Cistern
Apparently, confining Jeremiah to the courtyard wasn’t bad
enough. Within the courtyard there was a
cistern. At the bottom of the cistern
was mud. That is where Jeremiah was cast. So much for Zedekiah’s promise to watch over
his imprisonment. Zedekiah even gives
permission.
Why was Jeremiah thrown in the cistern? Jeremiah was speaking the truth. Jeremiah was telling people that God promised
those who stayed in Jerusalem would die by sword, famine, or pestilence. In other words, the people who listened to
Jeremiah were being encouraged to leave Jerusalem and desert to the captivity
of the Babylonians where they would survive.
The fighting force inside Jerusalem was being whittled away slowly and
steadily by Jeremiah’s prophetic voice. {For the record, personally I believe this a
far better reason to be imprisoned than what landed him in the courtyard!}
When I thought about this, I had to really go back and take a look
at the common perceptions humans bring to truth. One of the first qualities that human beings
look for in truth is “does it support what I believe in?” I hate to say this, but it is true. We humans think that truth starts with the
things with which we agree.
Do I really need to bring up the ideas of Copernicus and the more
controversial Galileo?
Human beings gravitate towards what they want to hear and what
supports their frame of reference.
That’s why we don’t actually like hearing truth. Truth makes us change. Truth reveals who we really are. Truth demonstrates our actual present reality
to ourselves.
The leaders of Jerusalem didn’t want to hear God’s truth through
Jeremiah. They didn’t want to face
humbling themselves before God via the Babylonians. They certainly didn’t want their soldiers
deserting to the other side. They were
closed to truth, substituting their own construct of truth in the place of
God’s truth.
Mud
Jeremiah sank into the mud.
In those days, a cistern was usually a large hemispherical cut into bedrock. The cut was then covered in plaster and
allowed to dry. This way, it would catch
rainwater. Typically, as the rainwater
flowed into the cistern the water also brought dirt. As the water dried up from the drought that
God sent, the dirt that had collected in the bottom of the cistern turned to
mud. Jeremiah became mired in the mud.
I love this analogy. The
mud only becomes an issue because God has sent a drought to punish the Hebrew
people. Jeremiah becomes caught in the
mud. This is a symbolic act of Jeremiah being caught up in Jerusalem because of
the Hebrew people’s sin and refusal to repent.
Just as Jeremiah gets mired in mud, Jerusalem is mired in rebellion.
Jeremiah Rescued
An Ethiopian comes to Jeremiah’s defense. Not even one of his own people comes to save
Jeremiah! But this Ethiopian comes and
Jeremiah is rescued.
Look at the spineless nature of Zedekiah. First, he was a political puppet installed by
Nebuchadnezzar. Then he was convinced by
his own people to rebel, bringing the Babylonian army to once again lay siege
to the city. Zedekiah was swayed by the
court officials to throw Jeremiah in prison.
Jeremiah swayed Zedekiah to allow him to be moved to the courtyard. Then Zedekiah was swayed to throw Jeremiah
into a cistern. Now Zedekiah is swayed
to allow Jeremiah to be brought up from the cistern.
A couple of days back I gave this truism: leadership defines
culture. Is there any wonder that the
Hebrew people were so weak and easily swayed?
Look at their leader in Zedekiah!
What a pathetic man. He is like a
reed, blown around in every direction by the wind.
It is important for leaders to bend. Leaders do need to listen to their
constituents. But leaders must also see
the vision and always be moving towards the vision. Leaders set the general course and help the
people move towards the goal. When a
leader doesn’t lead, the people are all over the map. This is what we see here in Jeremiah
regarding Zedekiah. I am reminded of
Jesus’ words to the church of Laodicea in the Revelation according to
John. “Since you are lukewarm, I will
vomit you out of my mouth.”
Zedekiah’s Second Interview with Jeremiah
Zedekiah asks for another meeting with Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s message from God remains
unchanged. {God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, right?} But Zedekiah refuses to listen to the
message. Zedekiah refuses to heed. He refuses to be humble.
Zedekiah is afraid. He’s
afraid of what the people in Jerusalem would think, so he tells Jeremiah to lie
about the reason of his visit. Zedekiah
is also afraid of what the deserters will do to him should Zedekiah surrender,
so Zedekiah won’t surrender. Fear seizes
hold of Zedekiah. Fear causes Zedekiah
to remain spineless.
Courage is not what a person does in the absence of fear. Courage is what someone does in spite of fear
while being in the presence of fear.
Jeremiah demonstrates courage.
Zedekiah does not. This chapter
should prove where the true leadership of Jerusalem resided.
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