Jeremiah 38:23
All your wives and children will be brought out to the Chaldeans. And you yourself will not escape their grasp, for you will be seized by the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned down."
Sermons
The End of Zedekiah's IrresolutionD. Young Jeremiah 38:23
God's Terms of Salvation HardA.F. Muir Jeremiah 38:17-23














Irresolution it may be called rather than disobedience. There is nothing to show that he had definitely made up his mind not to obey the voice of the Lord. In spite of the clear announcement made to him, he seems to have gone on, hoping against hope that some decisive disaster would overtake the Chaldeans. Yet Jeremiah closes his address by this sentence, so well calculated to bring even an irresolute man to decision: "Thou shalt cause this city to be burned with fire."

I. A DECLARATION OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. Already in ver. 18 there is the declaration that the Chaldeans will burn the city with fire, and Zedekiah is well able to infer, if he likes, that this is a calamity he may prevent. But he is not left to inference. The prophet's exhortation goes on, maintaining its cogency and directness, and then in the last word he individually is made responsible. The sting of the address is emphatically in the tail. Zedekiah is now brought face to face with his obligations as a king. Jeremiah could not have said to any one else," Thou shalt cause this city to be burned with fire," because no one else could have set in train the course of events which would avert such a calamity. Here is an example to teach those who are tempted to envy the grandeur of kings and the fame of such as are ruling men in a state. Zedekiah's decision affected not himself only, or a few people, but a whole city. The responsibility was further increased by his having sent for the prophet who said this very thing. It is not every ruler who at a critical moment has his way made so clear as was the way of Zedekiah here. How much in the way of preventing evil may depend on one single man!

II. MATTER IS FURNISHED TO EMBITTER THE REFLECTIONS OF THE FUTURE. Whether Zedekiah saw the blazing city we cannot be sure. If he did, what a pang for his heart to think that the city where he was king, in which he and his ancestors had taken such pride, was burning, through his want of decision at a critical time! He feared to do what looked unpatriotic, and in the end he virtually destroyed the city he might have saved.

III. THERE WAS A LIMIT TO ZEDEKIAH'S POWER OVER THE SITUATION. Truly it was a great deal for one man to be able to do - either to save a city from the flames or hand it over to them. But this power only looks great according to the standard given by temporal and superficial relations. An almost boundless area for human powers and opportunities lay altogether outside of Zedekiah's reach. As man is unable purely by his own effort to confer the highest benefits on his fellow man, so he is also unable to inflict the worst evil. The worst evils are ever self-originated. Zedekiah did far more to hurt himself than any one else. Jeremiah had been charged to make it quite clear to every one that he who went forth to the Chaldeans should live. - Y.

I am afraid of the Jews.
I remember very well, when I first went out to Australia, that one fine evening a little bird was seen to be following the ship, evidently a land-bird driven out to sea. When the little thing got tired it tried to alight on some portion of the rigging, though it seemed afraid to do so. On one occasion the captain stretched forth his hand and tried to take hold of the little bird, but it eluded his grasp and went back far away into the darkness of the night, falling upon the waves without the hope of rescue.

(T. Spurgeon.)

Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the Lord
I remember, years ago, entering the bed-chamber of an eminent saint, one autumn morning, whose diminishing candles told how long he had been feeding on the Word of God. I asked him what had been the subject of his study. He said he had been engaged since four o'clock in discovering all the Lord's positive commandments, that he might be sure that he was not wittingly neglecting any one of them. It is very sad to find how many in the present day are neglecting to observe to do the Lord's precepts — concerning His ordinances, concerning the laying-up of money, the evangelisation of the world, and the manifestation of perfect love. They know the Lord's will, and do it not. They appear to think that they are absolved from that "observing to do," which was so characteristic of Deuteronomy. As though love were not more inexorable than law!

(F. B. Meyer, B. A.).

People
Babylonians, Benjamin, Ebedmelech, Gedaliah, Hammelech, Jehucal, Jeremiah, Jonathan, Jucal, Malchiah, Malchijah, Mattan, Pashur, Shelemiah, Shephatiah, Zedekiah
Places
Babylon, Benjamin Gate, Jerusalem
Topics
Babylon, Babylonians, Bring, Burned, Burnt, Captured, Caught, Cause, Chaldaeans, Chaldeans, Chalde'ans, Escape, Fire, Forth, Hands, Led, Seized, Sons, Town, Wives
Outline
1. Jeremiah, by a false suggestion, is put into the dungeon of Malchiah.
7. Ebed-Melech, by suit, gets him some enlargement.
14. Upon secret conference, he counsels the king by yielding to save his life.
24. By the king's instructions he conceals the conference from the princes.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Jeremiah 38:22

     8354   trustworthiness

Library
The Life of Mr. James Mitchel.
Mr. James Mitchel[152] was educated at the university of Edinburgh, and was, with some other of his fellow-students, made master of arts anno 1656. Mr. Robert Leighton (afterwards bishop Leighton), being then principal of that college, before the degree was conferred upon them, tendered to them the national and solemn league and covenant; which covenants, upon mature deliberation, he took, finding nothing in them but a short compend of the moral law, binding to our duty towards God and towards
John Howie—Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies)

Jeremiah
The interest of the book of Jeremiah is unique. On the one hand, it is our most reliable and elaborate source for the long period of history which it covers; on the other, it presents us with prophecy in its most intensely human phase, manifesting itself through a strangely attractive personality that was subject to like doubts and passions with ourselves. At his call, in 626 B.C., he was young and inexperienced, i. 6, so that he cannot have been born earlier than 650. The political and religious
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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