“Sunk in the Mud” [Matt's Messages] ~ Matt Mitchell

“Sunk in the Mud”

Uprooted - The Words of Jeremiah

Lanse Evangelical Free Church

February 12, 2023 :: Jeremiah 37:1-38:28

It sure did not feel like the people of God had a hope or a future. When God gave that promise to Jeremiah, the Babylonians were at the walls, ready to burn down the city of Jerusalem and drag the people of Judah into exile.

And yet God spoke this word of promise to them.

He knows the plans He has for them. They are good plans, peaceful plans, plans of shalom, plans of well-being, plans of true prosperity, plans not to harm them to but give them hope and a glorious future. But first must come the judgment of God.

Chapters 37 through 44 are, strangely enough, in roughly chronological order. We’ve gotten used to Jeremiah jumping around a lot. Last week was 605 BC. This week will be 589 BC. Last week was Jehoiakim. This week it’s back to Zedekiah. But the next several chapters unfold pretty much chronologically as they tell the terrible unfolding story of the fall of Jerusalem.

The city is under siege, and we know that it will fall.

We’ve know that from the beginning! Reading Jeremiah is kind of like a sports team watching game tape of the last game when their team lost. You know already that it was a disaster. Now you are doing the post-mortem. What went wrong? You’ve got the black box out of the airplane, and now the safety team is downloading the information from the flight recorder to see what caused the crash. What failed?

We’ve said that this section of Jeremiah could be called the Book of Failures. The kings especially. And we’re supposed to learn from their failures. In today’s two chapters, we see the failures of King Zedekiah, the wishy-washy one. And we learn that his failure was, in large part, a failure of courage. And because of his lack of courage, everybody suffers. He suffers. His people suffer. And the prophet Jeremiah suffers, greatly.

The LORD told Jeremiah it was going be like this.

When the LORD called Jeremiah to be a prophet, He told him that it was going to be really really hard. I went back this week and re-read chapter 1. It’s been 10 months since we started into Jeremiah. This is the 30th message in this series. It’s kind of hard to remember what was in chapter 1 when you’re in chapter 37.

But the LORD said that it was going to be hard. Listen. He said, (chapter 1, verse 7) “[Jeremiah,] you must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,’ declares the LORD” (Jer. 1:7-8 NIVO).

That was from chapter 1. That was almost forty years earlier than what we’re going to read today in chapter 37.

He said, (chapter 1, verse 15), “I am about to summon all the peoples of the northern kingdoms,’ declares the LORD. ‘Their kings will come and set up their thrones in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem; they will come against all her surrounding walls and against all the towns of Judah. I will pronounce my judgments on my people because of their wickedness in forsaking me, in burning incense to other gods and in worshiping what their hands have made. [Sounds pretty hard to me. Then He said:]

‘Get yourself ready [Jeremiah]! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them. Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land–against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,’ declares the LORD” (Jer. 1:15-19 NIVO).

The LORD told Jeremiah what it was going to be like.

And how he should be courageous. I love that image of Jeremiah as the fortified city, the iron pillar, and the bronze wall. I want to be that. I want us to be that! That’s one of the big reasons why I picked Jeremiah for our church this last year. So that we could develop that kind of prophetic courage as God’s people.

But it comes with a cost. Being truly courageous will often mean truly suffering. How often did Jeremiah suffer? How often did he weep? We’ve seen him be beaten. We’ve seen him be mocked and ridiculed. We’ve seen him be ostracized. We’ve seen his neighbors conspire against him. We’ve seen him be confined and imprisoned.

But I’m not sure that it ever got worse than the story we’re about to read. This is probably the lowest point in Jeremiah’s painful prophetic life. When he goes down into the mud. “Sunk in the Mud.”

Let’s see how he gets there and what we can learn from it for our own lives today. Let’s read. Chapter 37, verse 1.

“Zedekiah son of Josiah was made king of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; he reigned in place of Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim. Neither he nor his attendants nor the people of the land paid any attention to the words the LORD had spoken through Jeremiah the prophet.” Let’s stop there as we begin.

Zedekiah was never meant to be king. His nephew was king. Jehoiachin also known as Coniah, the son of that rascal Jehoiakim was supposed to be king. But Nebuchadnezzar has taken Jehoiachin into exile and put his uncle Zedekiah on the throne. He the last son of David to sit there.

And he was terrible at it. He could never quite make up his mind. He had no courage. He was like a weather-vane. Whichever way the wind blew is the direction he was headed in. He went in whatever direction seemed right at the time...except when the LORD told him what to do. Then he always seemed to find an excuse to not do it.

Verse 2 says it all, right? “Neither [Zedekiah] nor his attendants nor the people of the land paid any attention to the words the LORD had spoken through Jeremiah the prophet.” They never sang, “Here’s my heart, Lord! Speak what is true.”

Zedekiah may not have cut up the word of God and fed it piece by piece in the fire, but he was no better than his brother who did. Because he didn’t listen to the word of God.

Let’s make this application point number one of three this morning. And they’re all about having courage.

#1. HAVE THE COURAGE TO LISTEN TO GOD’S WORD.

Have the courage to truly listen to the word of God.

All of Zedekiah’s worst problems would have been solved if he had had the courage to do that. To listen to God’s Word.

And it does take courage. God often says things we don’t want to hear. And He asks us to change in ways we don’t want to change. Sometimes those changes are even painful. But they’re always good.

Have you made any changes this week after encountering chapter 36 last Sunday? Have you opened your Bible once again? Where are you at in your Bible right now? Can you answer that if you couldn’t answer it last week? Where are you at in your Bible? What is God saying to you these days in His Word? Do you have the courage to listen? To hear and to obey?

Zedekiah did not. And yet he had the temerity to ask God to help him! Look at verse 3.

“[They paid no “attention to the words the LROD had spoken through Jeremiah the prophet...] King Zedekiah, however, sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah with the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to Jeremiah the prophet with this message: ‘Please pray to the LORD our God for us.’”

That’s not courage, but it is chutzpah.

“I’m not listening to God, but I wonder if He might listen to you, Jeremiah. I have a little request. There are these Babylonians who were attacking us. And they’ve gone away. They have pulled back to fight against the Egyptians. Do you think you could ask the LORD to make that permanent? Just keep them away?”

Zedekiah keeps coming back to Jeremiah over and over again. And he always has these requests. These questions and needs. He knows that Jeremiah is a true prophet of God, and he keeps hoping that maybe the LORD would have a different message this time than the last time. Because he didn’t like what heard last time. And he wasn’t about to actually do what the LORD was saying he should.

He was a coward. No repentance, just a prayer that God would get them out of trouble.

Have you seen that before? Have you done that before? “Lord, I don’t want actually change, but would you bless me anyway?” “I don’t want to listen, but I still need your help.”

What’s amazing is that LORD often does come through. He is amazingly gracious. How many times has He rescued Jerusalem? But this is the end of the line. Verse 4.

“Now Jeremiah was free to come and go among the people, for he had not yet been put in prison. Pharaoh's army had marched out of Egypt, and when the Babylonians who were besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they withdrew from Jerusalem. Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet:

‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of me, 'Pharaoh's army, which has marched out to support you, will go back to its own land, to Egypt. Then the Babylonians will return and attack this city; they will capture it and burn it down.'

‘This is what the LORD says: Do not deceive yourselves, thinking, 'The Babylonians will surely leave us.' They will not! Even if you were to defeat the entire Babylonian army that is attacking you and only wounded men were left in their tents, they would come out and burn this city down” (vv.4-11).

In other words, “No, Zedekiah, you are not going to win.”

Jeremiah was not going to pray for them to get out of this jam once again. The LORD was going to use the Babylonians to overthrow the city and bring His judgment.

I love the hyperbole of verse 11. Even if you wound every Babylonian, and they are all fighting with one arm bandaged up, they will still win and bring this city down. Because the LORD is doing it. Listen. You have failed to listen, and you will reap the consequences.”

This message did not make Jeremiah any more popular than he already was. For forty years, he’s been saying that this was coming, and now it’s here. And that has made for him some enemies. Look at verse 11.

“After the Babylonian army had withdrawn from Jerusalem because of Pharaoh's army, Jeremiah started to leave the city to go to the territory of Benjamin to get his share of the property among the people there. [Maybe laying the groundwork for the real-estate deal we learned about in chapter 32. That came later, but this might have been connected to it. Either way, the armies have retreated, so you can go in and out of the gates of Jerusalem, and Jeremiah tried to go out himself to head home to Anathoth and do some business. V.13]

But when he reached the Benjamin Gate, the captain of the guard, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, arrested him and said, ‘You are deserting to the Babylonians!’ ‘That's not true!’ Jeremiah said. ‘I am not deserting to the Babylonians.’ But Irijah would not listen to him; instead, he arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. They were angry with Jeremiah and had him beaten and imprisoned in the house of Jonathan the secretary, which they had made into a prison. Jeremiah was put into a vaulted cell in a dungeon, where he remained a long time.”

That’s terrible! That Jeremiah would be accused of treason? Yes, he has told the leaders that they should surrender, but he’s not become a defector to the other side!

And without trial, he experiences police brutality. They put him in cuffs and then beat him. They womp on him and then they toss him in “the hole.” Why? Because he was a traitor?

No. Because he stuck to God’s Word.

#2. HAVE THE COURAGE TO STICK TO GOD’S WORD.

They were angry with Jeremiah because they didn’t like his message. If he had a different message, they’d be fine with him and find someone else to stick in their dank dark dungeon. But Jeremiah has been a broken record about the broken covenant for forty long years, and he’s not about to change now. Even though they try to break him. V.16 “Jeremiah was put into a vaulted cell in a dungeon, where he remained a long time.” Jeremiah is not a young man any more. He’s, what, around 60? He’s been preaching the same thing for 40 years, and now he’s in stuck in the hole. For a long time.

Eventually, Zedekiah wants to talk to him again. This is his pattern. Like a yo-yo. He brings Jeremiah up blinking from being in hole. V.17

“Then King Zedekiah sent for him and had him brought to the palace, where he asked him privately, ‘Is there any word from the LORD?’”

Isn’t that fascinating? Zedekiah is the king of Judah, and Jeremiah is locked in one of his dungeons, but the king is asking the prophet if God has a word for him. He knows! He knows that Jeremiah is legit.

And Jeremiah, “Yeah,” there is a word from God. V.17 “‘Yes,’ Jeremiah replied, ‘you will be handed over to the king of Babylon.’” That’s the word! Same word as last time. Same word as the time before that. You haven’t changed. You haven’t repented. You repented of your repentance! When the Babylonians took the pressure off, you and your cronies ran around town kidnaping and re-enslaving your kinsmen. No, there is no new happy message for you, Zedekiah. Just the same one as always. “You will be handed over to the king of Babylon.” Deal with it.

Think about it, though. If Jeremiah had changed his message, he could probably have gotten out of the dungeon. Maybe even gotten a promotion! But instead, he stuck with God’s Word. He was an iron pillar, a bronze wall, a fortified city. He stuck with God’s Word.

Of course, that didn’t mean that he was literally made of iron and bronze. He was a man of flesh and blood. And this solitary confinement was killing him. So he complains to Zedekiah. Verse 18.

“Then Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, ‘What crime have I committed against you or your officials or this people, that you have put me in prison? [I’m innocent.] Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, 'The king of Babylon will not attack you or this land'?” (vv.18-19).

“He has attacked! Where is Hananiah with his breaking the wooden yoke? ‘Two years and it will all be over.’ They were wrong about everything. I’ve been right about everything. Why am I in prison?” (V.2).

“But now, my lord the king, please listen. Let me bring my petition before you: Do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the secretary, or I will die there.’ King Zedekiah then gave orders for Jeremiah to be placed in the courtyard of the guard and given bread from the street of the bakers each day until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard” (vv.20-21).

Zedekiah knows that he’s in the wrong. So he gives orders for Jeremiah to be under house arrest, and that’s how Cousin Hanamel finds him in chapter 32 to try to get Jeremiah to buy that field.

But Jeremiah’s troubles are not over. In fact, it’s going to get much worse. Chapter 38, verse 1.

“Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malkijah heard what Jeremiah was telling all the people when he said, ‘This is what the LORD says: 'Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague, but whoever goes over to the Babylonians will live. He will escape with his life; he will live.' And this is what the LORD says: 'This city will certainly be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon, who will capture it'” (vv.1-3).

So Jeremiah was not trying to defect, but he has urged the people of Jerusalem to surrender. And he has said over and over and over again that the city is going to fall. He said that for forty years. He’s stuck with the word of God. He has been a broken record about the broken covenant and the broken and burnt city that will come of it. And these guys are fed up with it. They think that he’s the problem. Jeremiah is the problem. And they want to get rid of him. So they go to the king and make their case. Verse 4.

“Then the officials said to the king, ‘This man should be put to death. He is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, as well as all the people, by the things he is saying to them. This man is not seeking the good of these people but their ruin.’”

They are right and they are wrong. They are right that he is discouraging. He would never be allowed on Jerusalem’s K-Love. Jeremiah is not positive and encouraging 24/7. But they are wrong that he is seeking their ruin. He is seeking their good. And the word for “good” there in verse 4 is “shalom.” He is seeking their prosperity, peace, and welfare. His message has stayed the same because it’s true and good! But they hate that message, so they hate that messenger. And they are talking to the wishy-washiest king Judah ever had. So, he, like Pilate will later do, washes his hands of the prophet. Verse 5.

“‘He is in your hands,’ King Zedekiah answered. ‘The king can do nothing to oppose you.’” How weak. How pathetic! What a “profile in courage” Zedekiah is. He might not have had the power to overrule these guys. His hold in the throne was shaky, I’m sure. But he knew what was right and didn’t do it. He failed to have courage.

#3. HAVE THE COURAGE TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT.

Zedekiah did not, and it mean that Jeremiah hit the bottom. Literally, the bottom of the cistern. Verse 6.

“So they took Jeremiah and put him into the cistern of Malkijah, the king's son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the cistern; it had no water in it, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.”

For me, that is one of the scariest verses in the whole book of Jeremiah. These guys were cowards, too. They wanted Jeremiah to be dead, but they didn’t want actually have to kill him themselves. So they put him down below the dungeon. They put him into a cistern. Kind of like when Joseph’s brothers put him in the well, hoping that would do the trick for them.

A cistern was a big holding tank that was bottle-shaped. It was normally dug out of limestone with a small opening at the top and then a cavern carved out inside and the walls plastered so the water didn’t get in. It was for collecting rainwater underground.

And they lowered Jeremiah down into this pit and probably put the manhole cover, so to speak back over it. And it wasn’t full of water, but it wasn’t empty either. It had mud at the bottom. And Jeremiah sunk into the mud. Filthy, stinky, sticky, gross mud.

I cannot imagine how scary that was. Nightmares if you think about it too much. Jeremiah probably thought he was going to die there. Of starvation, of dehydration, or of drowning. He has to stand there. He can’t lie down. He’ll sink even further down if he lies down. How long would you last? How long would your sanity last?

We don’t know actually how Jeremiah handled this.

Maybe he was like Paul and Silas singing in the prison! That doesn’t quite sound like Jeremiah, somehow. He wasn’t a “sing wherever I go kind of rejoicing guy.” But maybe he didn’t despair, either.

Maybe he sang songs of lamentation. Maybe he sang Psalm 69.

“Rescue me from the mire, do not let me sink;

deliver me from those who hate me, from the deep waters.

Do not let the floodwaters engulf me

or the depths swallow me up

or the pit close its mouth over me.

Answer me, O LORD, out of the goodness of your love;

in your great mercy turn to me.

Do not hide your face from your servant;

answer me quickly, for I am in trouble.

Come near and rescue me;

redeem me because of my foes” (Ps. 69:14-18 NIVO).

Maybe he sang that song of suffering.

Maybe he remember chapter 1 of his own book. Maybe he thought back to that day when he was just a lad and the LORD said, “‘They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,’ declares the LORD” (1:19).

We don’t know.

We do know that just because you are courageous, doesn’t mean you will not suffer. Being called to be courageous does not always lead to a pain-free existence. Quite the opposite.

Look the Apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 11:23-28).

Look at the Lord Jesus Christ.

Look here at the Prophet Jeremiah.

Being courageous does not mean winning. Often it means suffering.

But what did we learn this time last year in 1 Peter? Peter said, “But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed” (1 Pet. 3:14 NIVO). The blessing comes on the other side of the suffering. For Jesus, it came on the other side of death!

For Jeremiah, it took the form of an African man who courageously stood up to the king and did what was right. Look at verse 7.

“But Ebed-Melech, a Cushite, an official in the royal palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. While the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate, Ebed-Melech went out of the palace and said to him, ‘My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have thrown him into a cistern, where he will starve to death when there is no longer any bread in the city.’”

That was a courageous move!

This fellow was a foreigner. He was from the Upper Nile region of Cush. He has found a place in the royal palace, and he’s decided that he must speak up to the king [!] about this great injustice that is going on.

And the king (wishy washy as he was) doesn’t order Ebed-Melech’s execution, he gives him authorization to rescue Jeremiah.

But is it too late? V.10

“Then the king commanded Ebed-Melech the Cushite, ‘Take thirty men from here with you and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.’ So Ebed-Melech took the men with him and went to a room under the treasury in the palace. He took some old rags and worn-out clothes from there and let them down with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern. Ebed-Melech the Cushite said to Jeremiah, ‘Put these old rags and worn-out clothes under your arms to pad the ropes.’ Jeremiah did so [I love that detail! It’s like a TV show! You can just see it.], and they pulled him up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.”

I wonder how he felt then?! I wonder how he looked?

This is not the last that we’ll hear about Ebed-Melech. There is blessing for him, too, following his obedience, as we’ll see in the next chapter. But this next part is the last time that Jeremiah ever saw Zedekiah. They have one last meeting before it all falls apart. V.14

“Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to the third entrance to the temple of the LORD. ‘I am going to ask you something,’ the king said to Jeremiah. ‘Do not hide anything from me.’

[Do you think that Jeremiah would feel like talking to Zedekiah at this point? He just allowed those guys to basically bury him alive. And now he wants to ask a question?!]

Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, ‘If I give you an answer, will you not kill me? Even if I did give you counsel, you would not listen to me.’ [You don’t do what is right!]

But King Zedekiah swore this oath secretly to Jeremiah: ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who has given us breath, I will neither kill you nor hand you over to those who are seeking your life.’”

So Jeremiah answers his question. He doesn’t even have to ask it, because it’s the same one he always asking every time. “Is there a word from the LORD? Is there a way out of this trouble for me?” Yes, there is a way for this to go better for you than it would. V.17

“Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, ‘This is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: 'If you surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, your life will be spared and this city will not be burned down; you and your family will live. But if you will not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be handed over to the Babylonians and they will burn it down; you yourself will not escape from their hands.'

[“Ugggh. That’s not what I want to hear. I supposed that’s what I’m supposed to do. But that’s scary!” V.19]

King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, ‘I am afraid of the Jews who have gone over to the Babylonians, for the Babylonians may hand me over to them and they will mistreat me.’

‘They will not hand you over,’ Jeremiah replied. ‘Obey the LORD by doing what I tell you. Then it will go well with you, and your life will be spared. But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the LORD has revealed to me: All the women left in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon. Those women will say to you: ‘ 'They misled you and overcame you–those trusted friends of yours. Your feet are sunk in the mud [There’s our sermon title! It was actually Zedekiah who was in the most danger of being sunk down into the mud of disgrace]; your friends have deserted you.' ‘All your wives and children will be brought out to the Babylonians. You yourself will not escape from their hands but will be captured by the king of Babylon; and this city will be burned down.’”

I know you’re afraid, Zedekiah. You have reason to be. This world is scary, and you are in a scary position. But do the right thing, do what the LORD says to do, and you will be blessed. Have the courage to do the right thing, no matter how scary it is, and you will experience the blessing of God!

If you don’t, you will sink the mud, and the LORD will not send an Ebed-Melek to rescue you. Do what is right.

Friends, do you need to hear that this morning? Is there something the LORD is calling you to do, and you’re scared to do it? You’re not sure what people will think or say? It might seem crazy to the people around you, even to your closest friends. Like, “Buy the field” crazy.

But you know what is right. Do it. It’s not sin to be afraid. Fear by itself is not sin. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is doing the right thing even though you are afraid. Do it. Do what is right.

Zedekiah could not bring himself to do it. He was paralyzed by his fear. He was more afraid of the people inside the walls than the people outside of the walls! And should have been more afraid of the LORD above than either of those.

So here’s how the story ends. It ends with Zedekiah’s indecision. He does nothing except ask Jeremiah to keep their conversation secret. V.24.

“Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, ‘Do not let anyone know about this conversation, or you may die. If the officials hear that I talked with you, and they come to you and say, 'Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you; do not hide it from us or we will kill you,' then tell them, 'I was pleading with the king not to send me back to Jonathan's house to die there.' [That’s true enough.] All the officials did come to Jeremiah and question him, and he told them everything the king had ordered him to say [and he kept the rest to himself]. So they said no more to him, for no one had heard his conversation with the king. And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured” (vv.24-28).

Which we will learn about more fully, Lord-willing, next Sunday. Right now, we should note that Zedekiah doesn’t do anything. He doesn’t do what is right.

He doesn’t listen to God’s Word.

He doesn’t obey.

He just sits there and hopes it all goes away.

That is not courage. That is a failure. And it’s the opposite of the way the LORD wants you and me to live. He wants you me to have the courage (by His grace) to listen to His Word, to stick to His Word no matter what, and to do what we know is right.

The next Son of David who will sit on the throne in Jerusalem, had that courage! The next Son of David who will sit on that throne listened to every word that came from His Father and stuck to God’s Words even though it led to His crucifixion. The next Son of David did what was right and the blessing of resurrection followed! And when He sits on His throne, He will always do what is right. His kingdom will be righteous in every way.

“‘The days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line; he will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness'” (Jer. 33:14-16 NIVO).

Jeremiah 33! The LORD has told us how it’s going to be.

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