Jeremiah 37-38
Dear RTB’ers,
Good morning and welcome to April! I don’t have any April Fool’s jokes for you, and neither did Jeremiah! He told them again and again that Jerusalem would be overthrown by the Babylonians, and it happened just as he said.
After doing battle with King Jehoiakim in yesterday’s reading, today Jeremiah finds a friend – a savior, even – in King Zedekiah. First, Zedekiah calls to Jeremiah seeking prayer (Jer. 37:3); then he calls him to the court a second time and delivers him from a horrible prison to the court of the guard (Jer. 37:17, 21); then he arranges for Jeremiah to be rescued from the cistern in which he had been dumped and returned again to the court of the guard (Jer. 38:10-13). All along Zedekiah had feared the leading Jewish officials, and in between those previous events, sadly, the king had feared the leading Jewish officials and allowed them to mistreat Jeremiah (Jer. 38:5-6). But mostly (as far as we have read), Jeremiah has an ally in Zedekiah. That will make it more difficult for us to see what happens to Zedekiah when he later ignores Jeremiah’s warnings.
I have spoken with admiration for Jeremiah’s courage in speaking the word of the Lord, especially his persistence in doing so in the face of opposition from Jewish officials. But that’s not to say that it’s been all “peaches and cream” for Jeremiah. Just the opposite, in fact! First we see him wrongly arrested, beaten, and thrown into a horrible prison (Jer. 37:13-15). Then we see him pleading with Zedekiah not to be returned to that prison (Jer. 37:20). Finally, he is again taken by Jewish officials and thrown into a muddy cistern (Jer. 38:4-6). Upon his rescue from that ordeal, he will spend the rest of his Jerusalem days imprisoned in the court of the guard. Yes, I admire Jeremiah’s courage and persistence, but I also feel for him in having to go through his many sufferings.
I can imagine that Peter, Paul, and other New Testament followers must have had Jeremiah in mind when they went through sufferings and even martyrdom in their faithfulness to Jesus’ teachings. Even today we pray every week for Christians in the “Persecuted Church” who might be looking back on Jeremiah and those New Testament leaders. Lastly, they (and we) have Jesus’ own Holy Week sufferings to reflect upon. No doubt, their prayer through these times is Paul’s own perspective on all that he went through: So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. (II Corinthians 4:16-18a)
We need to pray more for those who suffer for Christ’s sake.
Blessings.
See also: July 26 / Jeremiah 23:1-8; 38.