Day 717: Saving our soul - Jeremiah 38 vs 14 - 28
14 King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and received him at the third entrance of the temple of the Lord. The king said to Jeremiah, “I will ask you a question; hide nothing from me.” 15 Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I tell you, will you not surely put me to death? And if I give you counsel, you will not listen to me.” 16 Then King Zedekiah swore secretly to Jeremiah, “As the Lord lives, who made our souls, I will not put you to death or deliver you into the hand of these men who seek your life.”
17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: If you will surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then your life shall be spared, and this city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live. 18 But if you do not surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then this city shall be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape from their hand.”
19 King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Judeans who have deserted to the Chaldeans, lest I be handed over to them and they deal cruelly with me.” 20 Jeremiah said, “You shall not be given to them. Obey now the voice of the Lord in what I say to you, and it shall be well with you, and your life shall be spared. 21 But if you refuse to surrender, this is the vision which the Lord has shown to me: 22-23 Behold, all the women left in the house of the king of Judah were being led out to the officials of the king of Babylon and were saying,“‘Your trusted friends have deceived you and prevailed against you; now that your feet are sunk in the mud, they turn away from you.’ All your wives and your sons shall be led out to the Chaldeans, and you yourself shall not escape from their hand, but shall be seized by the king of Babylon, and this city shall be burned with fire.”
24-26 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no one know of these words, and you shall not die. If the officials hear that I have spoken with you and come to you and say to you, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you; hide nothing from us and we will not put you to death’, then you shall say to them, ‘I made a humble plea to the king that he would not send me back to the house of Jonathan to die there.’” 27-28 Then all the officials came to Jeremiah and asked him, and he answered them as the king had instructed him. So they stopped speaking with him, for the conversation had not been overheard. And Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was taken. Jeremiah 38:14-28 English Standard Version
King Zedekiah knew that Jeremiah was a true and faithful prophet of God. He also knew that the God Jeremiah served was the only true God. What does He say of Him in vs 16?
He is the God who made our souls. This means that we are accountable to Him and our souls, not just our bodies, are in His hands. Jesus reminded His disciple of this when He said “what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?” (Mark 8:36-37) So Zedekiah arranged a secret meeting with Jeremiah. He had been told what Jeremiah had been preaching and I suspect he was hoping against hope that there might be a fresh message from God of deliverance from the Babylonians.
But it was not to be. Jeremiah's message was as harsh as ever. Verses 17-23 show that God's judgment was at hand. But did you notice that there was mercy offered too? (vs 17) By surrendering to Babylon Zedekiah would have shown that he accepted God's rod of discipline and he and the city would be spared the destruction that awaited them. The rest of the chapter deals with how the King and Jeremiah had to keep this meeting a secret because there were people who would have seen it as an act of treason.
That was over 2,500 years ago, but is there not a similar fate facing the souls of men and women today? The Bible says that “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” (John 3:36) There are people still who hate that message and try to harm those who teach it and who believe it. But it is the only message that can lead us to the one who can save our soul.