Ain’t It the Pits?
Jeremiah 38
Sin brings trouble. Proverbs tell us Pro 13:15 …the way of the treacherous (or faithless, or transgressor) is hard. And you know, we know from our own experiences that this is true, don’t we? When we’re disobedient, whether it’s to our Lord, the laws of the land, or many other situations we may find ourselves in, that disobedience or faithlessness will many times result in hard times, especially when we get caught. Sin brings trouble, but do you know what? Obedience can also bring trouble.
Think about all the people who followed God faithfully who had been killed, tortured, maimed, disfigured, lost their families, homes, jobs and even run out of their homeland because of their faith in Christ and willingness to follow Him? So, yeah. Sin brings trouble, but so can faithfulness and obedience. The difference between the two is that God is for those who get into trouble for their obedience while He is opposed to and warns those who are in trouble because of sin.
Pro 28:18 NASB95 He who walks blamelessly will be delivered, but he who is crooked will fall all at once. This is the underlying theme of the book of Jeremiah, and especially the 38th chapter, our text today. As another translation puts it, Pro 28:18 NRSV One who walks in integrity will be safe, but whoever follows crooked ways will fall into the Pit.
Will fall into the pit. Have you ever been in a pit? I’ve been in trouble many times in my life, and I’ve experienced things that made me think I was in a pit. But the pit I’m talking about isn’t one we fall into because of sin or our own stupidity. No, the pit I’m talking about right now is the pit that Jeremiah was put in. A pit that came from being faithful to and following the Lord.
1. Jeremiah’s Pit (38:1-13)
In chapter 37, Babylon had Jerusalem under siege but when they discovered that Egypt was coming to Judah’s aid, they lifted the siege and turned to deal with Egypt. Jeremiah, ever faithful to his call, had been warning the king, princes, and people of Jerusalem that surrendering to Babylon was their only option if they wanted to live. When Babylon lifted the siege, Jeremiah left Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to take possession of some property there. The son of one of his enemies saw him, arrested him, and accused him of trying to defect to the Babylonians. The officials beat him and put him, Jer 37:16 …in the cells, and remained there many days.
King Zedekiah heard that he was in prison, so he sent for Jeremiah to enquire of the Lord for him, but because Zedekiah was weak, he ordered that Zedekiah remain in prison and be given a loaf of bread every day until the city ran out of bread. In chapter 38, the leading men of Jerusalem went to the king to petition him to execute Jeremiah because he continued to preach to everyone who would listen that if they stayed in the city they would die, but if they turned themselves in to the Babylonian king they would live. The officials accused Jeremiah of treason by discouraging the fighting men and the people. They want him dead, but apparently, they don’t have the nerve to do it themselves.
At their request to kill Jeremiah, the king told the princes or officials, Jer 38:5 …"Behold, he is in your hands; for the king can do nothing against you." The king didn’t want to be the one to kill the prophet, and admitted that he was powerless against them, so, do what you want to do. But it seems that they didn’t want to be the ones to take his life either. They didn’t execute Jeremiah, but instead, they threw him into a pit, or a cistern. Jer 38:6 Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchijah the king's son, which was in the court of the guardhouse; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the cistern there was no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.
Even though he was already in trouble, Jeremiah continued to spread his message on how the people could be saved. Does that sound familiar? We need to ask ourselves if we have the same fortitude with our message of salvation through Jesus Christ. The people of Judah and Jerusalem could be saved and receive the gift of life if they would surrender and turn themselves over to the mercy of the Babylonian king. And guess what? The people of this community, our neighbors have the same problem. They’re also fighting a losing war, a losing war with God. If they would lay down their arms and surrender to the King of kings, they could be saved and receive the gift of eternal life. Like Jeremiah told them in chapter 21, Jer 21:8 …Thus says the LORD, "Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.
There’s a choice that people have to make, a choice between life or death. Continued resistance brings death, but surrendering brings life. Jeremiah preached this message even when faced with beatings, imprisonment, and sinking into the mire in the pit. It was a message that wasn’t welcomed. The powerbrokers of the day: Shephatiah, Gedaliah, Jehucal, and Pashhur, wanted Jeremiah silenced. His message hurt the morale of the soldiers. But the last thing those soldiers needed was a morale boost. They needed to be broken so they would surrender. And we need to be broken as well.
Friends, we need to be broken because the healthy won’t seek a doctor. The strong won’t seek help, but the broken, the desperate, those who know they’re fighting a losing battle are more inclined to listen and hear and raise the white flag. Jeremiah’s story speaks to us of unwavering faith in the face of great opposition and obedience to God’s call when the whole world seems to be against you. Sin brings us trouble, but so can obedience, the difference is that God watches over us and blesses us when our obedience gets us into trouble with the world.
Jeremiah’s faithful obedience put him in the pit, but because he was faithful, the Lord rescued him from that pit. Pro 28:18 He who walks blamelessly will be delivered, and so the Lord rescued His faithful servant through a gentile named Ebed-Melek. Jer 38:8-9 and Ebed-melech went out from the king's palace and spoke to the king, saying, [9] "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."
The king, Zedekiah, was sitting at the gate of the city. That was really a thing in ancient days because that’s where people would come seek help, air grievances, or settle legal disputes. Sometimes the city leaders assisted in these matters, but the more serious matters would go before the king. Ebed-melech took Jeremiah’s situation to the king. Such a public forum like this would make it difficult for a weak king like Zedekiah to call for the continued torture and execution of a well-known prophet like Jeremiah. So, when Ebed-melech came before him, he was very diplomatic. He didn’t name names of the offenders. He didn’t call out the king for allowing this to go on.
He said, Jer 38:9 "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." He underlined the gravity of Jeremiah’s situation, and he gave the king the opportunity to look like a hero by rescuing God’s prophet.
The Lord did exactly what He told Jeremiah He would do back in chapter 1. He told him, Jer 1:8 "Do not be afraid of them, For I am with you to deliver you," declares the LORD. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. I will deliver you. Friends, this is a story about God doing what He promised to do. He keeps His word, and His word to us today is the same. His Son told us Mat 28:20 …I am with you always, even to the end of the age." And the writer of Hebrews reminds us that, Heb 13:5 …He Himself has said, "I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,"
Friends, sin brings trouble, but sometimes obedience does too. The Lord tells us that Pro 28:18 He who walks blamelessly will be delivered, Jeremiah was blameless and was delivered, but now I want to look at the second part of that promise from Proverbs, that Pro 28:18 NASB95 …but he who is crooked will fall all at once, or as the NRSV puts it Pro 28:18 NRSV …but whoever follows crooked ways will fall into the Pit.
2. Zedekiah’s Pit (38:14-23)
Jeremiah was put into a pit and his feet sunk into the muddy bottom, the mire, and friends, when your feet are a foot or so deep in mud, it’s practically impossible to get unstuck when there’s no solid ground nearby. So, Jeremiah was lifted out of the mire by the Lord through His servant, a slave named Ebed-Melech. But Zedekiah was in his own pit and was stuck in his own mire just as Jeremiah had been. The difference is that Jeremiah was put into his pit because of his faithfulness to God, while Zedekiah put himself into a pit through his disobedience and placing his trust in faithless and self-serving so-called friends. He appears to have respected the prophet, but he feared the cabal! His capitulation to those princes was probably the most abject surrender in biblical history until the moment when Pilate washed his hands before the multitude.
The author wants us to see this connection between Jermiah’s pit and Zedekiah’s pit when he wrote, Jer 38:22 ‘Behold, all of the women who have been left in the palace of the king of Judah are going to be brought out to the officers of the king of Babylon; and those women will say, “Your close friends have misled and overpowered you; while your feet were sunk in the mire, they turned back.”
In other words, when it’s all over and Babylon has taken the city, the king, his family, and all the nobles, all those palace women who have been left behind will tell the Babylonians that Zedekiah’s friends, those princes he was so fearful of, those princes who constantly counselled against surrender were misleading Zedekiah for their own benefit. He was their puppet. They had such a sway over him that they were the ones who were really in charge. Because of them and his willingness to follow their lead, he was in a pit and sunk in the mire every bit as much as Jeremiah had been.
Zedekiah may have shown a little bit of moxie when he had Jeremiah pulled out of the pit and then went to him once again to ask if there was any new word from the Lord, but he also had a history of ignoring the Lord’s counsel. He wanted Jeremiah to tell him the truth when he said, Jer 38:14 …“I am going to ask you something; do not hide anything from me.” But Jeremiah feared the king couldn’t handle the truth—You can’t handle the truth! He knew that at the very best the king would ignore him as he often did, but at the worst he would put him to death.
So, the king promised that he wouldn’t put Jeremiah to death and he wouldn’t turn him over to the wishes of the princes. He wouldn’t kill him, and he wouldn’t allow others to kill him either. Jeremiah’s response to this was unexpected because he began answering the king’s question before he even asked a question. He could do that because friend, the Lord knows what people need to hear far better than what any of us know what we want to ask.
The message Jeremiah gave to Zedekiah was the same message he had already given to him over and over again. Jer 38:17-18 …“This is what the LORD God of armies, the God of Israel says: ‘If you will indeed surrender 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. [18] ‘But if you do not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be handed over to the Chaldeans; and they will burn it with fire, and you yourself will not escape from their hands.’”
If you surrender, it will go well with you and the city. If you continue to resist, this city will burn, and you will be taken away. The choice is clear, but Zedekiah’s fear kept him in his pit. Have you ever had that feeling or maybe that dream where you’re trying to escape something, but your feet won’t move? Zedekiah’s feet were so deep in the mire of his own making that he couldn’t budge and inch. And you know, fear is a normal reaction to circumstances like this. Being the leader of a country is a heavy burden in the best of times, but when faced with the possibility of extinction, that burden grows exponentially.
At first, the faithful can be as fearful as the unbeliever. They can be anxious. They may vacillate. They can even mumble or complain about their situation. However, while the unbeliever may do the same, they may also become hardened in their purposes; but the faithful fight with themselves and subject their thoughts to the will of God, overcoming their fear by faith.
Jeremiah promised that none of the things the king feared would come upon him if he surrendered. But despite all the promises from God, Zedekiah did not obey. He ended up returning to the palace to suffer the anguish of knowing what was right to do but lacking the courage to do it. This king had shown Jeremiah mercy by allowing him to be pulled from the pit and giving him bread to eat while many were starving. And God had shown mercy to the king by warning him time and again, giving him every opportunity to repent and obey. He was given the choice to live or to die, and he made the wrong choice.
Friends, our God is a loving and merciful God. His desire is that 1Ti 2:4 …all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Just like He did with Zedekiah, God gives us every opportunity to repent and obey.
Zedekiah was given multiple opportunities to change directions and save his life and the lives of his people and city. He chose badly. But we have the same choice today. Each and every person is given a similar choice between life and death.
Let me warn you now--choose wisely. Choose wisely and get out of the pit by trusting in Jesus today. Give your life over to Him.
Remember what that proverb says, Pro 28:18 NRSV One who walks in integrity will be safe, but whoever follows crooked ways will fall into the Pit.
