Speaking for the enemy? (Jeremiah 37–40)

Why was Jeremiah dropped in a cistern and left there to die? What had he done?

He’d upset the leaders of Jerusalem. The city was under threat from Babylon, a huge opponent. The city leaders were trying to assemble fighters to give it a fighting chance, but Jeremiah said the city would fall anyway.

I mean, who wants to fight if it’s already a lost cause? Jeremiah’s message was demoralizing. They portrayed him as a Babylonian spy, speaking for the enemy instead of speaking for God:

Jeremiah 37:3-16 (NIV)
⁶ Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet: ⁷ “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Tell the king of Judah … ⁸ ‘The Babylonians will return and attack this city; they will capture it and burn it down.’’
¹² Jeremiah started to leave the city … ¹³ But when he reached the Benjamin Gate, the captain of the guard … arrested him and said, “You are deserting to the Babylonians!” … ¹⁶ Jeremiah was put into a vaulted cell in a dungeon where he remained a long time.

Whether we’re talking ancient kings or modern politicians, rulers do whatever it takes to stay in power.

God’s people can be so complicit with evil that it takes a foreigner to see the problem:

Jeremiah 38:4-9 (NIV)
⁴ Then the officials said to the king, “This man should be put to death. He is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, as well as all the people, by the things he is saying to them. This man is not seeking the good of these people but their ruin.” …
⁷ But Ebed-Melek, a Cushite, an official in the royal palace … said, ⁹ “My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have thrown him into a cistern, where he will starve to death when there is no longer any bread in the city.”

Ironically, the injustice Jeremiah faced demonstrated the truth of this message. The city leaders were not serving the Lord, and that’s why God handed them over to serve Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah was not a pro-Babylonian spy; he was a prophet speaking for the Lord. That was evident to everyone when Babylon invaded.

So, the ultimate twist comes when Babylon confirms Jeremiah as the Lord’s prophet:

Jeremiah 40:2-4 (NIV)
² When the commander of the [Babylonian] guard found Jeremiah, he said to him, “The Lord your God decreed this disaster for this place. ³ And now the Lord has brought it about; he has done just as he said he would. All this happened because you people sinned against the Lord and did not obey him. ⁴ But today I am freeing you from the chains on your wrists. Come with me to Babylon, if you like, and I will look after you; but if you do not want to, then don’t come. Look, the whole country lies before you; go wherever you please.”

Did you get that? The enemy freed Jeremiah from the oppression he suffered at the hands of God’s people. Jeremiah stands as quite the warning for any of us who are serving the Lord.

And it’s not as if Jeremiah’s experience was unique. As Jesus pointed out, this is the pattern (Matthew 23:29-36). It’s the reason Jesus faced the cross.

Like Jeremiah, Jesus realized the temple leaders were actors pretending to have God’s authority but actually serving themselves (Matthew 23:1-29). That’s why Jesus, like Jeremiah, declared the fall of the temple and its city (Matthew 23:37–24:20). Like Jeremiah, Jesus was treated as a blasphemer, someone speaking for the enemy (Matthew 26:63-67).

Unlike Jeremiah, Jesus was not released when the leaders of God’s people handed him over to the “Babylon” of their day. It took a higher authority to raise Jesus out of death, bringing heaven’s authority to the earth in the resurrected king (Matthew 28).

Conclusion

Jeremiah was not a pro-Babylonian spokesman. He said Babylon would fall too because its power relied on killing its opponents. Jeremiah was calling God’s people to allegiance to the life-giving God, not the death-dealing power of this world:

Jeremiah 51:49-58 (NIV)
⁴⁹ “Babylon must fall because of Israel’s slain, just as the slain in all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.
⁵⁰ You who have escaped the sword, leave and do not linger! Remember the Lord in a distant land, and call to mind Jerusalem.” …
⁵⁸ This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Babylon’s thick wall will be levelled and her high gates set on fire; the peoples exhaust themselves for nothing, the nations’ labour is only fuel for the flames.”

All along, Jeremiah was calling God’s people to trust the Lord and his Anointed instead of operating out of their own self-directed power. Here’s the heart of Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 23:5–6 (NIV) (compare 33:15-16)
⁵ “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. ⁶ In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Saviour.

No one who’s listening to Jeremiah could crucify the glorious king God has sent us.

What others are saying

John D. Barry, Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016), on Jeremiah 26:8:

Everyone in the temple area who heard his message believed that it was treasonous and considered Jeremiah a false prophet because of it.

Tremper Longman III, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 246:

These men are deeply disturbed by Jeremiah’s preaching. He sounds like an agent of the Babylonians, telling the people that they will survive only if they surrender. Those who resist and stay in the city will die by sword, famine or plague, the three scourges of a military siege. … In a word, Jeremiah is claiming that the defeat of Jerusalem by the Babylonians is something that is assured by none other than God himself.

From the perspective of these officials, Jeremiah is abetting the enemy by discouraging the troops and the population. For this crime, he should be put to death. They are thinking of the good of the people and Jeremiah is undermining public confidence.

J. Andrew Dearman, Jeremiah and Lamentations, NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 412–413:

Chapters 50–51 deal with God’s judgment on Babylon, a judgment that came on the city in 539 B.C., when Cyrus the Great and his forces occupied the city and put the Babylonian Empire out of business. …

According to chapter 25, already in the time of Jehoiakim, when Babylon first loomed on the horizon as political master, the prophet announced not only that Babylon would be the agent of God’s judgment but that it would also be the recipient of God’s judgment.

Christopher J. H. Wright, The Message of Jeremiah: Grace in the End, The Bible Speaks Today (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2014), 244:

God is full of surprises. Having declared that the present royal son of David (Jehoiachin) will never have an heir to the throne ([Jeremiah] 22:30), God now declares the paradox that the ending of the line of human kings descended from David will not mean that God’s promise to David himself would fail. At some unspecified future date God himself will raise up to David a righteous Branch. And this son of David will be the one who will combine a reign of righteousness and justice with the blessing of salvation. …

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