Jeremiah 38:1 - Meaning and Application

Jeremiah keeps preaching plainly. He says again what he has said many times before: this city will be handed over to the king of Babylon (Jeremiah 38:3). Even if the city holds out for a long time, it will be taken in the end. He repeats this hard message because he can still offer the people a sure way to save themselves, if not the city.

He tells them that each man can save his life if he listens (Jeremiah 38:2). He must not stay in the city, hoping to defend it, because that will be useless. Instead, he should go out to the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, and give himself up to their mercy before matters become desperate. Then he will live, for they will not kill him by the sword, and he will escape the famine and plague that will kill many inside the city. Those do better for themselves who quietly submit to God’s corrections than those who fight against them. If we cannot keep our freedom, it is still a mercy to keep our lives, and not throw them away over a point of pride. Those lives may yet be kept for better days.

The princes still hate Jeremiah. He had been faithful to his country and to his calling as a prophet, even though he had suffered often for that faithfulness. At this time he was allowed the king’s food, but that did not silence him. His enemies were still bitter, and they complained about his freedom to move around in the court of the prison. Since he could not go to the temple to preach, he said the same things in private to those who visited him, and so they told the king he was dangerous and against both the nation and the government (Jeremiah 38:4). They said, “He is not seeking the good of this people, but their harm,” which was a false charge, since no one had done more for Jerusalem’s good than Jeremiah had. They also claimed that his preaching weakened the people and discouraged them. In truth, its purpose was to lead them to repent and turn to God, which would have strengthened both soldiers and citizens. If it discouraged them, that was their own fault. Wicked people often treat God’s faithful ministers as enemies, only because those ministers show them how they are hurting themselves while they remain unrepentant.

So Jeremiah, with the king’s permission, is put into a dungeon, with the clear intention that he will die there. Zedekiah, king of Judah, felt that Jeremiah was truly a prophet sent by God, but he did not have the courage to say so openly. He gave in to the violence of the princes and said, “He is in your hand” (Jeremiah 38:5). He could hardly have spoken a worse sentence. In Jehoiakim’s day, the princes had been more favorable to the prophet than the king was, but now they had grown far more hostile, which showed they were moving quickly toward ruin. If this had touched his own honor or profit, Zedekiah would have acted like a king and shown his authority. But in God’s cause, and for God’s prophet, he was cold and cowardly. Those will have much to answer for who privately respect good people, but will not own them when they need help, nor do what they can to stop harm coming to them.

With the king’s general approval, the princes immediately lower poor Jeremiah into the dungeon of Malchiah, which was in the court of the prison (Jeremiah 38:6). It was a deep pit, since they let him down with ropes, and it was filthy, because there was no water in it, only mud. Josephus says he sank into the mud up to his neck. Those who put him there clearly meant for him to die there, by hunger or cold, and to die in a hidden way. They likely feared that if they killed him openly, the people might be moved by what he had said and turn against them. Many faithful witnesses of God have been quietly put out of the way like this, starved to death in prisons, and their blood will be called to account on the day when all things are made known. We are not told here what Jeremiah did in that distress, but he tells us himself, “I called on your name, O Lord, from the low dungeon, and you came near, saying, Fear not” (Lamentations 3:55, Lamentations 3:57).

Then an honest courtier, Ebed-melech, one of the king’s attendants, makes a plea to the king for the poor sufferer. The princes had handled the matter as secretly as they could, but it came to this good man’s ears, likely because he was looking for ways to do good. He may have learned of it from Jeremiah’s cries in the dungeon, since it was in the king’s house (Jeremiah 38:7). Ebed-melech was an Ethiopian, a foreigner to Israel, yet he showed more kindness and more godliness than native Israelites did. Christ later found more faith among Gentiles than among Jews. Living in a wicked court and in a corrupt age, Ebed-melech still kept a strong sense of justice and reverence for God. God has a remnant everywhere, among every kind of people. There were saints even in Caesar’s household.

The king was sitting in the gate of Benjamin, where causes were tried and appeals or requests were heard, or perhaps where he was holding a war council. Ebed-melech went to him at once, because the matter could not wait. Jeremiah might have died if he had delayed or waited for a private chance to speak. When life is in danger, no time should be lost, especially when it is such a valuable life. He boldly says Jeremiah has been done great wrong, and he is not afraid to tell the king so, even though the men who did it were princes, even though they were present, and even though they acted with the king’s authority. Where should innocent people go for protection but to the throne, especially when great men are the ones oppressing them? Ebed-melech shows real courage here.

He does not soften his words. Though he held a place at court and could have lost it by speaking so plainly, he tells the king honestly, “These men have done badly in everything they have done to Jeremiah.” They had treated him unjustly, since he did not deserve punishment. They had also treated him cruelly, in a way they would not usually treat even the worst criminals. And they had no need to put him to this miserable death, because if they had left him where he was, he was already likely to die of hunger there in the court of the prison. There was barely any bread left in the city, and the supplies from which he was to receive food (Jeremiah 37:21) were almost gone.

See how God can raise up friends for his people in trouble, friends they would never have expected. He can also move people to serve him beyond what anyone would think possible. The king had just been afraid to act against the princes, yet now his heart is changed at once. He orders Jeremiah to be brought out, even though the princes oppose it, and he sends no fewer than thirty men from the guard to do it, in case the princes try to stir up resistance (Jeremiah 38:10). Let this encourage us to speak boldly for God. We may succeed better than we expect, because the hearts of kings are in God’s hand.

Ebed-melech got what he asked for and quickly brought Jeremiah the good news. It is worth noticing how carefully Scripture describes the way Jeremiah was pulled out of the dungeon. God is not unfair to forget any work of love shown to his people or his servants, and he does not forget even the smallest detail of it (Hebrews 6:10). Special notice is given to Ebed-melech’s tenderness. He provided old soft rags for Jeremiah to put under his arms so the ropes would not hurt him, since his arms had likely been rubbed raw by the ropes used to lower him down. He did not throw the rags down, where they might have been lost in the mud. He carefully lowered them to Jeremiah instead (Jeremiah 38:11-12).

Those in distress should be helped with kindness and respect, not just rescued. God sees all of this, and he will remember it at the time of reward. Even old, worn-out rags can be put to good use, so they should not be wasted any more than leftover food. In the king’s house, even under the treasury, such things were carefully kept for the poor or the sick.

Jeremiah was brought up out of the dungeon and returned to the court of the prison, where he had been before (Jeremiah 38:13). Ebed-melech may have been able to press further and ask the king to release him completely, now that he had the king’s ear. But he seems to have thought Jeremiah safer and better provided for there than anywhere else. God can, when he chooses, make a prison into a shelter and hiding place for his people in danger.