King Zedekiah secretly communed with Jeremiah v.14-16Waiting for response for Jeremiah 38:14-16 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.17Waiting for response for Jeremiah 38:17 otherwise the city would be destroyed and many would die.v.18Waiting for response for Jeremiah 38:18 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 6:17-18Waiting for response for 2 Corinthians 6:17-18 Zedekiah did not obey because he was afraid of the princes and the mocking of the people.v.19Waiting for response for Jeremiah 38:19 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 21:27Waiting for response for Ezekiel 21:27 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.20Waiting for response for Jeremiah 38:20
Verses 1-6,13
Waiting for response for Jeremiah 38:1-6,13Jeremiah told the people that God’s purpose was that the Babylonians should capture Jerusalem v.3Waiting for response for Jeremiah 38:3 and the people could save their lives by leaving the city and going peaceably into captivity.v.2Waiting for response for Jeremiah 38:2 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.4Waiting for response for Jeremiah 38:4 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.5Waiting for response for Jeremiah 38:5 and they cast Jeremiah into a dungeon.v.6Waiting for response for Jeremiah 38:6 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 37:24Waiting for response for Genesis 37:24 as was Jeremiah who sank in the mire. The Psalms express the mind of Christ in similar circumstances. Psalm 69:2Waiting for response for Psalm 69:2 He cried to God: “Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink”. Psalm 69:14Waiting for response for Psalm 69:14 His prayer was heard and, like Joseph and Jeremiah v.13Waiting for response for Jeremiah 38:13 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 40:2Waiting for response for Psalm 40:2