< Jeremiah 38 >

Jeremiah told the people that God’s purpose was that the Babylonians should capture Jerusalem v.3Jeremiah 38:3XWaiting for response and the people could save their lives by leaving the city and going peaceably into captivity.v.2Jeremiah 38:2XWaiting for response This was taken as the treacherous statement of a traitor by the princes of Israel who called upon king Zedekiah to put him to death.v.4Jeremiah 38:4XWaiting for response Zedekiah should have listened to Jeremiah and courageously done the will of God, leading his people out of the city, but he weakly submitted to the princes v.5Jeremiah 38:5XWaiting for response and they cast Jeremiah into a dungeon.v.6Jeremiah 38:6XWaiting for response Many of Jeremiah’s experiences point forward to the suffering of Christ and this incident is reminiscent of the way in which Joseph also was put into a pit by his brethren to typify the death of Jesus. The grave is called “the pit wherein is no water” Zecheriah 9:11 and Joseph was put into such a pit, Genesis 37:24Genesis 37:24XWaiting for response as was Jeremiah who sank in the mire. The Psalms express the mind of Christ in similar circumstances. Psalm 69:2Psalm 69:2XWaiting for response He cried to God: “Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink”. Psalm 69:14Psalm 69:14XWaiting for response His prayer was heard and, like Joseph and Jeremiah v.13Jeremiah 38:13XWaiting for response who were taken out of the pit to represent his resurrection, Jesus could say: “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings”. Psalm 40:2Psalm 40:2XWaiting for response

King Zedekiah secretly communed with Jeremiah v.14-16Jeremiah 38:14-16XWaiting for response and was told what to do to save his life. If he went obediently out of the city, he and the people would live v.17Jeremiah 38:17XWaiting for response otherwise the city would be destroyed and many would die.v.18Jeremiah 38:18XWaiting for response We are given similar instruction from God concerning the world which is full of wickedness and apostate religion which is likened to an evil city as Jerusalem was then, and God says: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty”. 2 Corinthians 6:17-182 Corinthians 6:17-18XWaiting for response Zedekiah did not obey because he was afraid of the princes and the mocking of the people.v.19Jeremiah 38:19XWaiting for response Consequently the crown was removed from his head and he was told that it would not exist again until “he come whose right it is” when God will give it to him, i.e. Jesus. Ezekiel 21:27Ezekiel 21:27XWaiting for response Zedekiah failed to heed the exhortation of Jeremiah to “come out” of the wicked community but we can obey the equivalent command in our day: “Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the LORD, which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live”.v.20Jeremiah 38:20XWaiting for response