> [!title|noicon] **Jeremiah 38 Notes**
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> [Jeremiah 38:1](Jeremiah%2038.md#^1) note
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> God mentions these specific names in the Bible, people that we cannot know otherwise, to indicate that He is concerned about individuals -- how each one of us individually stands. Salvation is not a group activity, it is ultimately not a corporate activity, it is a personal activity. So we cannot boast that we come from a fine, believing family or what have you as though that somehow automatically gives us protection. We each stand individually before God.
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> And the people mentioned here have heard all that Jeremiah had been declaring. Jeremiah was not a silent prophet, even though he was now living on the edge of death because the princes and many of the people were looking for a way to silence him. ^jer38-1
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> [Jeremiah 38:2](Jeremiah%2038.md#^2), [3](Jeremiah%2038.md#^3) note
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> This foreshadows the situation with the churches and congregations at the end of the church age. Those who remained within them would be spiritually cut off and under judgment. God commanded them to come out because He had installed Satan there (prefigured by Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar as they destroyed Jerusalem and the temple, as God warned in [verse 3](Jeremiah%2038.md#^3)) while the Holy Spirit had abandoned them so that there was no salvation there. It was a test of obedience to the command of God that we see here in Jeremiah. And a true believer has an intense desire to be obedient to God. ^jer38-2-3
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> [Jeremiah 38:4](Jeremiah%2038.md#^4) note
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> The princes here are reacting the way the world reacts. Jeremiah is declaring that the enemy is going to defeat them so they better surrender. And that weakens the resolve of the people as they fight against the enemy while trying to keep the city from falling. So in their political sense, from a reasonable perspective, they seemed to be correct. But they were not correct, it was the command of God that they were to fall out to the Babylonians, and we don't argue with God. Any time we trust our own wisdom and pit it against God's Wisdom, who is going to be the winner? We'll never be the winner, we always must trust God. That's why God says that those who lose their life will save it. When we come to the point where we we recognize there's nothing we can do and must fall altogether upon the mercy of God. ^jer38-4
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> [Jeremiah 38:5](Jeremiah%2038.md#^5) note
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> One reason Zedekiah says this is because he was just a puppet king, he was not the supreme ruler. Israel was under the rulership of Babylon and Zedekiah had been installed by Babylon. So he's showing a certain weakness. And this served God's purposes to set up the next portrait that illustrate God's salvation program. ^jer38-5
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> [Jeremiah 38:6](Jeremiah%2038.md#^6) note
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> Here we have a tableau or a portrait developing that illustrates salvation. Notice he is being cast into a *dungeon where there was mire*. And in [Psalm 40:1](Psalm%2040.md#^1), [2](Psalm%2040.md#^2), we read of salvation as a deliverance from the *horrible pit* (same word translated *dungeon* here in Jeremiah 38), out of the miry clay to set our feet on the Rock of Christ.
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> The let down Jeremiah into this pit with cords (or ropes), where there was *no water.* Water many times represents the Gospel, but here there was none. So Jeremiah was much closer to death than even in the previous dungeon where, if they didn't throw Jeremiah a few scraps of bread, he would have died very quickly. It represents the grave, and it is a picture of the spiritual condition we are in before we are saved ([Ps 69:14](Psalm%2069.md#^14)). Before we're saved we're in the miry pit of the wrath of God, we're under the sentence of death. But we have the enormous privilege of crying out to God for mercy and deliverance before we're executed. And when that sentence is removed, when the pardon is given to us in Christ, then we are rescued from that terrible situation. And we'll see a picture of this rescue in the next several verses. ^jer38-6
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> [Jeremiah 38:7](Jeremiah%2038.md#^7), [8](Jeremiah%2038.md#^8), [9](Jeremiah%2038.md#^9) note
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> Normally when we think of a rescuer we might envision a prince riding a white horse with all of his army to save you. And certainly, Christ is typified by this in the book of Revelation. But here is an Ethiopian eunuch, a man from Cush. And he went to the king to protest the very tight situation that Jeremiah was placed in where there was no bread left in the city, much less would there be any for the dungeon. He was within days or even hours of death with no bread or water (no Gospel). He was in a pit where nobody could find him or help him in any way. We could say he was in the 11th hour. And, in a sense, we could say that about each one of us before we are saved because we have no assurance whether we'll be alive tomorrow. We're all within minutes or hours of death, and if we die before we're saved it's a shameful execution.
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> But here comes Ebed-melech ("servant of the king") the Ethiopian eunuch. And Who is the Servant of the King to provide salvation? It is the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, Ebed-melech is a figure of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is important that we understand that God singles out an Ethiopian eunuch here to illustrate that God is not a Respector of persons, there is no favoritism or differentiation of races with God with regard to salvation.
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> Now Ebed-melech was a brave man. He went right to the Gate of Benjamin where the king was sitting to declare that what they were doing to Jeremiah was wrong. And it was an indictment against these princes that wanted to kill Jeremiah. He couldn't help but declare how evil it was in his concern for Jeremiah. ^jer38-7-9
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> [Jeremiah 38:10](Jeremiah%2038.md#^10) note
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> Here again we see that it is God Who rules, He is in charge. So the king agreed with Ebed-melech and commands him to take with him 30 men to rescue Jeremiah. ^jer38-10
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> [Jeremiah 38:11](Jeremiah%2038.md#^11), [12](Jeremiah%2038.md#^12), [13](Jeremiah%2038.md#^13) note
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> Looking first at the *cords* (or *ropes*) used to *rescue* Jeremiah (particularly in [verse 13](Jeremiah%2038.md#^13), we'll see that they relate to *salvation*. We find this word in [Hosea 11:4](Hosea%2011.md#^4) where God draws Israel (His people) with *cords* and *bands of love* and provides food (the Gospel) for us. And it is because of the *love* of God that He provided for our salvation. Beginning in [Hosea 11:1](Hosea%2011.md#^1) we already see the love of God where 1) God called national Israel out of Egypt to go into the land of Canaan, and, 2) it points to when the Lord Jesus Christ was called out of Egypt after his family fled there when Herod wanted to kill Him. And it is in this context that God describes His love for those He has come to save. Then in [Hosea 11:2](Hosea%2011.md#^2) we see the enormous patience of God toward His people as they went after other gods. And in [Hosea 11:3](Hosea%2011.md#^3) we again see God's love as He takes us by the arms like little children and *heals* us from our sins in His mercy, even when we were in rebellion against Him.
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> So as Ebed-melech lets down these cords to rescue Jeremiah from the pit it points to the bands of love that God uses to draw us to Himself.
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> Now, Ebed-melech and his men had taken some old materials that were ripped and torn and had no service of any kind, and some rotten rags, to assist with pulling Jeremiah out from the pit. These were absolutely worthless pieces of material that could nevertheless be used to give Jeremiah some protection from the ropes, as a cushion for his armpits, while pulling him up. And by this time Jeremiah was likely very emaciated and weakened from lack of bread and water. But this reminds us of [1 Corinthians 1:25](1%20Corinthians%201.md#^25), [27](1%20Corinthians%201.md#^27), [28](1%20Corinthians%201.md#^28). You see, in the eyes of the world, the whole Gospel is foolish, it is nonsense. As we warn the world about judgment day, all kinds of people are in total denial. They don't even want to look at it. The fact that we trust in the Lord Jesus Who has saved us is utterly foolish to them. The Gospel is a castaway, it's a nothing, it has no substance of any kind to them.
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> Study in progress 6.2026.
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> ^jer38-11-13
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Tags: #Old_Testament #Jeremiah #Gods_judgment_on_His_people #FSI