Daily Devotions
Jeremiah
"Hide nothing from me"
Text: Jeremiah 38:14
ANOTHER PRIVATE INTERVIEW
Once Jeremiah was released from the dungeon, Zedekiah summoned the prophet for another private interview. It was carried out secretively.
“Then Zedekiah the king sent and had Jeremiah the prophet brought to him
at the third entrance of the house of the LORD.
And the king said to Jeremiah,
‘I will ask you something. Hide nothing from me.’
Jeremiah said to Zedekiah,
‘If I declare it to you, will you not surely put me to death?
And if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.’
So Zedekiah the king swore secretly to Jeremiah, saying,
‘As the LORD lives, who made our very souls, I will not put you to death,
nor will I give you into the hand of these men who seek your life.'”
Jeremiah 38:14-16
1. “Then Zedekiah the king sent and had Jeremiah the prophet brought to him
at the third entrance of the house of the LORD. And the king said to Jeremiah”
a) Zedekiah was afraid of the princes.
b) But deep down, he was also afraid of what would happen in the near future.
c) The Babylonians were closing in!
d) The meeting place:
i) The third entrance of the house of the LORD.
ii) This would perhaps offer more privacy and security.
e) He asked Jeremiah for his advice as a prophet of God.
f) He adjures Jeremiah not to withhold the truth from him.
2. “Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, ‘If I declare it to you, will you not surely put me to death?
And if I give you advice, you will not listen to me'”
a) Jeremiah was not unwilling.
b) But he was in a dilemma.
i) If he answered forthrightly, he might be executed by the king.
ii) If he were to give advice, he knew the king would not listen anyway.
3. “So Zedekiah the king swore secretly to Jeremiah, saying, ‘As the LORD lives, who made our very souls, I will not put you to death, nor will I give you into the hand of these men who seek your life'”
a) Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah that he would not put him to death.
b) Nor would he hand the prophet over to the hands of his enemies
who had been seeking to kill him.