Jeremiah 38:2-6 Jeremiah's message and the reaction
"Thus says the LORD: He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans shall live. He shall have his life as a prize of war, and live. 3 Thus says the LORD: This city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon and be taken." 4 Then the officials said to the king, "Let this man be put to death, for he is weakening the hands of the soldiers who are left in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking such words to them. For this man is not seeking the welfare of this people, but their harm." 5 King Zedekiah said, "Behold, he is in your hands, for the king can do nothing against you." 6 So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king's son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. And there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud."
Jeremiah is preaching a message to the people. The message: Remain in the city and die of sword, famine, and pestilence. Go over to the Chaldeans and live as a reward because the city WILL be given into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar's army to destroy it.
Just put yourself in the position of one of the Jewish soldiers that were getting ready to fight the Babylonians. How would you feel if you heard Jeremiah preaching this? Encouraged to fight? What if you were just one of the people of the city who were hoping that the men of war could hold off the Babylonians and win the battle?
This seems to be the concern over some who heard his message. They went to king Zedekiah to tell him how Jeremiah's preaching was weakening the people and the men of war, and that he deserves to die because of it.
Zedekiah allows them to do to Jeremiah what they want, so they lower Jeremiah into a dungeon to die there. (some versions refer to it as a cistern or a pit).
Zedekiah would later allow Jeremiah to be taken from the dungeon, and he would ask Jeremiah for the word of the Lord And Jeremiah gives him the same message:
"Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, "Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: If you will surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then your life shall be spared, and this city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live. 18 But if you do not surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then this city shall be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape from their hand." 19 King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "I am afraid of the Judeans who have deserted to the Chaldeans, lest I be handed over to them and they deal cruelly with me." 20 Jeremiah said, "You shall not be given to them. Obey now the voice of the Lord in what I say to you, and it shall be well with you, and your life shall be spared. 21 But if you refuse to surrender, this is the vision which the Lord has shown to me: 22 Behold, all the women left in the house of the king of Judah were being led out to the officials of the king of Babylon and were saying, " ' Your trusted friends have deceived you and prevailed against you; now that your feet are sunk in the mud, they turn away from you.' 23 All your wives and your sons shall be led out to the Chaldeans, and you yourself shall not escape from their hand, but shall be seized by the king of Babylon, and this city shall be burned with fire."(Jer 38:17-23)
For a few moments this evening would like to focus our attention on one part of this message that Jeremiah was preaching to the people.
Surrender?
He tells them what they must do if they want to live through the destruction of Jerusalem. They need to surrender. At first glance we may think to ourselves: "Surrender, that's it! That doesnt seem so hard!" But would it have been easy to just surrender to this foreign nation that you hate?
How easy would have this been? What would surrendering involve?
•Possibly giving up your freedom
•Immediate giving up all of your property
•You would have an unknown future as a captive in Babylon – Live? Die? Slave? What would happen to your family if you surrendered?
•Shame of “giving up without a fight”, being a quitter
•Disdain from others who would not surrender
Surrendering doesn’t sound like that good of an option. It means giving up pretty much everything…but God said whoever goes over to the Chaldeans would have his life as a reward. It required a deep trust in God to surrender... required belief in the promise of God that doing what was difficult would be the only way to live.
SURRENDERING TO MEN VS. SURRENDERING TO GOD
Their faith in the Lord would be tested in how they responded to Jeremiah's message. Would they surrender themselves not just to the Chaldeans, but to the will of God, or would they reject the Lord in staying and fighting for their lives and their families. They needed to see that the Lord is the One that they needed to surrender themselves to and to entrust everything with.
Some would defect to the Chaldeans and have their lives spared as the Lord said would happen, but probably not many did surrender. Zedekiah and his royal court was one example. They would suffer at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar for not listening to God.
How does this apply to us? This is what God desires of us as His people. He wants us to surrender ourselves to Him. We need to ask ourselves the question, "Have we surrendered ourselves to the Lord?"
Surrender to God - it's a statement you may have heard, but what does it mean, exactly? Surrender is not a word often associated with positive actions. After all, "surrender in the name of the law" usually means trouble for someone. And we know that when one side surrenders to another in battle, it's a sign they've given up any hope for victory.
If we surrender to God, what are we giving up? Does it mean, as it does for the enemy in battle, to give up on victory in our lives? Is God holding a gun to our heads and forcing us to give Him everything we have, like a robber or a mugger might do, making us surrender?
That's not what the Lord does. He gives us a choice!
The idea of Surrendering means to yield ownership, to relinquish control over what we consider ours: our bodies, our property, our time, our "rights." When we surrender to God, we are simply acknowledging that what we "own" belongs to Him.
LIVING SACRIFICES
As Christians, we're called to give ourselves to God as a "living sacrifice." The Apostle Paul helps us understand this truth in his letter to the believers in Rome:
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God". (Romans 12:1-2)
We so much want our lives to be ours. We want control. But guess what; we don’t belong to ourselves!
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."
It’s possible that the majority of us here at one time in our lives have said, “It’s my life, I’ll do what I want with it.” Many of us may have bought into this lie! As Christians, this is not the case for us! We have been bought with a price. We belong to Christ. But do we have to give it all to God? Why not just most things? No, all things! Paul says to the Romans that we should give ourselves as living sacrifices. Does that seem like a too much? We have to give it all, and Paul says that this is our reasonable service to God. To sacrifice ourselves in service to God after the love He has shown for us is the reasonable thing to do for Him.
We tend to wrap up a piece of our lives and give it to our family. We wrap up another piece of our lives and give it to our employer. We wrap up another piece of our lives and leave it lying on the couch in front of the television set. Oh.....and we certainly don't want to forget God! So we wrap up a few hours of our lives and give it to Him on Sunday.
There's only one problem with that approach to life (but a very big problem it is!). God doesn't just want the couple of hours of our lives that we have wrapped up and presented to Him. He wants all the pieces! He wants the part of our lives that we designate for family, and the part we designate for work, and even the part we designate for recreation. Every part of our lives should be lived with the purpose of bringing God the glory He deserves and serving Him!
Do we ever get our lives to the point where we are only giving God a little bit of our time and hearts? Christ’s love should compel us to do the reasonable thing and give ourselves completely to God. He is so worthy of everything that we can give Him and more.
We need to remember that as Christians we do not belong to ourselves. We belong to Christ! We are His bond-servants, His slaves!
That is what it means to call Jesus our Lord? He is our Master; we are His slaves, and we as Jesus’ slaves have given ourselves fully to doing His will, laying aside our own wills and submitting to Him as the One who directs our lives.
Do we sometimes think that if I assemble with the saints, I do my daily reading and prayers, that this makes me a servant of Christ? This may shock some of you, but this is just not the case. There is much more to being a servant or slave to Jesus. If this is all that our service to God entails, and we are not doing the other things that we need to be doing, such as serving our brethren and our neighbors with love, and doing what we can to bring others to Christ, we really aren’t submitting ourselves to our Master like we should be. Truthfully, if we are only doing the things that we are comfortable with doing, what we want to do, we are not doing God’s will, but our OWN!
"All to Jesus, I surrender; All to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live.
All to Jesus I surrender; Humbly at His feet I bow, Worldly pleasures all forsaken; Take me, Jesus, take me now.
All to Jesus, I surrender; Lord, I give myself to Thee; Fill me with Thy love and power; Let Thy blessing fall on me.
I surrender all, I surrender all, All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all."
Can you actually in good conscience sing this song?
