Submit to God’s Will

Hey, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions this morning. We are at Jeremiah chapter 37 verses 11 through 21 Nathan wasn't in here last time last time The king of Egypt Pharaoh had come up to help Zedekiah to fight against the Chaldeans Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar was the one who made This king, king in Jerusalem, he had kicked Jehoiachin off his throne. Anyways, there's all this background baggage. And Jeremiah said, no, look, even if the Chaldeans leave, they're still going to come back and burn the city to the ground. So that's where we'll pick up the rest of the story here.
So let's have some coffee. We'll pray. We'll get into God's word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word. And Father, we pray that as we read your word, that you would help us to understand. Help us to get it in its original context, understand what it meant to the people at that time. But also, Lord, we pray that then you would move it, that your Spirit would teach us what we're to do, how we're supposed to live. Help us, God, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right, Jeremiah chapter 37. beginning at verse 11 so we'll just do our normal paragraph talk paragraph talk to get at the about so and it happened when the army of the chaldeans that's babylonians right the army of the chaldeans left the siege of jerusalem for fear of pharaoh's army that jeremiah went out of jerusalem to go into the land of benjamin to claim his property there among the people. And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the guard was there, whose name was Uriah, the son of Shalamiah, the son of Hananiah. And he sees Jeremiah, the prophet, saying, you are defecting to the Chaldeans. Yeah, this is right, so the army of the audience are they're leaving because of fear of Pharaoh's army and so Jeremiah What's he about to do?
He goes into finish Jim into by slammed Yeah, right. He's bought land. He did it a while back, and now he's going to go claim that land. And so he's going to go. He's leaving the city. And what's this dude say, this soldier? You're defecting the Chaldeans. Yeah, right. Well, they're leaving, so you must be going with them. You're defecting with them. What does defecting mean? Like you're turning sides. You're surrendering over to the Babylonians. Then Jeremiah said, False. I am not defecting to the Jeholiachians. But he did not listen to him. So Uriah seized Jeremiah and brought him to the princes. Therefore, the princes were angry with Jeremiah.
They struck him and put him in prison. The house of Jonathan described. They had made that the prison. All right, so what's that section about? Uriah doesn't believe him, so he throws him in jail. Uriah doesn't believe him, and he takes him to the princes? And what do they do? Don't believe. Well, they beat him up and throw him in prison. There's a guy, he's a scribe, they make his house the jail. Beat the tar out of Jeremiah. They don't believe him that he's just going to go get the land that he has bought.
When Jeremiah entered the dungeon in the cells, and Jeremiah had remained there many days, then Zedekiah the king sent and took him out. The king asked him secretly in his house and said, Is there any word from the Lord? And Jeremiah said, There is. Then he said, You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon. All right, so what happens there? They came, like, calls for Jeremiah. He's like, OK, just tell me. Jeremiah, do we have any good news? Uh, yeah, we've got news. Still can be captured. Yeah, good. I don't think that was the answer. Well, let's see.
And Jeremiah said, verse 18, moreover, Moreover, Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, What offense have I committed against you, that your servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison? Where now are your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, The king of Babylon will not come against you, or against this land? Therefore, please hear now, O my Lord, please let my attention be accepted before you, and do not make me return to the house of Jonathan's God, lest I die there. So how do you finish up? Just listen to me. Well, yeah, right. A couple of things, right? You should have listened to me.
Where's the prophets who said that it was going to come back? Why am I here? What's my crime? That's what he's he's appealing to the king for justice, right? Please let my petition be accepted before you and do not make me return to the house of Jonathan the scribe lest I die there. Don't put me in prison. I told you the truth, where are all those other lying prophets? Let me go home. Don't make me die in the prison."
Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah to the court of the prison and that they should give him daily a piece of bread from the baker's street until all the bread in the city was gone. Thus, Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.
Alright, so what's that part saying? He's in prison, but he's in nice prison. Yeah, it's like going from like the worst jail to like federal jail, right? Where it's like, okay, low level offense type thing. So he's not gonna just let him go. Interestingly though, what does he make sure he has? Bread. Bread, food. That's, that's a big deal.
It's a big deal because the city's being besieged. They're cutting off the food supply. The Babylonians are surrounding the city and cutting off all the food. Which means the king has permanently de-factoed. If we have one piece of bread left, that goes to Jeremiah. Yeah. So he's actually protecting Jeremiah by keeping him in prison. Which is how it's done. Yeah. It's crazy, yeah? Yep. So what do you think is this whole section about? If you were to summarize it in your own words, what's the main idea?
The Chaldeans are gonna, the Babylonians are gonna come back. Unless people are worried and stressed and mad and angry and worried. I might say, like, Jeremiah is thrown in prison but gets to plead his cause with the king and somehow, weirdly, being in jail. actually ends up saving his life. Maybe something like that.
I don't know. Let's go ahead and talk about B best verses to summarize this. If you were to underline one or two verses as the best to summarize this, what would you underline? 18 to 20 maybe? Yeah. Yeah, I think that's what I would underline too. Good. Let's go ahead and talk about C, calling. What are we called to do? I think we're called to... This is complicated. This one's going to be really complicated. I think that you could put this in a few different ways.
But one of the things that kind of stood out to me was that where I think one of the things that Jeremiah is trying to get across is it's not that the Babylonians are just out to get Jerusalem, but it's God's will that it's going to happen, the punishment's going to happen. And the more and more you try to fight against it with all three ways, It's just going to get worse and worse and worse. So I think Jeremiah is trying, over time, to get a point across that it's not just a political play, but it's definitely trying to... Okay, so maybe your calling, what you're saying, is like submitting to God's will when there's even times of judgment?
I think that would probably be right. I think there's a few ways that we can see ourselves in different people. We can see ourselves in the role of Jeremiah. When we're righteous and we may even say the things that God says, and people misjudge our motives, even though he was going to Benjamin to claim a property that he had rightly bought.
And yet they're assuming the worst of him. People may assume the worst of us because they don't like what we have said because the Lord has said it. He gets beaten and thrown in prison because of his faith. I know Christians who have been beaten and thrown in prison because of their faith. And yet there's also times in which somehow wickedness and cruelty actually ends up somehow working out well.
You can't even think of Jeremiah with Zedekiah, right? And he's actually being protected. He uses his rights as a citizen to confront the king. There's something there for us in that application, right? We should not just roll over on our backs and say, oh, I'm being persecuted for Christ and just let that be. Like, no, he argues his case, why it's unjust. That's a good thing. But we can also see ourselves like Zedekiah. It's a weird thing, isn't it?
He's not listening to the Lord. And yet he's got this weird thing where sometimes he'll listen to the Lord and he'll even call for Jeremiah and want to talk to himself, but he's kind of like half-heartedly playing with the Lord. Saying he's the king of Judah, saying he's one of God's chosen people, but yet not listening to the prophet, holy.
Wait, didn't Babylon put him in charge? Yeah, he's a vassal king of Nebuchadnezzar. And then he tried to rebel against? And then he tries to rebel. He tries to politic. He tries to get Egypt to come and help them fight against the Chaldeans. And the Chaldeans fled, but now they're back.
Yeah. Yeah. And so what I'm saying is, too often I find myself playing religion rather than submitting to what the Lord has said. Never works well. So, do you follow the Lord, even though it may be costly? Jeremiah. Or do you just kind of try to manipulate, maneuver, and scheme your way through life? Giving lip service to God. Playing around with Him. But not actually submitting. Ready to pray? Yep.
God, we pray that we would trust you. You are the King of Kings. And Father, we pray that we would indeed be a salt and a light. That if trials or persecution or suffering comes, we pray that we would know how to respond to those well. But Lord, we pray that you would give us the courage to speak the truth, no matter what might be popular at the moment. Father, please teach us and help us to walk in Your ways. Give us Your Spirit, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus. And we'll see you next time. Bye. Bye.