Jeremiah 38:1-9 2 Timothy 4:14-18
Some people experience things that are not quite right or an event they disagree with, but just leave it alone and walk away. Later they are bothered by thoughts, thinking they should have said something and spoke up for what was right or for the truth. Some people get in situations in which they are being attacked by others, and people that they thought would speak up and say something on their behalf just remained silent trying to avoid eye contact.
Imagine being the Apostle Paul for just a moment. Here is a man that had risked his life time and time again to get the gospel to people who have never heard about Jesus Christ. People were continually telling him how much they loved and appreciated him. They knew that without all the sacrifices Paul had personally made to reach them, they may have never come to faith in Christ.
Then comes that day when Paul is arrested for preaching the gospel. The charge is that Paul is preaching a message that there is a greater king than Caesar who is worthy to be praised. In an empire in which Caesar is seen as practically a god, this was serious business. This could be seen as treason, and anybody preaching such a message or helping someone preach such a message could be put to death.
Paul is put into a damp, dark dungeon. He probably thanks God for the brothers and sisters in Christ that he can count on for their love and support at his trial. He wonders who will say what about him and about his love for Christ when his life or a long imprisonment may be on the line.
When the trial starts, Paul is shocked at what goes on in the courtroom. He writes as we saw in 2 Timothy 4:16, “at my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.” Can you imagine how encouraging just one person speaking up would have been to Paul? Paul stood alone. Where are the people who could have said, “this man is telling the truth because Jesus changed my life”?
The silence and the absence of witnesses are not due to a desire to betray Paul, but rather a fear of what might happen to them if they sided with the truth. How many of us have been there, where we know if we say something or get involved there’s going to be a price to pay, and we’re not willing to pay that kind of a price.
In our Old Testament reference we find the prophet Jeremiah. God makes it clear to Jeremiah, that even before he was born, God had chosen Jeremiah to be somebody who would speak up for the truth. At first, Jeremiah thinks he’s too young to be used by God, but God assures him that he will be a prophet to the nations.
In today’s setting, Jeremiah would be an internationally known speaker talking to the likes of President Bush of the US, President Chiraq of France, President Putkin of Russia, and Prime Minister Sharon of Israel. CNN would be coming to Jeremiah to get the inside scoop of what was going to happen before it happened.
There is a downside to the job. The people that Jeremiah will be speaking to have made a decision: it is alright to worship God, so long as it does not keep them from creating other gods and doing whatever they wanted to do. It is not that unlike what we have today in our society. People were very interested in astrology and the worship of stars.
They were in the middle of a sexual revolution in which adultery was not only running wild, it was encouraged and had found its way into the lives of the prophets and priests. Some men, to get around the rules of adultery, would divorce their wives, marry someone else, divorce the second wife, and then remarry the first one.
God calls Jeremiah to tell the people, "He's sick and tired of all this sin, this mess, this drama, and the like. Not only that, He is sending the Babylonian army from the north to destroy the city." Most of the people never even heard of the Babylonians. They laughed at Jeremiah and made fun of him. He had no sooner finished prophesying then other prophets would get up and proclaim, “the Lord will never allow the Babylonians to come to the city. For God Himself is the protector of His people whom he loves.”
Can you imagine how foolish Jeremiah must have looked? For twenty years, the prophets who preached what the people wanted to hear, had been saying, "God is not going to send the Babylonians." Jeremiah has been saying God is. Who do you think had the most credibility with the people?
The people made fun of Jeremiah as he walked the streets. Jeremiah did not like the ridicule anymore than we do when people laugh at us because of our faith. The more Jeremiah preached, the more God's terrible judgment was revealed. The city will be destroyed. The people will be slaughtered. The people who are left will go into captivity for 70 years.
Then the good king Josiah died, and his successor King Jehoiakim had no desire whatsoever to serve God. He also did not like the preaching of Jeremiah. He told him to stop prophesying, and finally Jeremiah had to decide on a course of action. Would he fall silent or continue his efforts, now knowing the wrath of a king could fall upon his head?
Under Jehoiakim, Pashur the chief officer in the temple got sick and tired of all this bad news from Jeremiah. Pashur had Jeremiah beaten and thrown into prison. But locking him up could not keep what he said from happening. The Babylonians did come, and they took King Jehoiakim and a number of the rulers away as captives, then demanded that ransom money be paid regularly.
The Babylonians took much of the wealth out of the city with them and made Zedekiah the new king. Jeremiah had preached for twenty years before he saw what God said actually happen. This is why we can’t always think all we have to do is walk into a situation and it changes for God. It takes hard work, commitment, and courage.
When Zedekiah became king, he decided to break the agreement to send money and taxes to Babylon, and the people were still doing all the things they were before the Babylonians came. Jeremiah started preaching again, and before he knew it, he was telling the people that the Babylonians are going to come back and this time completely wipe out the city, leaving only a few to survive as captives for 70 years.
The other prophets promised that the Babylonians would not be back; instead they prophesied that Babylon would cease to exist within the next two years and all of Israel's wealth would be restored.
Jeremiah got so frustrated with God, he said, “That’s it God. Every time I open my mouth, nothing but bad news comes out. Why can’t I have something good to share with the people.” Jeremiah wanted somebody to like him at least some of the time, which is a completely understandable and human desire!
But eventually, the Babylonians did come back and surround the city. King Zedekiah secretly sent for Jeremiah and asked if the Lord could help them defeat the Babylonians. Jeremiah, however, had nothing but bad news for the King. Jeremiah let Zedekiah know that if he would surrender to the Babylonians, his life and the lives of the soldiers would be spared. If not the King and his sons will be killed.
King Zedekiah knew that he had not been serving God, and that he had only listened to the comforting lies of his other prophets. Now the king wanted to save his life and the lives of many others but he did not want to pay the price of going against the political and religious leaders around him. He chose to believe that there was another way of escape. We see this kind of thing happening on a spiritual level around us today. It seems that politically correct hearts in today’s society only choose to believe lies and are extremely stubborn about their positions.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father but through me.” These words of Jesus rip apart the modern day insistence that every religion is okay and that you will get to God by any of them so long as you are sincere. How many of us will betray the cause of Christ by remaining silent when we hear this claim being made over and over again. How about those who wish to redefine marriage and insist on laws that give special rights to a few while taking away the rights of the many? There are serious consequences to going against God's word.
Jeremiah takes this message to the streets. He says, “Listen people, the only way you can escape the destruction that is coming on this city is to go over to the enemy, the Babylonians, and turn yourself in. I don’t care what you might hear, the only way for you to survive is to give up before the fighting begins; otherwise you will die by the sword, the famine, or the plagues that will enter the city.”
Finally, some of the King’s powerful officials gathered, went to King Zedekiah, and demanded that Jeremiah be put to death. They said he was discouraging the soldiers and the people left in the city. The King was not willing to speak up for Jeremiah and told the men, “I can’t do anything to oppose you, Jeremiah is in your hands.”
They went out, grabbed Jeremiah, and put him in an old, dried up cistern full of watery debris and sludge. So here sits a servant of God, in this dark stinking mud, with who knows how many insects and bugs down there with him. The mud was up his legs. If he sat down it would cover his waist. There was no way to lie down and go to sleep. More than likely this is not what Jeremiah had envisioned when God told him, “I have called you to be a prophet to the nations.”
Today so many people think, when you walk with the Lord, everything automatically goes along well in your life. Our walk with the Lord is not about how well everything is going, but rather about how well are we walking with and obeying the Lord in the things that enter our lives.
Jeremiah’s crime was a result of obeying God. He had been willing to speak up for the Lord. It’s amazing how we all want to be used by God, but we want to reserve the right to object to certain parts of God’s plan for us. Think about this: at what point do we have the right to refuse to obey certain commands or complain about how God is using our lives?
The Scriptures tell us to think about Jesus and what He did for us. Jesus was separated from God the Father, so that we would not have to be. Jesus went into the fires of hell, so that we would not have to go. Jesus paid for all the sin in our life so that we would not have to pay. It’s only when we see things from eternity’s perspective that we can begin to understand what God is doing.
As Jeremiah was being lowered into the cistern, he is most likely considering all the rather horrid ways he could die from being left in this muddy well. He had no friends who would speak up on his behalf. Like Paul, he knew that “no one spoke up on my behalf before they threw me into this pit.”
A Cushite from Africa, who was an official in the royal palace, heard about Jeremiah's plight. This man named Ebed-Melech was a man of integrity and obviously one who loved the Lord; he knew that he would be putting his life on the line if he tried to get involved. But this African was willing to speak up, when everybody else kept their mouths closed. He told King Zedekiah, “These men have acted wickedly in what they did to Jeremiah. They have thrown him into the pit where he will surely starve to death.”
Because Ebed-Melech was willing to speak up, he gave the King enough courage to stand up to the other leaders. Ebed-Melech didn't care who had done these evil things; he called them wicked men because their actions were wicked. Now before, the King had told those wicked men, “I can do nothing to oppose you.” But now that Ebed Melech was willing to speak up, the king had the courage to finally do the right thing.
Even after he was finally rescued, Jeremiah kept on speaking up for the Lord, and God looked with favor on Ebed-Melech for his willingness to confront the evils he saw in his society. He told Jeremiah, "Say to Ebed-melech, 'I am about to bring disaster on this city and you will see it before your eyes, but I will rescue you on that day and you will not be handed over to those you fear. I will save you and you will escape with your life, because you trust in me.' "
If Ebed-melech had not been willing to risk paying the price of speaking up, he would have been slaughtered by the Babylonians when they captured the city. But God intervened on his behalf. Have you ever given any thought to what position God may have placed you in which you need to speak up, but continue to be silent?
We are often afraid of losing a friendship, a position, public acceptance, or even our job. Are we afraid of ridicule and rejection as well? Ultimately whether or not we speak up will be dependent on just how much we trust God to handle our lives after we are faithful to Him. Jeremiah’s life lets us know it’s not going to be easy, but Jesus assures us it will most certainly be worth it.
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