part0174

In Jeremiah 38:1-6, the Prophet Jeremiah was thrown into a cistern and left to die. Cisterns were large holes that had been dug into the earth, and they normally collected rain water for later use by the owner and his or her family. In modern times, people today would associate a cistern with a well, even though in Jeremiah’s days cisterns were usually rounded out in shape rather than being dug straight down like a deep shaft. The cistern, into which Jeremiah was thrown, was not filled with water at the time, but he still did not have any way to get out or to get food. If he had been left there for any length of time, he would have died of either exposure, starvation, or both. But in Jeremiah 38:7-13, a court official, named Ebed-Melech, told the king what had happened, and the king sent the official and thirty other men to pull him out.

Jeremiah had been thrown into the cistern because he had told the people of Jerusalem that they would soon be overthrown by the Babylonians. They had retaliated against the prophet because they did not want to hear his negative words about their falling in battle or going into captivity. But Jeremiah was a faithful prophet of God, and he told them the truth despite its unpopular tone. In Jeremiah 38:14-28, he also told the king that the Babylonians would soon be overthrowing Jerusalem. He urged him to surrender, and the king listened intently. But in Jeremiah 39:1-7, the king did not take Jeremiah’s advice, and in the end, it cost him. When the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, came against Jerusalem, King Zedekiah tried to escape. But the Babylonians chased him down, killed his sons before his eyes, put his eyes out, and then hauled him off to Babylon to live out his final days. By contrast, in Jeremiah 39:11-14, Nebuchadnezzar took very good care of Jeremiah and even allowed him to go back home to be with his own people. So, once again, God allowed the ungodly and the rebellious to fall, but He took very good care of His own.