Deadly Defiance

Jeremiah 36–38

Main Idea: Obedience costs, but defiance toward God’s word is deadly.

1. The Story of the Book (36)
   1. Scene One: The scroll is read (36:4-10).
   2. Scene Two: The scroll is read before the secretary (36:11-19).
   3. Scene Three: The scroll is read to the king (36:20-26).
   4. Scene Four: The second edition (36:27-32)
2. Jeremiah in Prison (37)
   1. Setting: Zedekiah is willfully deaf (37:1-2).
   2. Scene One: The king seeks out Jeremiah (37:3-10).
   3. Scene Two: Jeremiah is imprisoned (37:11-21).
3. The Story of the Pit (38)
   1. Setting: Jeremiah upsets the wrong people (38:1-5).
   2. Scene One: Jeremiah is thrown into the pit (38:6).
   3. Scene Two: Jeremiah is delivered (38:7-16).
   4. Scene Three: The king’s counselor (38:17-28)

Nothing about ministry is easy. Life is tough and ministry is tougher. Sometimes we do not know which way is up. Sometimes we feel unfairly treated. Sometimes desperation is so thick it follows us like a fog in a demented cartoon. Careless words, caustic people, and friends who act like enemies are things those committed to a life of ministry will all have to face.

What makes this bearable is the call of God, of course; the knowledge that we are set apart for this makes any other type of life unthinkable. Yet something else sustains us: the life of the sheep. One can only imagine that the difficulty of walking sheep to water, protecting them from wolves, and retrieving them when they are errant is tempered by the sight of a ewe lamb just learning to take her legs. The travails of the hard days mix with the joys of the good days giving us hope. So there it is. A life of long days and monotonous days sprinkled with days of inexplicable joy. This is the life of a minister.

What we have here are three stories that seem unconnected. However, they carry a central theme: a willing and obedient prophet and two defiant kings. On the surface the stories seem to answer a question about the high cost of obedience to God. In the end they also answer the question about the even higher cost of disobedience.

The Story of the Book

Jeremiah 36

Scene One: The Scroll Is Read (36:4-10)

The word Jeremiah receives is read to the people on a day of fasting. This would have been a day that there was a significant crowd, ensuring that his message has a large audience.

The motivation for the reading is fascinating. In verse 7 we find the hopeful words of Jeremiah to Baruch:

Perhaps their petition will come before the Lord, and each one will turn from his evil way, for the anger and fury that the Lord has pronounced against this people are intense.

We might think this is ridiculous. After all Jeremiah has been through, why is he expending emotional energy on the false hope that the people will repent? It seems naïve at best. Yet this is also God’s perspective. God has been consistently hopeful that they would repent. Compare Jeremiah 26:3 with 36:3:

Perhaps they will listen and turn—each from his evil way of life—so that I might relent concerning the disaster that I plan to do to them because of the evil of their deeds. (26:3)

Perhaps when the house of Judah hears about all the disaster I am planning to bring on them, each one of them will turn from his evil way. Then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin. (36:3)

God’s optimism is like a gentle ray of light breaking through the rock of their hard hearts. He is trying to get through to them and offering them every opportunity to repent.

Scene Two: The Scroll Is Read before the Secretary (36:11-19)

The scroll causes quite a stir and is read before all the king’s officials. They tell Baruch and Jeremiah to hide, and they hold on to the scroll.

Scene Three: The Scroll Is Read to the King (36:20-26)

Eventually the scroll finds its way into the courtyard of the king. The plot thickens! It is wintertime and the king is in his winter house enjoying a fire. As the scroll was read, the king would cut off columns of the scroll and throw them into the fire.

From the bonfire of the vanities during the times of Savonarola, book burning has a long and rich history. However, the point here is not purity in literature or censorship; the point here is clear defiance. Look carefully at verses 24-25:

As they heard all these words, the king and all of his servants did not become terrified or tear their clothes. Even though Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah had urged the king not to burn the scroll, he did not listen to them.

The problem was that they were not scared. This is disconcerting because Jeremiah’s words were scary. The king and his servants were so full of themselves that they were not willing to fear what should have evoked terror. The editor wants us to see this clearly when he emphasizes that they did not tear their clothes, which would have been a sign of contrition. Even after being urged by others not to burn the scroll, the king continued to do so. He was completely defiant to the words of God through Jeremiah.

It is interesting to look at the other characters in this story.

The friends of the king (Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah) were good friends: they were scared because the king was not scared. Good friends help us identify strains of bad in our hearts based on our attitudes and emotions. They warned against where the king was going.

The king in the story is representative of so many people in the book of Jeremiah who were defiant toward God’s word. Perhaps the most vulnerable position we can be in is when we outright reject God’s word. This is the definition of wickedness according to Psalm 1—the person who does not submit himself to God. When we reject God’s Word, we reject the means by which he will purify us (Eph 5:26). We miss the direction and comfort that comes from knowing God’s Word (Ps 119:50). We miss the peace of God (Ps 119:165). All of these things we forfeit when we do not have a love for God’s Word.

When we do have a love for the Word of God, we hate falsehood: “I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your instruction” (Ps 119:163). To love the Word is to hate the things that challenge it, so then by default we are loving what is wrong and hating what is right! The person who rejects the Word of God cannot really know the truth about so many things because he or she rejects the source of truth, which is God.

Worst of all, the person who rejects the Word of God rejects Christ himself. Christ is the image of God (Col 1:15); he is the Word (John 1:1-5); and he is made known to us through the Word. The Word of God leads us to the Son of God. To reject the Word is to reject Christ, and to reject Christ is to reject the Father. This is why in Proverbs 4:7 Solomon would plead with his son,

Wisdom is supreme—so get wisdom.

And whatever else you get, get understanding.

This idea that wisdom came from God, and further that we should respond to the wisdom of the Lord in humility and reverence, was not unfamiliar to the king. He knew this. Therefore, those standing with him—and the author of Jeremiah—want us to see that he is defiant against what he knew to be right.

How does he act so brazenly against the word of God? Well, there seems to be an implicit alibi in the text: the prophet. God’s holy word is delivered to the king. The king rejects the word, and then the king finds a way to excuse his disobedience: blame Jeremiah. I do the same thing. The conviction of the Lord will be coming to me from his Word, and I mentally drift to reasons I do not want to obey. Good reasons. Justifiable reasons. I can always blame the preacher; I don’t like what he is doing or the way he is saying it. Like the king, I need to cover the tracks of my disobedience.

So after hearing these words, the king decides to take out Jeremiah and Baruch. However, God hides them (36:26).

Scene Four: The Second Edition (36:27-32)

And this is where the story gets interesting. Jeremiah publishes a second edition. What’s more, this second edition has more information than the first (v. 32)!

In the end Jeremiah escapes unharmed, the people who warn the king have a clear conscience, and the judgment prophesied against the king does not change—in fact, it gets stronger. A defiant heart has stoked the fires of God’s wrath. It always does. Defiance against God’s Word is deadly.

Jeremiah in Prison

Jeremiah 37

Setting: Zedekiah Is Willfully Deaf (37:1-2)

Zedekiah is the new king, but tragically it is said, “He and his officers and the people of the land did not obey the words of the Lord that he spoke through the prophet Jeremiah” (37:2). Nevertheless, the weight of impending doom eventually bears so heavily that the king seeks out Jeremiah.

Scene One: The King Seeks Out Jeremiah (37:3-10)

The king requests prayer and receives an interesting answer. The prayer is not a prayer of repentance; it is a prayer for deliverance. However, it was the greatest military strategy possible. In the world of warfare, what you want is battle awareness, and this is exactly what the king heard from Jeremiah. God told Jeremiah that the threat of Egypt would remove the Chaldeans from their siege, yet the removal of the siege was only temporary.

Scene Two: Jeremiah Is Imprisoned (37:11-21)

Jeremiah is imprisoned based on false accusations. After a series of events and a long period of time, he petitions to get out of the dungeon and is sent to the court of the guard where he stays.

So now the king is positioned in the best way possible. He has the greatest intelligence anyone could provide from the most intelligent source. This is shocking. He asked for prayer and he gets the prayer, plus he gets military intelligence! Yet he did not want it.

This short story is a metaphor for what is going on in the whole book. God is offering wisdom and counsel, and they are, each time, summarily rejected. The price that will be paid for this attitude is high. Right now it appears that only Jeremiah is paying a high price, but this is about to change.

The Story of the Pit

Jeremiah 38

Setting: Jeremiah Upsets the Wrong People (38:1-5)

Jeremiah is still prophesying that the city will be destroyed and that all those who stay in the city will be doomed. His message is no more popular than when he first proclaimed it. Jeremiah has not changed. He has heard a call from God, and he keeps preaching until God tells him to stop. Nothing has changed with Jeremiah, but the people—well, that is a different story. The constant message has changed something in their hearts, namely, their tolerance for the message. It’s gone. They are fed up. Throughout the book you see a general rejection of Jeremiah’s message, but in this passage the officials have had enough. They appeal to the king who, in a tone similar to Pilate’s at the trial of Jesus, gives them the green light to do what they wish.

Scene One: Jeremiah Is Thrown into the Pit (38:6)

They take Jeremiah and throw him down a well. They have found a cistern that is dried up, and they place him down in it. The cistern has no water, just mud. As the prophet is lowered to the bottom of this cistern, his feet sink down into the thick mud. We can imagine it was deep and narrow. No way down, up, around, or out. He is stuck. I’ve felt stuck before in life but just metaphorically. Jeremiah is stuck literally.

Perhaps it is not an accident in the text, but in reading this we can’t help but think of the initial criticism God had against Israel in 2:12-13 when God said,

Be appalled at this, heavens;

be shocked and utterly desolated!

This is the Lord’s declaration.

For my people have committed a double evil:

They have abandoned me,

the fountain of living water,

and dug cisterns for themselves—

cracked cisterns that cannot hold water.

The people reached up and cut off the source of eternal, never-ceasing, living water. They reached down and dug wells that could not hold water. So it’s a little more than interesting that they find an empty well so quickly. It’s a perfect place to stick a prophet. They do not want to hear from God, so they cut off the supply of God’s living word by sticking him into an empty well.

And then silence. The prophet cannot be heard. He is muted. Their desire for their broken word is stronger than their desire for the living word.

Scene Two: Jeremiah Is Delivered (38:7-16)

The deliverance of Jeremiah is significant. The story will surface again when his deliverer, Ebed-melech, is rewarded by God for putting his trust in God. When Jerusalem falls, God will say to Ebed-melech,

But I will rescue you on that day—this is the Lord’s declaration—and you will not be handed over to the men you dread. Indeed, I will certainly deliver you so that you do not fall by the sword. Because you have trusted in me, you will retain your life like the spoils of war. This is the Lord’s declaration. (39:17-18)

Ebed-melech will be rescued because he rescued the man of God. We all need people to lift us out of a pit, but the reading of 38:7-9 hints that something more is going on. Ebed-melech is not just trying to make friends. He is not trying to help someone out. He is exercising faith in God. It is the other side of 1 Samuel 16:7. Man could only see the Cushite servant; God, however, was looking on his heart.

Scene Three: The King’s Counselor (38:17-28)

Then, oddly perhaps, in a breath Jeremiah goes from down in a pit into the king’s palace. This was the nature of the prophet’s life. The king wanted a private consultation with Jeremiah. So, as a counselor to the king, Jeremiah has an opportunity to shape the future of the kingdom. In that moment he does not equivocate. He tells the same truth that he has always being saying. However, in the presence of the king, he does not miss the opportunity to press the king to respond. He tells him specifically to surrender and obey (vv. 17-18, 20). Surrender to God, surrender to his will, which means surrender to the king of Babylon.

This appeal given in the private quarters of the king is in shocking contrast to what is coming. In chapter 39 the king will be caught trying to escape. He will be subjected to gruesome torture, his officials and sons killed, and his palace burned. It seems that the king thought escape was an option. It was not. Surrender was the only means of keeping his life, though it would mean losing the kingdom. The refusal to surrender still meant he would lose his kingdom, and he would lose so much more.

This is the question we face: How much do we want to lose? If we surrender to God, we lose. We give up. We die. Yet, if we don’t surrender to Christ, we give up so much more. The different price tags on these surrenders are what bring these stories together.

Conclusion

While these stories may seem different, they really are much more alike. In the first narrative King Jehoiakim is so defiant against the word that he cannot weep when the destruction is foretold. In the second story the replacement king will not listen to Jeremiah either, and Jeremiah is persecuted. In the final story the new king is given an opportunity to change, an opportunity to humble himself. Will he do so? That question will be answered in the next chapter. For now it’s enough to gather this simple truth: defiance against God’s word is deadly.

Defiance cost King Jehoiakim an opportunity to repent, an opportunity to live. In the second story defiance cost Zedekiah a chance to repent, and in the final story defiance against the word appears as if it is going to cost Zedekiah everything.

We began by discussing the nature of the call to ministry. It is in fact a costly call. If you choose to follow Christ, it will take a certain toll on your self-perception. We ask, Who am I in a world that does not know what to do with Christ? It will cost financially, as you will not be living for the kingdom of this world. It might cost you the love of family and the respect of peers. It will cost you the toll of being misunderstood. All of these things we can of course bring on ourselves; that is never justified. Yet all of these things we have to willingly embrace; that is to be expected. There is a high cost to obedience. Jeremiah had his book rejected, was lied about, and then was tortured in a pit. Obedience has its price. But so does disobedience.

As the curtain closes on their narratives, the high cost of defiance against the word is clearly much greater than submitting gladly to the word.

This reminds us of one of the strangest stories Jesus ever told, that of the rich man and Lazarus, in Luke 16:19-31. The rich man is apparently blessed; he has everything in life. He has everything but respect for God’s Word and love for others. Lazarus is apparently cursed; he has nothing. He has no money; he has no health. The two could not be more different. Yet Jesus throws a massive twist in the story when in the first scene the two die, and the rich man goes to hell and the poor man goes to heaven. The listening audience would have been shocked! Wealth, for the audience to whom Jesus was speaking, was a sign of blessing, and poverty a sign of cursing. How could that be their destiny?

It’s the most extreme role reversal they could imagine:

• The rich man was feasting while Lazarus begged; now Lazarus is feasting while the rich man begs.
• The poor man wanted what the rich man would not give; now the rich man wants what the poor man cannot give.
• The rich man gorged himself daily while Lazarus starved; now Lazarus is feasting while the rich man wants a drop of water.
• The rich man was so blessed and Lazarus was so cursed; now we see the reality: Lazarus was blessed and the rich man was cursed.

In the end of the story, the rich man needs Lazarus’s help, which is ironic: Lazarus was the rich man’s only problem; now the rich man sees Lazarus as his only solution.

This story helps illustrate suffering. The suffering the poor man endured on earth was horrible, excruciating, real, and temporary. The pain the rich man felt after death was eternal. If you can pan out far enough, you can see that the high price for following Christ is much less than the higher price of defying him.

Life is hard and ministry is harder, but it comes with a reward. The story in Jeremiah gives the sense that the prophet could not imagine disobeying God, and the kings could not imagine obeying him.

Obedience costs, but defiance toward God’s Word is deadly.

Reflect and Discuss

1. What is the connection between the three stories in Jeremiah 36–38, which initially seem unrelated?
2. How is a rejection of the Word a rejection of Christ himself?
3. In what way does obedience cost? How is disobedience to God’s word deadly?
4. Does the king in the story (Jer 36) represent the people who are defiant against God’s word? If so, how?
5. Agree or disagree: We are in a most vulnerable position when we reject God’s Word.
6. In what way does a love for God’s Word produce within us a heart that despises evil?
7. In chapter 37 the king asked Jeremiah to pray about deliverance, not repentance. What is the difference between these two types of prayer?
8. Is the short story in Jeremiah 37 a metaphor for what is going on in the whole book? What is God offering Israel, and in what way does Israel reject this offer?
9. What do we, as Christians, lose when we surrender to God? What do we lose when we refuse to surrender to God?
10. Defiance cost King Jehoiakim and Zedekiah an opportunity to repent. What is the high cost of continuously rejecting God?