Jeremiah in the pit
Psalm 40:2 “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.”
I have claimed this verse many times….for what is a pit? What is the miry clay?….for us as Christians?
First, the pit is a dark place, a place where our spirits are down, depressed…where we feel alone, unable to do anything about the situation.
But at least in a pit, we could get some foothold and look up….but in this pit is mire…..miry clay. So everytime we think we can get a foothold….we slip, and sink again. (been there, done that. It seems as if there is no hope)
Second, it is real. Many people think that depression and deep sadness is only in our heads. Much of the stress and strain of life we overcome by the power of the Holy Spirit within….but there are times, it gets to be “too much”. This is a real situation that the devil’s wiles and malice, has placed us in….and there is no way out….without help.
That is why the verse says….”He brought me up”. God is our joy….even in sorrow…and yes, even in depression. He lifts us, and sets us upon HImself. It is not our ability….it is not our smiling in the face of danger….it is not our trust, even….it is Himself, our Deliverer and Rock.
And He does it, because of our “crying unto HIm”:
Psalm 40:1 “I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry.”
Our prayers….our cries for help….are not blown about by the wind….but taken as petitions before our Lord. He sometimes waits to see if we will hold on to HIm…or become bitter against HIs time….but He hears. (1 John 5:14-15)
Jeremiah was in the siege at Jerusalem. God could have saved Jeremiah…and sent him out of the city beforehand….but his work was there….his message was to the people of Jerusalem.
How many messages he had given to the inhabitants there! Warning them, and beseeching them to hear the Word of the Lord. (“The word of the Lord” is recorded 52 times in this book!)
(Jeremiah warned them again and again, not to fight against the chastening of the Lord. Nebuchadrezzer was there because the Lord would use him to awaken Judah to their sins, and so they could repent. (Jer. 22:3-5)
If they would submit to God’s chastening….and remember the good works they were to do of justice, and brotherly kindness….then God would allow them to remain in Judah…the land God gave them.
But if they listened to those who stood up and promised “peace, peace” when there was no peace…..they would be led away captive to a foreign land. (Jer. 14:13-14)…captives of those foreign people and their gods.
Jeremiah 8:11 “For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.”)
Jeremiah was there. Yet after years of speaking, and writing the word of the Lord….and this word being rejected…or perverted….he sought to leave Jerusalem, so he would not see the destruction that the Lord said would come upon his people….whom he loved. (Jer.37:12) He was going into Benjamin.
(Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet for he speaks of crying….even day and night, for his people.
Jeremiah 9:1 “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.”
Lamentations 2:19 “Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward Him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.”)
But he is accused, falsely, of going out to join the Babylonians….then he was beaten, and taken to prison (Jer. 37:15)
The king sent and talked with him…..but he was a weak and spineless man….letting the princes take over the punishment of Jeremiah….though he, as king, knew he was a prophet of God.
And here we enter the pit. (For it is never what people know…..but what people do that counts with God.)
Jeremiah 38:6 “Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah….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.”
This was not just prison….but a horrible pit, a cistern…full of mire….mud or sewage. Jeremiah would die if he was not gotten out quickly.
Jeremiah was not guilty….he was, in fact, a blessing to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He prayed for and sought their true peace….in submitting to the chastening of the Lord.
(And how do we treat people….pastors, or others, who speak the sometimes harsh truth to us?)
Now I want to mention here, again the verse in Psalms….
“He brought me up also out of an horrible pit”. God brought Jeremiah up.
It was not that this cistern was deep….certainly it was….but that the mire in it made any sort of standing impossible. Every time he took a step, he slipped in it. Every time he stood still, it seemed to envelope him and strangle any hope of getting out! So he cried unto the Lord.
Lamentations 3:53-56 “They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.
I called upon Thy Name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice:…”
But God, through the working of a Gentile, worked in the very king that had forsaken Jeremiah to the princes….and he was “brought up”.
Jeremiah 38:7-10 “Now when Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs which was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon;….
Ebed-melech…spake to the king, saying,
My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet,….and he is like to die for hunger in the place where he is:…
Then the king commanded….take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon, before he die.”
God saved Jeremiah….from the pit….from the mire…and brought him up, with tender care….through this man.
(And how much could our words and actions keep other Christians from the malice and slander of others!)
Jeremiah 38:12-13 “And Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said unto Jeremiah, Put now these old cast clouts and rotten rags under things armholes under the cords. And Jeremiah did so.
So they drew up Jeremiah with cords, and took him up out of the dungeon….”
For the rest of the siege, at least two to three years, Jeremiah remained there…in prison, but in safety.
And so I want to contrast these two men who heard Jeremiah…and their very different actions (again it is not what we say, but what we do that matters)….
…Zedekiah, the king….and Ebed-melech, the Ethiopian:
Zedekiah the king heard Jeremiah personally, several times … .hearing from the Lord exactly what he should do to save Jerusalem…and he, and his family.
Jeremiah 38:17-18 “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:
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.”
Think of it! Deliverance from famine, captivity, and burning the city down…for the whole city! The king and his family would not die, although in subjection to the king of Babylon!
(Now we think of deliverance as victory over our enemies….riding triumphantly over the circumstances. But God said, be in subjection to the king of Babylon….learn to be in subjection to Me….and live. For this is true life….to be in submission to the Lord and HIs laws.)
Yet he refused….”I am afraid”….and for the next two years….he could have obeyed God’s Word and lived….and spared Jerusalem….but…again, he refused, and many paid the price for his disobedience.
Ebed-melech was an Ethiopian, yet he believed Jeremiah and God…and because he did, he risked his life to save Jeremiah…and was rewarded for his obedience to his faith in God.
Jeremiah 39:15-18 “Now the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah,…
Go and speak to Ebed-melech…saying….Behold, I will bring My words upon this city for evil and not for good;….
But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the Lord: and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid.
For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee (into his own keeping): because thou hast put thy trust in Me, saith the Lord.”
Both men, who heard Jeremiah in his most desperate need, were “afraid”….yet one refused the good word of deliverance, and lived in fear….the king dying at the hands of the king of Babylon.
And one, Ebed-melech….fearful, but he spoke up and acted, because he trusted in God….and was given his life and freedom.
God sees our fears, and troubles….and He, as the Lord of hosts…will act for our good, if we will learn to submit to HIs corrections….and His Word and live.
He has real freedom for us….real life. Let us do as Jeremiah says:
Lamentations 3:40-41 “Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.
Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.”
Preaching, Teaching, and Notes 