Jeremiah 38:14-28.  Yesterday we started reading about a second time Jeremiah was put in a cistern and then rescued.  He wasn’t rescued and set free though he was kept a prisoner at the king’s palace, in a courtyard.  As I said yesterday some Bible experts think chapter 38 is a retelling of the story from the second half of chapter 37 but the difference in the story show us that it is different story.  The two must have happened in a very short time though because the entire siege only lasted 18 months including whatever time Nebuchadnezzar was away dealing with the Egyptians.  In the first trip into the dungeon or cistern at Jonathan’s house Jeremiah was rescued and brought to the “court of the guardhouse” at the palace and given a ration of bread.  In this second story he was rescued by Ebed-melech from the cistern belonging to Malchijah in the “court of the guardhouse” and was put again in the “court of the guardhouse”.

There are several details of the story that we need to look at.  First Malchijah is mentioned twice in the story.  In verse 1 we are told that one of the “officials” was Pashur the son of Malchijah.  If this is the same guy as in verse 6 and he is the son of the king then there is a problem.  Zedekiah was made king at the age of 21 in 597 BC.  The Siege happened in 586 BC 11 years later.  Even if he had a son at the age of 14 (not to hard to believe in those days) then that son (Malchijah) would be 18.  If that son (Malchijah) also had a son at 14 then that grandson (Pashur) would be 4.  That’s clearly too young for one of the 4 “officials” who were arresting Jeremiah.  It gets worse though; verse 1 also tells us that another one of the officials was named Gedeliah the son of Pashur.  If some how this is the same Pashur as above Gedeliah could not be more that a years or two old (even if we have these guys making babies at 10).  The simple explanation is that there are two different Malchijah’s here and/or two different Pashur’s.  There are lots of names used more that once in the Bible and even here in Jeremiah we have met guys with the same name who we can tell are different guys.  In Jeremiah 36:12 there is a guy named Zedekiah, same name as the king in our story, but he is the son of Hananiah while the king in our story is the son of Josiah.  And theses two Zedekiah’s were living at the same time.

Of course this whole “problem” is based on how old Zedekiah was when he became king and how much time passed before the siege, 2 Kings 24:18 defines that for us, 21 and 11 years, and those numbers fit with other historic records.  Another assumption that leads to this “problem” is that the Malchijah in verse 5 was the son of King Zedekiah.  If you read a King James translation of the Bible verse 5 doesn’t say that Malchijah is the son of the king it says he is the son of Hammelech.  In Hebrew there are two words here “ben” which means “son of “ and “melek” which translates as “king”.  So where did the King James translators get “Hammelech”?  In Hebrew the words were written with out vowels (and with out spaces between them either) so you have line after line of consonants on the scroll.  Translators need to dvdpthwrdsndprvdthvwls; “divide up the words and provide the vowels”, or is it, “David pat Howard. Sand provide to heave, we, Les”?  Get it?  In the word “Melek” or “Melech” the consonants are MLK or MLCH (it’s the same last consonant we just have different ways of showing it in English).  In the word Hammelech the consonants are really the same.  The “Ha” sound at the beginning is a vowel sound and the double “M” is also a vocalization; a stress or accent on the letter; it gets stretched out with the extra vowel sound.  So the description of Malchijah can either be the “son of Hammelech” or the “son of the king”.   If he was not the son of the king but the son of a guy named Hammelech then there is no problem here either.  So we have at least two possible solutions to the problem.  We need to be careful when we say the Bible is wrong about something, so far it has been right about everything that we can honestly check out.

Another detail that we need to think about is where all this action happened.  The original arrest happened by the Benjamin Gate on the north side of the city.  fJeremiah was then taken to the officials, we don’t know where they were but in the story about Jehoiakim cutting up the scroll we know that the scribes had a place to work (at least) in the palace, other officials did too, they could have ben there or somewhere else.  The officials beat Jeremiah and then locked him up in the first “dungeon” or cistern at Johnathan’s house (one of the scribes).  Later Zedekiah had him brought to the “court of the guardhouse”.  In the story yesterday Jeremiah was imprisoned in a cistern (or well) in the “court of the guardhouse” and the cistern is called “Malchijah’s cistern.  Although it sounds like the second cistern is in the same place where Jeremiah had been staying, “the court of the guardhouse”, that is probably not the case.  The word translated “court” really means something more like yard or backyard.  The word is sometimes translated “village” or “town” and is from a word that means to “blow a horn”.  It also seems to include the idea of the area being enclosed (like a backyard with a fence).  In ancient times towns and villages were often enclosed.  The people lived around the town on their (small?) farms and when an enemy would come to raid them they would all gather together in the town or village and protect each other.  Sometimes towns would have “watchmen” who would warn the citizens by blowing a horn or giving some other signal.  The word seems to have the idea of an enclosed place and probably the idea of a place to gather together.  The second word translated “guard” or “guard house” can mean “guard” or it can mean “prison”, it is from a root that means to “keep” or “hold on to”.  The word is sometimes translated “keeper” (like a guard or warden, a person who holds onto someone or something).  In the case of Malchijah’s cistern the author may be saying something like, “Jeremiah was roughly lowered in to the cistern in Malchijah’s back yard, his prison (or maybe where he was kept).”  In the case of the “court of the guard” in the first story it probably was a place where the guards would assemble around the palace, more of a fortified yard.   It seems very unlikely that Ebed-meleck took thirty troops to rescue Jeremiah from a cistern in a  fortified yard in the palace and then left him in the same place.  Although I suppose that could be what happened.

In today’s reading Zedekiah calls Jeremiah in again.  He said he had a question for Jeremiah.  Jeremiah stopped the king right there and challenged Zedekiah.  Jeremiah had been true to God; delivering God’s messages, messages that no one wanted to hear, message that had resulted in threats, beatings, and imprisonment.  Zedekiah had not listened over and over again (v. 15), and had even allowed Jeremiah to be imprisoned (v. 5).  Jeremiah thought that this time the king might go even further (15).  Jeremiah had not been sent to Zedekiah by God, Zedekiah had called him in, to Jeremiah it was dangerous and probably pointless to speak with Zedekiah, so the challenge.

Clearly Zedekiah was worried about the siege by Nebuchadnezzar.  Although he never asked his question, that is probably what he wanted to know about.  Zedekiah swore and oath to Jeremiah that he would not kill him or give him back to others who wanted to kill him (Interesting how specific these guys were with each other.  Clearly there was very little trust or respect between them).  Whatever the question, God (Yahweh, LORD) stepped in and gave Jeremiah a message for Zedekiah.  The message basically was, “Give up and you and the city will be spared.  Stay in the city and it will be destroyed and you will be captured.”  The message doesn’t detail what being captured would mean but Zedekiah was already worried about it and he certainly would have imagined all sorts of bad things happening to him.  In the Old Testament we see complete destruction of the losers families and relatives, torture and death for the losing king, taking of property (including slaves and harems), destruction of their domain (Jerusalem and Judah in this case); all sorts of bad stuff.

From verse 19 we see that Zedekiah is mostly worried about himself.  He is afraid that if he gives up to Nebuchadnezzar that Nebuchadnezzar will turn him over to the people who have already been captured (and possibly tortured).  The fear is that those people might be unhappy for being involved in a war that they lost.  Since it was the people who continually pushed Zedekiah to rebel that would be pretty hypocritical but that is one thing he was afraid of and certainly was a possibility.  In the Ancient Near East people didn’t usually vote in a new king if they were unhappy with the one they had they would assassinated him and get a new one.  Since God had already told Zedekiah that he and his household would survive if he surrendered Jeremiah was right in telling Zedekiah that he would not be given any Jewish people who wanted to harm him (v. 20).  Jeremiah then challenges him to “listen to the voice (this word is sometimes used for the sound of thunder) of Yahweh” and do what Jeremiah had told him to do; if he did his life would be “pleasing, good, or well”.

In verses 21-23 Jeremiah gets more specific about the warning from God.  If Zedekiah will not surrender than the women of the palace (think harem here) will be brought out and taken as property by Nebucahdnezzar.  Those women would also taunt Zedekiah about listening to his “close friends” who misled him.  It is interesting that the last king of Judah would end like the first king of Judah started.  The last king of the united kingdom or nation of Israel was named Solomon.  He ruled from 970-931 BC.  He built the Temple and made other improvements to the kingdom.  The people of his kingdom had a good peaceful life with plenty of money.  They did have personal responsibility to the king and kingdom and taxes were high though.  Hen Solomon died his son Rehoboam took over.  The wise old counselors from his dad’s day suggested that since the kingdom was now built up that Rehoboam should ease up on the people and lower taxes.  Rehoboam asked his young friends what they thought.  Their answer was, “Your father made their burden heavy, you should make it heavier, your dad disciplined them with whips you should discipline them with scorpions.”  Rehoboam listened to his “friends” and the nation of Israel was split as ten of the tribes formed the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

The women would also taunt him with what must have been a common proverb of the day about being stuck and vulnerable in mud.  I work in construction and have had to dig a lot of ditches.  Sometimes we have had to dig in very muddy soil.  When your feet sink into very wet mud the water creates a suction that keeps you from pulling your feet out.  Often your boots will get stuck and come off if you can get your foot our at all.  That is probably why Ebeb-melech cushioned Jeremiah’s underarms with rags; it took a lot to pull him out of the mud.  Here God shows his sense of humor (irony) when we find out that the women will use the very same thing that actually trapped Jeremiah as a metaphor (example or word picture) for the situation Zedekiah had trapped himself in.  His fear of his people and advisors was getting him in a situation he could not or would not escape (in theory he could escape by surrendering).  In verse 23 we see that Zedekiah, his wives and his sons would not escape either.  In the next chapter we will get even more details about what this means for Zedekiah, his sons, and the rest of the people of Jerusalem and Judah.

In verse 24-26 we see Zedekiah’s response to Jeremiah.  Basically he says, Shut up!”  Literally he told Jeremiah not to tell anyone about the conversation; and it wasn’t like he wanted the privilege of announcing surrender himself.  Zedekiah clearly wasn’t going to listen to Jeremiah’s advise and he didn’t want his “friends” (the officials) to know he had even talked to Jeremiah.  What we have here is a picture of a very cowardly leader.  He even threatened to kill Jeremiah if he told the leaders about the conversation.  Some people think that that is a contradiction of what he promised in verse 16 but it technically isn’t.  In verse 16 Zedekiah told Jeremiah he would kill him if Jeremiah would talk to him (about his question).  In verse 25 Zedekiah warns Jeremiah not to talk to anyone else about the conversation.  Remember how specific the promise was, as I said there was little or no trust or respect.  From this comment we see Jeremiah was smart in not trusting Zedekiah.  Zedekaih told Jeremiah either to lie or “dodge” the question about the conversation if the “officials” asked him about it.

In verse 27-28 we see that Jeremiah was questioned and that he answered as the king had told him.  He told them he had begged the king not to send him back to prison at the house of Jonathan.  Although he had not been at the house of Jonathan most recently it had been recent enough.  Being kept prisoner in the courtyard was a “gift” from Zedekiah.  Jeremiah felt he might be sent back to the “real” prison at the house of Jonathan.  The cistern at Malchijah’s house wasn’t an official jail and Zedekiah probably wouldn’t even think of using it as a prison.  It was the officials who had used it and Zedekiah found out about it through Ebed-melech.  Although we are not told specifically that this was part of the conversation it probably was.  It is unlikely that Jeremiah would have lied (Proverbs 6:16-17) he had always been faithful to God even when it cost him.  Since no one had heard the conversation (this is about Zedekiah’s questions not Jeremiah’s) the officials left Jeremiah alone and he was kept in the courtyard until Jerusalem was captured.

It is interesting how we want God’s help when things are going badly but we don’t want it enough to really listen.  The king wanted help, he knew God was powerful, but he allowed his fear to control him.  We need to be careful about listening to our feelings, especially when we have clear direction from God.  And the message form Jeremiah was consistent to 4 kings over a period of close to 40 years.  Of course there were more specifics with different kings, Josiah wasn’t told to surrender to Nebucahdnezzar, but all of them were told to honor God and trust in him alone.  It is also interesting how much tings don’t really change.  Bad advise and selfish ambition motivated bad decisions for 350 years in the southern ad northern kingdoms.  The fact that circumstances change mean that we need to stay close to God and listen to the specific advise he has for us.  The times when people listened and avoided disaster in the history of Israel should have been evidence that listening to God is the way to live and survive.  Hezekiah, an earlier king of the  Judah avoided personal destruction and extended the life of his kingdom by honoring God even late in his circumstances.  God wants to help, he wants to save, he wants us to have a good life, but he knows that means we need to listen to and honor him.  He wont force us to listen he gives us choices.  We need to choose the right path though.  Thankfully he is there all along the way pointing and encouraging.  Listen to him today and forever.

God thank you for speaking.  Thank you for loving.  Thank you for making a way that is good.  Help me really listen.  Help me love and respect you.  Help me trust you.  Help me listen to your messengers. Help me not listen to my personal fears or the misguided people around me.