Fears and Sound Advice

Jeremiah 38:14-28 

14 Then Zedekiah the king sent and had Jeremiah the prophet brought to him at the third entrance of the house of the LORD. And the king said to Jeremiah, "I will ask you something. Hide nothing from me."

15 Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, "If I declare it to you, will you not surely put me to death? And if I give you advice, you will not listen to me."

16 So Zedekiah the king swore secretly to Jeremiah, saying, "As the LORD lives, who made our very souls, I will not put you to death, nor will I give you into the hand of these men who seek your life."

17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, "Thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: 'If you surely surrender to the king of Babylon's princes, then your soul shall live; this city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live. 18 But if you do not surrender to the king of Babylon's princes, then this city shall be given into the hand of the Chaldeans; they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape from their hand.'"

19 And Zedekiah the king said to Jeremiah, "I am afraid of the Jews who have defected to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they abuse me."

20 But Jeremiah said, "They shall not deliver you. Please, obey the voice of the LORD which I speak to you. So it shall be well with you, and your soul shall live. 21 But if you refuse to surrender, this is the word that the LORD has shown me: 22 'Now behold, all the women who are left in the king of Judah's house shall be surrendered to the king of Babylon's princes, and those women shall say:

"Your close friends have set upon you
And prevailed against you;
Your feet have sunk in the mire,
And they have turned away again."

23 'So they shall surrender all your wives and children to the Chaldeans. You shall not escape from their hand, but shall be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon. And you shall cause this city to be burned with fire.'"

24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "Let no one know of these words, and you shall not die. 25 But if the princes hear that I have talked with you, and they come to you and say to you, 'Declare to us now what you have said to the king, and also what the king said to you; do not hide it from us, and we will not put you to death,' 26 then you shall say to them, I presented my request before the king, that he would not make me return to Jonathan's house to die there.'"

27 Then all the princes came to Jeremiah and asked him. And he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they stopped speaking with him, for the conversation had not been heard. 28 Now Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken. And he was there when Jerusalem was taken.

Scripture records for us king Zedekiah's fears and the prophet Jeremiah's godly advice in the face of Judah’s imminent defeat by Babylon.  The king brought the prophet from his holding cell (the prison court) to ask him to speak plainly the word of the LORD.  Jeremiah hesitated and told Zedekiah that he knew the king would either have him killed or would ignore the sound advice from God as before.  The king reassured him that he would not be killed or handed over to those who had him thrown in prison before and wanted him dead instead.  He secretly promised by the LORD who “made our very souls” that he would not allow these things to happen to Jeremiah if he just told all that God said.  The same message which God had already spoken by His messenger was then repeated, that they must go peacefully into captivity and escape destruction by fire and the sword of death.  A sure and inescapable judgment was looming before them and a decision to listen to God was the choice hanging in the balance for their future, and surrender was the only course to take to believe and receive the word of God by this choice as an act of trusting obedience.  This is a shadow of our offer of eternal deliverance in believing and receiving Christ by faith as our obedience to His word and will and and our work (John 1:12, 6:29).  Certain eternal destruction is the result of disbelieving and rejecting the message or shooting the messenger.  Zedekiah told Jeremiah not to tell anyone who asked what their conversation was about the message, however, and the messenger agreed and did as the king asked.  This was not so much as to save his own life as it was a knowledge that the others would continue to reject the message and then kill him.  He did not cast such pearls before the swine, but bided his time in the prison yard until Jerusalem was taken soon afterwards.  The gospel is sound advice which commands us to surrender our works and lives and trust God’s work in Christ for life alone, no matter how dire the thought of stopping our fight to earn our deliverance my be.  We are to do as Judah was commanded and lay down our lives by faith in God’s word to find them delivered in that surrender (Luke 9:24).  In the midst of our fears we are offered sound advice to act on for victory which is to allow our wills to be defeated.  May all who have not yet done so who read this passage do so and live!