Jeremiah 38 - Obey the Lord by Doing What I Tell You

LINK: Jeremiah 38

BACKGROUND

In the courtyard of the guard, Jeremiah delivered God's message to high-ranking officials. It was the same message delivered in 21:3-10: the only hope was surrender to the Babylonians. 

The king allowed the officials to put Jeremiah in a cistern to kill him. A cistern was a large hole in the ground lined with rocks to collect rainwater. It was dark and damp. Jeremiah, in his 60's, could have drowned, died of exposure, or starved to death. Only the petition of Ebed-Melech (note what happens to him in Jeremiah 39), one of the court officials, persuaded the king to get Jeremiah out. In a private conversation, Jeremiah again reiterated to Zedekiah that only surrender will save him and his people and exhorted Zedekiah to "Obey the Lord by doing what I tell you . . . and your life will be spared." You will find out the sad consequences of this weak king's disobedience in the next chapter.

In the last encounter between Zedekiah and Jeremiah, the king ordered Jeremiah not to tell the officials the details of their conversation and to tell them that Jeremiah was pleading to not be sent back to Jonathan's dungeon which was true from a previous conversation. 

The Life Application Bible comments: "We must not withhold God's truth from others, but we should withhold information that will be used to bring evil to God's people" (p. 1356).

REFLECTION

This man is not seeking the good of these people but their ruin.

Jeremiah 38:4

But Jeremiah was seeking their good! Just this morning, I was reading The Perfect Leader by Kenneth Boa. In the chapter entitled "Exhortation", he writes:

Regardless of how we feel about confrontation, there are times when confronting is the most loving thing we can do for another person. Deitrich Bonhoeffer wrote: "Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one's community back from the path of sin." (Location 1987, Boa is quoting from Life Together, translated by Daniel Bloesch and James Burtness, p. 105)

Today, exhortation often gets a bad rap. We think we are "wounding" our friends through words of exhortation. Bonhoeffer writes:

One who because of sensitivity and vanity rejects the serious words of another Christian cannot speak the truth in humility to others. Such a person is afraid of being rejected and feeling hurt by another's words. Sensitive, irritable people will always become flatterers, and very soon they will come to despise and slander other Christians in their community. . . . When another Christian falls into obvious sin, an admonition is imperative, because God's Word demands it. The practice of discipline in the community of faith begins with friends who are close to one another. Words of admonition and reproach must be risked. (Life Together, p. 105)

Jeremiah was willing to take that kind of risk. Are you?

APPLICATION

Do you care enough to exhort those you love? How do you receive exhortation from others?

Here is an excellent book about this subject that I have recommended before:

(There are many used ones on Amazon in an older edition HERE.)

PRAYER

Lord, thank You for the brave example of Jeremiah who cared enough to confront even when it meant prison and a cistern. Give us the boldness to proclaim truth even when it is unpopular. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.