down to Jeremiah some cloths for padding. Be gentle. Use wisdom. If you don’t prepare- if you don’t provide something soft to buffer between the skin and the strong rope, and get the cooperation of the “rescuee,” you might end up wounding the person you are trying to rescue in the process of getting him out. Selah.
Once Jeremiah is out,
☝🏼🤓…and showered…
…yes – probably cleaned up, Zedekiah sends a message asking Jeremiah to meet him at the third entrance of the temple. Secretly.
Ya know how in the movies, two spies will meet in a public place – like a park or a cafe? They act like they don’t know each other. That’s how I imagine this meeting between king Zedekiah and Jeremiah.
😎 Ooo, I like a spy story…
Perhaps one is sitting on a bench reading a paper. The other casually walks by and sits on the bench facing the opposite direction. Maybe he starts feeing breadcrumbs to pigeons. And under this guise they have a secret conversation. But first, the secret phrases to identify each other- called “sign and countersign” in spy-talk.
🕵🏻♂️ Zedekiah: The birds are peckish today.
📰 Jeremiah: Only if you bring moldy bread.
🕵🏻♂️ Zedekiah: Any news from the Lord?
📰 Jeremiah: How do I know you won’t kill me if I tell you?
🕵🏻♂️ Zedekiah: I swear to God…
📰 Jeremiah: That doesn’t mean much coming from you, but very well. Here’s the message: Surrender and be spared or resist and be captured anyway.
🕵🏻♂️ Zedekiah: The people will kill me if I surrender. The Babylonians will kill me if I don’t.
📰 Jeremiah: No they won’t. Trust the plan.
🕵🏻♂️ Zedekiah: If anyone finds out what we talked about, you’re a dead man, see?
📰 Jeremiah: Understood.
The two of them part ways and Jeremiah is taken back to his cell in the courtyard of the guard.
The end is near…
To The Reader 