LATER EXPERIENCES OF JEREMIAH
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE:
JEREMIAH 38 : 7-13
Key Verse
“Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, “Take thirty men from here under your authority and bring Jeremiah the prophet up from the cistern before he dies”. Jeremiah 38: 10
INTRODUCTION
It is useful to review your experiences to see if you have been making good choices. Sometimes on this review you see you keep making the same mistakes. Then you can make corrections in what you are doing. Or you might see you are on the right track and so you are encouraged to keep on doing well.
Jeremiah the prophet had been ministering for over 40 years after he had been called by God to warn his nation to stop sinning and returning to keep the covenant they had with God. But they refused to listen. Jeremiah kept witnessing to them about how they should live. He kept telling the people of the nation what God wanted from them. He was put in prison for his work two times before this and now he faced prison and death in our Study Chapter. But Jeremiah was faithful, courageous, and showed a great amount of love for the people. He never stopped telling everyone about the covenant and that God wanted the people of Israel and Judah to keep the covenant.
But instead of thanking him for reminding them what God desired, four men in senior positions went to king Zedekiah and complained Jeremiah had been saying things which made the people lose the desire to fight against the Babylonian army to save their nation. They complained that the prophet’s words were weakening the morale of the people. So they argued that the prophet should be silenced. He should be put to death.
Instead of thanking Jeremiah for telling the people what had to be done to save the nation, king Zedekiah handed Jeremiah over to the princes who hated the prophet and wanted to kill him. So after getting permission from king Zedekiah these men took Jeremiah and instead of killing him right then, they put him into a cistern filled with water and mud. They knew he would sink into the mud and would drown. They did not intend to give him anything to eat so they knew Jeremiah would starve to death from hunger even before he drowned.
But God did not intend for anyone to kill Jeremiah in that way and so He had Ebed-melech an Ethiopian worker in the king’s court go to the king Zedekiah and tell him how the princes intended to kill Jeremiah. He told the king this was wrong. Jeremiah had never done or said anything to damage the nation. All Jeremiah wanted was to have the people repent of their sins and be faithful to the terms of the covenant they had made with God. That would avoid the destruction of the nation, Jerusalem, and the Temple.
Surprisingly this weak king who was double-minded and could not make up his mind to do the right thing, agreed to have Ebed-melech take 30 men to rescue and afterwards protect Jeremiah. The rescue succeeded because God had arranged it and made sure Jeremiah would not die in the pit.
We know from this God will keep and protect us. So we encourage you to trust in God’s love and power. Be faithful to God as Jeremiah was. Do not shrink from telling the truths of God to the people around you. Pray that God will change their minds so they will turn around and do what is right.