Out of the pit (Jeremiah 37-38)

  Truth and Consequences: 

A study in the prophecy of Jeremiah

Chapters 37-38

By Bob Mendelsohn

Given 9 September 2022

 

Lesson Thirty-seven:   Out of the mudpit

 

INTRODUCTION

 Today we break our own pattern of reading and discussing the Bible. As you might find in various commentaries on the scenes we will visit, most believe the next two chapters describe the same setting, that Jeremiah and Baruch, his scribe, actually put two different spins on the same event. As a result, we will actually seek to discuss both chapters 37 and 38 in this hour.

You will find more similarities than dissimilarities so I have joined the ‘same event’ crowd. That said, there are plenty of godly folks who believe that Baruch put two different moments in the history of Jeremiah in juxtaposition so as to make a shadow of contradistinction. Either way you view it, the takeaways are probably the same, so we will dip our toes into the two descriptions-one scene sentiment. And we will seek to learn what God wants to say to us as 21^st Century people. 

For those who don’t know, Queen Elizabeth the Second, the longest reigning monarch of the British Empire, died on Thursday in Balmoral, in Scotland. She was well loved and admired, especially in the last 30 years of her life. In 1956 when she stood against the British government in its invasion of the Suez Canal scenes, and replaced Eden with Harold Macmillan, she was not always held in this admired state, but today, long after those events, her passing brings much sorrow and sadness to the people of the UK and I dare say to the entire Commonwealth. 

When I first began reading and writing my study on this section of Bible today, I actually wrote this to open today’s study: “The scene today, the 9^th of the 9^th, begins with the somber tones of so much of the prophet’s words, the disappointment of the king, in this case, the last king of Judah, in failure mode. I wonder what it will be like when the queen dies in the UK. There will be sadness and global admiration. There will be replays of her famous calming speeches during crises internationally and when her former daughter-in-law died in 1997. But that admiration which will surely come to Buckingham Palace is not what we read in the thoughts Jeremiah shares with us about King Zedekiah.” 

I had no real idea that the Queen would pass the day before we unpacked these two chapters. I hope you don’t mind my carrying on with our regular study while some, even here on this call, may want to be quiet and mourn in your own way. 

Let’s dig in.

Last week we were in the scene with the brother of Zedekiah, King Jehoiakim and now we move the story ahead a few years. Zedekiah is the ultimate king of Judah, who will waffle and fail over and over, as a weak indecisive king who halts between two opinions. If you want to backpedal and see him throughout this book, just re-read 2 Kings 24 and 25, and in this prophecy, read Jeremiah chapters 21, 24, 27, 28, 32, and 34. He’s a central figure of dismay and sadness. Not the Queen Elizabeth memorial sadness, but the ‘failure king’ sadness. The sadness is amplified when we think of his father, good king Josiah and the hope the people of God had because of his revivals and accomplishments. Our eyes might well look to England in 10 or 20 years and see what our evaluation of King Charles III or even his sons might be in comparison to the Queen.

Zedekiah was a puppet king, who at age 21 was placed in power by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian (or at times listed as Chaldean) king after Jeconiah, his nephew, was removed after only 3 months in power. That may help you understand the limited role any Judean person had in global power in those days. Zedekiah then sought political and military help from the king of Egypt, here called Pharaoh. As an immediate result, Nebuchadnezzar withdrew from his first foray into Judah and that’s where we pick up either or both of these scenes in today’s chapters. 

Look at verse 2. No one is listening to the voice of the Lord which Jeremiah spoke. Not the king, not the servants, not the people. That’s comprehensive and the loud shout of Baruch throughout the record of this 52-chapter book. 

What’s surprising, but increasingly sad, is that the king sends a pair of significant people to Jeremiah and asks him to pray. To pray ‘on our behalf’ it says. Wow, you’ve got to ask Zedekiah what is he thinking? What is he not thinking? Religion is an ironic thing. We know that prayer matters and devotion and supplications and other religious activities like fasting and tithing and such, but what about humility and grace and obedience? Zedekiah seems to have missed all that. 

Verse 4, we see Jeremiah had some privilege of access and had not yet been incarcerated (for that time). And Jeremiah in verses 6 through 10 shares another word from God, not unlike all the words he has already told each of the kings before him. No matter what you see today, with the Babylonians withdrawing for a moment in time, they will surely come back and demolish the city and thus the Temple as well. And the conquest is so assured that even if only wounded and disabled embattled soldiers were left, they would ruin Jerusalem and your efforts would miserably fail. You are unable to prevent conquest. Remember in chapter 21, God had already said that HE would be against us and he would (in the echoes of the Exodus story) 

⁴ ‘turn back the weapons of war which are in your hands, with which you are warring against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the wall; and I will gather them into the center of this city. ⁵ “I Myself will war against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, even in anger and wrath and great indignation.”

It's a done deal, Zedekiah. Don’t fight me and certainly don’t fight God. 

Jeremiah goes home, but not to rest. Remember the empty shelves during COVID’s most serious scares? That’s what Jeremiah is hoping to assist, at least for his nearest and dearest. He goes back to Anathot to take ‘some of the property’ in verse 12, which to me sounds like some of the grain! While he is there, he is arrested by Irijah (Yiriyah) on the trumped up charge of desertion or even treason. Verse 14, Jeremiah lets Yiriyah know (and anyone else who is within earshot) that this is fabrication. SHEKER, a lie, he proclaims. Even so, the arrest continues. He is brought to some officials in the court system, and they beat him and put him in jail in the home of Jonathan a scribe. The word for dungeon is 

אֶל־בֵּ֥ית הַבּ֖וֹר

House of Bor. That’s an unusual term and one that hearkens back to Joseph and his technicolor dreamcoat in Genesis 37. Remember the jealous brothers threw him into a pit? They took his coat and dipped it in blood and invented a horrible story to tell their father. Deep lies and a deep pit. Both remind themselves to me in this story in chapter 37 of Jeremiah. 

From this dungeon, King Zedekiah sends a note to Jeremiah brings him to the palace. There Zedekiah asks, ‘Did you hear anything from heaven for me?’ Jeremiah in verse 17 says, ‘Yes,’ and if you have been paying attention, you will know that it’s not a new word.  He quickly repeats that Judah will be captured as will the king. And hey, where are those false prophets who said, ‘she’ll be right, mate?’ I told you then they were false. You didn’t listen then. Please, in verse 20, don’t send me back to the pit in Jonathan’s house, or else I will die there. 

Verses 21 and following, the king sends Jeremiah to a courthouse room and sends bread (which he was interrupted in securing in Anathot by the arrest) to him until that runs out. 

Chapter 38 begins like so many others have with the words of Jeremiah predicting ruin to Jerusalem and those who remain rather than surrendering to the Babylonians. The officials (as someone pointed out last week, the Hebrew word is ‘sar’ meaning princes) convince the weak king Zedekiah to arrest Jeremiah. Listen to these words in verse 4, the indictment is read aloud to the king. The charges if you will, the misbehaviour of the prophet. What are they? 

He is discouraging the men of war. 

הֽוּא־מְרַפֵּ֡א אֶת־יְדֵי֩

That’s really an idiom, he is sinking, failing, weakening the hands of the men of war. Whereas discourage comes from the word for heart, this is a physical weakening of the arms. Think of the two men who held up the hands of Moses in the wilderness (Exodus 17) as Israel fought against Amalek. Aaron and Hur strengthened the arms; here the indictment against Jeremiah is that he is weakening the hands. 

Listen to these words from Job’s friend Eliphaz

         “Behold you have admonished many, and you have strengthened weak hands. (rafa yadei) Your words have helped the tottering to stand, and you have strengthened feeble knees. (Job 4.3-4)

 

Or this which is almost a direct requote of Job now reading from the Book of Hebrews. 

“Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, (12.12)

I believe that words are the way we strengthen weak hands and we strengthen feeble knees. The writer of Hebrews says this is part of discipline and encourages us (strengthens us) to receive correction. That would have been good for Zedekiah to embrace, but he didn’t. 

Look at verse 22 and hear the prediction of the women to the king, “your close friends have misled and overpowered you, while your feet were sunk in the mire, they turned back.” Weakness is the character of Zedekiah and he refused the strengthening of the corrective word of the Lord through Jeremiah. God help us in these days to hear and to listen and to comply with what God says, amen?

Back to the indictment by the officials. Verse 4, Jeremiah is “not seeking the shalom of the people, but rather their harm (ra’ah= evil).” That’s exactly the wrong counsel and these officials will cop it hard when the Babylonians enter to conquer the city. 

Zedekiah weakly says of himself that he has no authority and the officials can do whatever they want. This is where I see the similarity with chapter 37 and the disposal into a pit, a mud pit and the walk away by those involved. 

They let him down by ropes. An interesting detail, don’t you think? They could have simply dropped him into the pit, but the mud would not have held him from a distance dropped. So they, I imagine, want him to survive in this awful stench and this awful place, again, like Joseph in the waiting BOR his brothers used to dispose of him. 

Then, after some time, an Ethiopian eunuch (are you thinking of Acts chapter 8) came by, whose name is given as Ebed-Melech. That’s probably his title. Servant of the King. Now I’m really thinking of Acts 8. And this servant goes to Zedekiah and requests assistance to help the prophet whom he says will die as food and water are gone. 

The king not so magnanimously dispatches 30 men to assist the servant of the king, and they retrieve Jeremiah out of the pit. In verse 12, a new detail is given, that they gave him some soft clothing, albeit used and might not even be acceptable in a Salvation Army donation bag, to give Jeremiah cushioning under his armpits in the raising out of the pit. 

Verse 13 ends the same as chapter 37, which is why I think this is one episode.

Jeremiah stayed in the ^acourt of the guardhouse.

Great, that could be the end of the story, but it’s not over. Jeremiah is brought to the king, and I imagine he stinks something fierce, and they again have a conversation. The king wants a good word. Really? Come on, man, I’ve told you already, but you won’t listen to me. That’s in verse 15. 

The king assured the prophet that he will listen. 

Verse 17, Jeremiah repeats his chorus of ‘please surrender and you will spare yourself and the city.’

Verse 19, Zedekiah says he is afraid. Right! This is so obvious, he wants to appease everyone and thus pleases no one! Remember the words of James the apostle and brother of Yeshua, 

⁴ You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4.4)

Or as Paul also said, 

Gal. 1:10   For am I now seeking the favour of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Messiah.

Zedekiah represents both those adulteresses of James’s thinking and the men-pleasers in Paul’s thoughts. God help us to stand for Him and not to placate the whims and whimsy of the crowd. 

Jeremiah repeats the comprehensive final dissolution of the city, and Zedekiah cowers in fear saying, “Don’t tell anyone” Which is ridiculous. He’s a prophet. Prophets prophecy. They tell everyone! Jeremiah does agree to keep their conversation private, however, and the case is brought to the officials who let it stand, and look at the ending, verse 28, “

Jeremiah ^astayed in the court of the guardhouse until the day that Jerusalem was captured.

Same ending as chapter 37, which again highlights why I think this is one episode. Like Genesis 1 and 2 which has similarities and repeats, this to me shows one event. 

What is your takeaway from this section of Bible? May I recommend a few.

1)   Don’t reject God’s word, no matter who else believes it

2)   Fear God and not people; the latter will fail you, but He never will do so

3)   Be a servant of people like Ebed-melech, no matter the cost

 

CONCLUSION

God is calling each of us to know him and to walk with him, today and throughout our days. Have you received Yeshua as your messiah and Lord? He is risen from the dead! Have you renounced your sin, your idolatry, your forsaking God and given him First Place in your life? If not, please, do so now, just now, as we pray together. Use your own words, if you want, but yield, surrender, to the Lord of life. 

 

PRAYER

Then please write us (admin@jewsforjesus.org.au) to tell us what you have just done, and we will send you literature and encourage you. You are part of our family; we love and appreciate you. And we want you to enjoy the presence of the Lord who calls, who knows, who blesses and builds us up. 

We hope to see you again next week as we study chapter 39. Until then, Shabbat shalom!

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barnes, Albert, Commentary on the Old Testament. (Published by many, from 1880 on)

Henry, Matthew, Commentary.

Keown, Gerald, Scalise, Pamela, Smothers, Thomas, Word Biblical Commentary. Book of Jeremiah (Part 2).  1995. 

McConnville, Gordon, Jeremiah, New Bible Commentary. 

Wright, Christopher, The Message of Jeremiah, The Bible Speaks Today. Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2014.

 

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ACTUAL TEXT

Jeremiah Warns against Trust in Pharaoh

 

Jer. 37:1   Now Zedekiah the son of Josiah whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had made king in the land of Judah, reigned as king in place of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim. ² But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the LORD which He spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.

 

Jer. 37:3   Yet King Zedekiah sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “Please pray to the LORD our God on our behalf.” ⁴ Now Jeremiah was still coming in and going out among the people, for they had not yet put him in the prison. ⁵ Meanwhile, Pharaoh’s army had set out from Egypt; and when the Chaldeans who had been besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they lifted the siege from Jerusalem.

 

Jer. 37:6   Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, ⁷ “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘Thus you are to say to the king of Judah, who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: “Behold, Pharaoh’s army which has come out for your assistance is going to return to its own land of Egypt. ⁸ “The Chaldeans will also return and fight against this city, and they will capture it and burn it with fire.”’ ⁹ “Thus says the LORD, ‘Do not deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” for they will not go. ¹⁰ ‘For even if you had defeated the entire army of Chaldeans who were fighting against you, and there were only wounded men left among them, each man in his tent, they would rise up and burn this city with fire.’”

 

Jeremiah Imprisoned

 

Jer. 37:11   Now it happened when the army of the Chaldeans had lifted the siege from Jerusalem because of Pharaoh’s army, ¹² that Jeremiah went out from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin in order to take possession of some property there among the people. ¹³ While he was at the Gate of Benjamin, a captain of the guard whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah the son of Hananiah was there; and he arrested Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are going over to the Chaldeans!” ¹⁴ But Jeremiah said, “A lie! I am not going over to the Chaldeans”; yet he would not listen to him. So Irijah arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. ¹⁵ Then the officials were angry at Jeremiah and beat him, and they put him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe, which they had made into the prison. ¹⁶ For Jeremiah had come into the dungeon, that is, the vaulted cell; and Jeremiah stayed there many days.

 

Jer. 37:17   Now King Zedekiah sent and took him out; and in his palace the king secretly asked him and said, “Is there a word from the LORD?” And Jeremiah said, “There is!” Then he said, “You will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon!” ¹⁸ Moreover Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “In what way have I sinned against you, or against your servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison? ¹⁹ “Where then are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you or against this land’? ²⁰ “But now, please listen, O my lord the king; please let my petition come before you and do not make me return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, that I may not die there.” ²¹ Then King Zedekiah gave commandment, and they committed Jeremiah to the court of the guardhouse and gave him a loaf of bread daily from the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the court of the guardhouse.