Jeremiah 38:18
But if you do not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans. They will burn it down, and you yourself will not escape their grasp.'"
Sermons
The Path of Obedience the Path of SafetyS. Conway Jeremiah 38:17, 18
God's Terms of Salvation HardA.F. Muir Jeremiah 38:17-23














I. IN WHAT THEY ARE HARD.

1. They attack our pride. Zedekiah was afraid of the mockery of "the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans." He did not like to acknowledge himself in error. There was no glory in surrender. Pride is one of the first hindrances to salvation. We want to be our own saviours.

2. They crush self-will. "Not as I will, but as thou wilt" - the first and last prayer of the true child of God. It was not Zedekiah's plan, and contradicted all the policy of his rebellion. It should be sufficient to the sinner to know that God has appointed the way of escape. He has no right to choose.

3. They require faith. How was the king to be certain that yielding himself into the hands of the princes of the Chaldeans would secure the ends desired? He hardly realized that it could be so. And similarly it is asked, "How can Jesus save?" He is to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Gentiles foolishness, but to them that believe the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. "Only believe," that is the hardest thing the unregenerate soul can do. Yet it is necessary.

II. THEY DO NOT ADMIT OF COMPROMISE.

1. See how relentless the alternative. There is no middle way, no royal road to salvation. It was a step simple enough in itself, but it involved everything, and could not, therefore, be qualified. Christ and his salvation are our only hope: "And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other Name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved" (Acts 4:12; cf. Galatians 1:8).

2. Nor is the messenger of God at liberty to alter them. These are the terms for all, and they represent the infinite wisdom and love of God. It is not for man to attempt to improve upon them. To do so would be equivalent to creating a human gospel. Jeremiah, although he had reasons for ingratiating himself with the wicked king, yet presents an example of faithfulness to every minister of the truth. He might not suffer himself to corrupt the Word of God even for such considerations.

III. YET IS THEIR HARDNESS MORE APPARENT THAN REAL.

1. Belief and obedience will remove every difficulty. The troubles of Zedekiah were almost wholly imaginary. Had he not been assured that everything would be made sure by adopting the advice given? One act of faith on the part of the sinner will save him. Henceforth is will be infinitely easier to do the things that remain, and to pass from faith to faith.

2. How mild are they compared with the consequences of disobedience! - M.

The words that Jeremiah had spoken unto all the people.
Rays of hope had arisen in the clouded sky of the, nation. An Egyptian army was on its way to the city. Thus, it was believed, the Chaldeans would be compelled to raise the siege, which had been growing ever closer, so that first hunger and then starvation stared its inhabitants in the face. An escape from their horrible position seemed possible through an alliance with the Egyptian king. These hopes were dashed to the ground by the emphatic word of the prophet: This city shall assuredly be given into the hand of the army of the King of Babylon." He even went beyond this, and urged desertion to the enemy: "He that abideth in the city shall die by the sword, the famine, and the pestilence; but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live." All this seemed, not only unpatriotic, but treasonable. It has been well said, "No government conducting the defence of a besieged fortress could have tolerated Jeremiah for a moment. What would have been the fate of the French politician who should have urged the Parisians to desert to the Germans during the siege of 1870?" Jeremiah seemed a veritable Cassandra, and Cassandras, even if, as in this case, their warnings are but utterances of the inevitable, can only expect to be met with resentment and persecution.

(W. Garret Horder.)

True patriotism is love of one's native land. A good deal of modern "patriotism" is love of some one else's land, coupled with an unchristian hatred of other countries. Sometimes people ask whether Christianity and genuine patriotism can go together. For a sincere Christian will love all mankind. Racial hatred is a crime in the eyes of Christ, who teaches us that "One is our master, and all of us are brethren," and that we are to love our neighbour as ourself. A Christian can be a most sincere patriot, indeed the only true patriot. Christians are to love the whole world, as Jesus did. Yet, by natural association the soil of our fatherland is endeared to us by a thousand hallowed memories, which the soil of another land cannot recall. I think the limestone hills of Galilee, and the lap of the waters on the shores of Gennesaret were dearer to Christ than the seven hills of Rome, or the flow of the golden Tiber. Our Lord broke His heart over Jerusalem, the city of His love, as He saw "the doom from its worn sandals shake the dust against that land." Christ was a patriot, and the thing that cut His heart most painfully was not so much the coming destruction of Jerusalem, as the national sin which caused that national ruin. So, too, a Christian patriot will love his country's honour even more than its wealth and material greatness. He will value the good name of his fatherland, and the moral and intellectual elevation of his countrymen, far more than mere additions to its territory or additions to its wealth. And a true patriot will love his own land without hating other countries. The Christian must love other lands too, and seek their highest welfare. Charity begins at home: but it is a poor charity that ends at home. Love for other lands prompted the founders of missionary societies, which have been of such incalculable blessing to the civilisation of mankind. A true patriot will stand up for his fatherland; if others seek to enslave it he will make sacrifices for the home of his birth, as England did when the Spanish Armada threatened our liberty and our religion. But a Christian patriot will not do anything to cause hatred of another country. He will aim at making all the nations love one another. If he finds others trying to sow the seed of wicked hate, or if he sees his own land doing wrong, the Christian patriot will dare to speak the truth. When Lord Chatham urged England not to make war on the United States he was howled down by the bastard patriots of the day. But history stamps him as the true patriot, his opponents as the false ones. When John Bright spoke against the folly of the Crimean War he was made the butt of newspaper gibes, and nine-tenths of his countrymen laughed at him or sneered at him. But history shows that John Bright was right. He was the true patriot. The false patriot holds that you must never criticise your country's dealings with other lands. Perhaps the hardest duty that ever falls on a man who loves his fatherland is to point out that his country is doing wrong. That heavy duty fell often to the lot of Jeremiah. The Jews had so long persisted in idolatry that God's marvellous patience could bear with them no longer. After repeated warnings, all in vain, God told the people, by His prophet, that they would go into the land of bondage as a punishment for their sin. God also told Jeremiah to inform his fellow-countrymen that it was useless to struggle against the troops of Nebuchadnezzar. God had sent that monarch to chastise the rebellious Jews, to take them into captivity, and to bring ruin to the nation, because of its sin. This painful duty of urging the Jews not to resist, not to persist in a hopeless struggle, was heartbreaking to a true patriot like Jeremiah. The princes, who had no real faith in God, naturally thought Jeremiah's action most unpatriotic. Disbelieving in God, disbelieving in religion, disbelieving in Jeremiah's prophecies, no wonder they said, "This man seeketh not the welfare of the people, but their hurt," Poor Jeremiah! The bastard patriots of Jerusalem sneered at him, called him a Little Palestiner, said he was in the pay of the Chaldeans. Poor Jeremiah! He had no love for the Chaldeans in preference to his own nation. Nay, he loved the Jews with all their sins more than the heathen Chaldeans, who were only instruments in God's hands for punishing the guilty Jews. But he knew it was no use to resist. He knew that he had received a message from God. He knew he must deliver that message, though at the risk of his life. Like a brave hero and a true patriot he told his people of their folly, of their sins, and of their approaching doom. He met with the usual brickbat argument, brute force; he was put into a well, put into captivity, and ill-treated in various ways. But every word he spoke came true. And when the Chaldeans had utterly destroyed the city and crushed its inhabitants, the captain of the guard set Jeremiah free and said, "Will you return with me and find a comfortable home in Babylon?" Jeremiah was a true patriot, therefore he chose to share the sufferings of his people, though they had so grievously wronged him. The comfort and luxury of Babylon were rejected by the simple, honest patriot, who preferred to dwell in poverty among the people of the land. If those false patriots, who cried him down, had had a chance of the ease and comfort offered to Jeremiah, how they would have jumped at it! They would have preferred Babylon's fleshpots to Palestine's poverty and want. But Jeremiah chose to share his people's abject poverty and utter wretchedness. The intense, broken-hearted patriotism of Jeremiah stands out for all time in the magnificent Lamentations that he wrote, with his pen dipped into his heart's own blood. They are the saddest writings in the world. And what made the Jews' ruin so intensely sorrowful to Jeremiah was the fact that it was so richly deserved. Therein was the sting. And he knew that there could be no improvement in their lot till their lives became better. He is the ideal of a patriot. Some false teachers have been and are trying to breathe into England a spirit of defiance to other lands, and an unbounded lust for territorial extension of our Empire. These teachers are attempting to stir up racial hatred. A very recent author declares that Germany must be blotted out by England, because she is our great rival in trade. As readers of history we know the curse of the racial hatred that existed between England and France in the time of the first Napoleon. And as Christians we know how fiendish is the advice to cut the throat of a neighbouring nation because she is a commercial rival. Christians do not advocate doing away at once with all soldiers and sailors. Like policemen, they are necessary at present. And we know that our sailors and soldiers will always do their duty bravely. The Christian Church protests against this modern bastard patriotism, which is much the same as piracy, against this glorification of brute force, against this reversion to savageism, against this contempt for all that is gentle, spiritual, Christ-like. Such principles work —

1. Mischief in the social and political world;

2. Mischief in the realm of literature, and all that leads to the higher development of man;

3. Mischief to religion.These principles work mischief in the social and political world. At the end of last century and the beginning of this, how deplorable was the condition of the workers of this land. Why? Because of our incessant and unnecessary wars with France. These principles of false patriotism work much evil in the realm of literature, and all that leads to the higher development of man. The "patriotism" which means lust for other people's land, and hatred of other nations, may produce a "Soldiers' Chorus," but it will produce no Tennyson, no Shakespeare. Since the German Empire became cursed with militarism it has produced no great writers. The essence of the highest literature is to be cosmopolitan for all the world. The Republic of Athens was a commercial, a scientific, an artistic city. The kingdom of Sparta was military to the highest degree. Military Sparta has left us no literature. Civic Athens has left us a literature which even to-day is a wonder of the world. That is natural. The habitual practice of blind obedience, necessary for the soldier, is the greatest foe to thought, and prevents men from learning how to form judgments and pass opinions. Militarism must be for the masses of the soldiery unintellectual. Our literature during the last few years has in some respects deteriorated sadly. One of the aspects of its decadence is its excessive glorifying of the military spirit. Swarms of books for boys have been published the last twenty years, and they are very largely glorifications of physical force. That is a reversion to the savage. The principles of this false patriotism work deadly mischief to religion. This spurious patriotism is not love of one's country so much as love of more country. It is hatred of other men's patriotism. It cannot understand that foreigners may and ought to love their fatherland even as we do ours. Such teachings lead to bitter hatred instead of love. Racial hatred is as ungodly as it is idiotic. Nelson used to say to his sailors, "Fear God, honour the king, and hate a Frenchman as you hate the devil." How could they fear God if they hated God's children? Every Frenchman was as much loved by God as every Englishman was loved. The business of the Christian Church is to spread love and not hate, to tone down animosities, not to stimulate them. Though the student of history sees how insane and utterly unnecessary most wars have been, war may sometimes be a stern necessity. But the glorification of war is earthly and unchristian. The only argument for militarism worth anything is that it develops pluck. Well, so did gladiator fights. Shall we reintroduce them? Pluck may be learned on the football-field as well as on the field of slaughter, where the animal passions of savageism are let loose. If we are Christians we will turn away from this bastard patriotism which ends in hate of other lands. We will love our country dearly. If occasion comes, we must make great sacrifices for her. But we will ever preach the gospel of love against the badspel of hate. We will preach the superiority of intellectual pursuits to the pursuit of war. We will preach the blessedness of elevating mankind to the spiritual rather than drag humanity down to the animal.

(F. W. Aveling, M. A.)

People
Babylonians, Benjamin, Ebedmelech, Gedaliah, Hammelech, Jehucal, Jeremiah, Jonathan, Jucal, Malchiah, Malchijah, Mattan, Pashur, Shelemiah, Shephatiah, Zedekiah
Places
Babylon, Benjamin Gate, Jerusalem
Topics
Babylon, Babylonians, Babylon's, Burn, Burnt, Captains, Chaldaeans, Chaldeans, Chalde'ans, Escape, Fire, Forth, Handed, Hands, Heads, Officers, Princes, Surrender, Town, Wilt
Outline
1. Jeremiah, by a false suggestion, is put into the dungeon of Malchiah.
7. Ebed-Melech, by suit, gets him some enlargement.
14. Upon secret conference, he counsels the king by yielding to save his life.
24. By the king's instructions he conceals the conference from the princes.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Jeremiah 38:17-18

     5434   officer
     5682   family, significance

Library
The Life of Mr. James Mitchel.
Mr. James Mitchel[152] was educated at the university of Edinburgh, and was, with some other of his fellow-students, made master of arts anno 1656. Mr. Robert Leighton (afterwards bishop Leighton), being then principal of that college, before the degree was conferred upon them, tendered to them the national and solemn league and covenant; which covenants, upon mature deliberation, he took, finding nothing in them but a short compend of the moral law, binding to our duty towards God and towards
John Howie—Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies)

Jeremiah
The interest of the book of Jeremiah is unique. On the one hand, it is our most reliable and elaborate source for the long period of history which it covers; on the other, it presents us with prophecy in its most intensely human phase, manifesting itself through a strangely attractive personality that was subject to like doubts and passions with ourselves. At his call, in 626 B.C., he was young and inexperienced, i. 6, so that he cannot have been born earlier than 650. The political and religious
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

Links
Jeremiah 38:18 NIV
Jeremiah 38:18 NLT
Jeremiah 38:18 ESV
Jeremiah 38:18 NASB
Jeremiah 38:18 KJV

Jeremiah 38:18 Bible Apps
Jeremiah 38:18 Parallel
Jeremiah 38:18 Biblia Paralela
Jeremiah 38:18 Chinese Bible
Jeremiah 38:18 French Bible
Jeremiah 38:18 German Bible

Jeremiah 38:18 Commentaries

Bible Hub
Jeremiah 38:17
Top of Page
Top of Page