[Brother V]

Jeremiah 37-39

Jeremiah 37

1 And king Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah.

Zedekiah replaced Jehoachin in 597. Remember Jehoiachin was also called Jeconiah and even Coniah.

2 But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, did hearken unto the words of the LORD, which he spake by the prophet Jeremiah.

Nobody listens. It's like when I talk to people about God, they don't listen.

3 And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Pray now unto the LORD our God for us.

So Zedekiah actually asked Jeremiah to pray for the people.

5 Then Pharaoh's army was come forth out of Egypt: and when the Chaldeans that besieged Jerusalem heard tidings of them, they departed from Jerusalem.

So, at this point in history, Coniah has been taken away to Babylon. Zedekiah has entered into an alliance with Egypt specifically with Hophra (also known as Apries). Hophra was Pharaoh from 589 to 570. So this is at some point between 589 and 586, probably in 588.

7 Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say to the king of Judah, that sent you unto me to enquire of me; Behold, Pharaoh's army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land.

8 And the Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire.

Within two years, the Egyptians had been beaten in Judah, which caused Apries to lose a lot of respect in Egypt.

10 For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet should they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire.

The second word "though" should actually be "even if"; because they hadn't smitten the army.

Jeremiah wasn't in prison yet, so he was still out preaching doom and gloom. Some of the higher up mucketymucks in society heard Jeremiah saying the Babylonians/Chaldeans were going to win, so they accused him of being on their side; possibly even being a spy for them.

14 Then said Jeremiah, It is false; I fall not away to the Chaldeans. But he hearkened not to him: so Irijah took Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes.

The princes were angry and put him in prison.

17 Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took him out: and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, Is there any word from the LORD? And Jeremiah said, There is: for, said he, thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.

Jeremiah was like, why am I in jail? for telling the truth? He then begged not to be put back in the prison he was in.

21 Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers' street, until all the bread in the city were spent. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.

Jeremiah was put into a much nicer prison.

Jeremiah 38

Now, lets hear that story again.

1 Then Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashur the son of Malchiah, heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken unto all the people, saying,

This time we get names to the people who put Jeremiah into the pit.

2 Thus saith the LORD, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live; for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live.

3 Thus saith the LORD, This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which shall take it.

Stay in the city and die; run to the conquering army and live.

4 Therefore the princes said unto the king, We beseech thee, let this man be put to death: for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them: for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt.

So these people didn't want Jeremiah put to death because he was saying God's words; they wanted him killed because he was causing people to believe him. Since the people were listening, they were thinking, maybe we should flee, it can't be worse than what we've got now, which is pretty much nothing. Just wait until we get to the book of Ezekiel to see how CRAPPY the siege actually was.

5 Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your hand: for the king is not he that can do any thing against you.

Remember, Jeremiah came from a family of influence, which is why the people didn't just kill him on the spot. His family wielded enough power that the higher ups in Jerusalem had to go ask the king for permission to kill (or even imprison) him.

6 Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.

Um... mire is shit. Jeremiah was thrown into the bottom of an outhouse.

7 Now when Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs which was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon; the king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin;

Ebedmelech's name means "servant of the king" so that may not actually be his name. Some people consider Ebedmelech to be Baruch (from Jeremiah 36) or that Ebedmelech was ... um... transformed into Baruch.

Well, Ebedmelech went and talked to the king...

9 My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon; and he is like to die for hunger in the place where he is: for there is no more bread in the city.

So, the king allowed Ebedmelech to get Jeremiah out of the pit of shit.

11 So Ebedmelech took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took thence old cast clouts and old rotten rags, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah.

They made an old fashioned prison escaping rope made out of bedsheets.

Zedekiah then went to talk to Jeremiah. Jeremiah said, if I tell you the truth you'll kill me. The king said, "nah".

17 Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon's princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thine house:

18 But if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand.

At this point Zedekiah said he couldn't do that. He thought the Babylonians would turn Zedekiah over to the already captured Jews and that they would kill him. Jeremiah said that wouldn't happen. The king said, he wasn't going to do it anyway. Then the king told Jeremiah not to mention the conversation to anyone. The king knew that someone would find out that the king went and talked to Jer, so here's what to tell them.

26 Then thou shalt say unto them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan's house, to die there.

Jer begged the king not to let him die in the shit hole. That's it.

27 Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah, and asked him: and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him; for the matter was not perceived.

28 So Jeremiah abode in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken: and he was there when Jerusalem was taken.

Jeremiah lived in the nice prison until the end of the siege. Remember that.

Verse 27 begs the question... Can a prophet lie? Everyone will tell you the answer is NO. A big fat NO. Except this is not truly the case. A prophet can only NOT LIE when he is speaking for God. When Jeremiah was talking to the people in verse 27, he was not speaking for God, he was speaking as a man. He didn't tell the truth. But he didn't lie about what God had said. Therefore, he didn't lie for God. (The catholics will say pretty much the same thing about papal infallibility, in that it only deals with matters of doctrine; it doesn't mean the pope is 100% infallible, it means he's only always right about catholic things).

Jeremiah 39

1 In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it.

Zedekiah began his reign in 597. Nebuchadnezzar began the siege in 589.

2 And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.

This was in 586. Jerusalem, as it was then, ended.

So all the higher ups gathered at the middle gate.

4 And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king's garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls: and he went out the way of the plain.

They tried to make a run for it.

5 But the Chaldeans' army pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him.

They got caught, not too far out of the city.

6 Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.

7 Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon.

The last thing Zedekiah saw was his children being killed.

Nebuchadnezzar then sent Nebuzaradan to destroy the city. He did that. He did it pretty darn good. He took everyone in the city to Babylon.

10 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, which had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.

He left the poor people there to tend to the fields. That was nice. The rich people got taken away, and the poor people got to tend the land.

Nebuchadnezzar had heard about Jeremiah, and told Nebuzaradan to not harm Jeremiah.

At some point while Jeremiah was locked up, he told Ebedmelech that he wouldn't be captured.

So what have we learned today?

1. Jeremiah went to a crappy prison, then got to go to the country club prison.

2. Jeremiah went to a crappy prison, then got to go to the country club prison.

3. The last thing Zedekiah got to see was his kids being killed, then he had his eyes gouged out.

YIC
V