Overcoming Obstacles to Witness

KEY VERSE: “They shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee saith the LORD, to deliver thee.” —Jeremiah 1:19

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Jeremiah 36:4-8, 27-31

TODAY’S study draws our attention to the persecutions endured by one of the Lord’s faithful prophets—Jeremiah. He was a patriot in the highest sense of the word, who desired that his nation follow the leadings of divine wisdom. His principle was ‘God First’, and he knew that only this could bring blessings to Judah. He was greatly misunderstood by the king and his counsellors. They did not like him because he told the truth as God directed him. They preferred prophets who would tell them of their own wisdom, greatness, and the success of their policies.

When King Zedekiah was on the throne, he was a vassal to Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Chaldeans, whose seat of empire was to the north. Hoping for assistance from Egypt on the south, Judah revolted, contrary to the warning of the Lord through Jeremiah. The Chaldeans laid siege, and the Egyptian army started for their deliverance. The siege was temporarily lifted, and the hopes of Judah rose. Nevertheless, Jeremiah persisted in declaring, as at the first, that the end of the kingdom was near and that they would be swallowed up in Babylon.

“Therefore thus saith the Lord, Ye have not hearkened unto me in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. … And Zedekiah king of Judah, and his princes, will I give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which are gone up from you.”—Jer. 35:17,21

The king and his princes considered Jeremiah their opponent and a traitor to the nation. They should have realized the nation was God’s, and Jeremiah was his faithful prophet.

After the Chaldean army had withdrawn from the siege, Jeremiah decided to cast his lot with the people living outside the city walls. In attempting to escape Jerusalem, he was arrested on the charge of disloyalty, and of having acted for the favor of the Chaldeans. Although he denied the charge, he was put into prison.

Jerusalem was honeycombed with underground cisterns and vaults designed to be reservoirs for water in times of drought or during Beige. When the water was removed, the bottoms of these cisterns were frequently deep with mud and slime. We read, They let down Jeremiah with cords, and in the dungeon there was no water but mire; so Jeremiah sank in the mire.” (Jer. 38:6,11) Finally, when they lifted him out, we read they took old, rotten rags and let them down to Jeremiah, who put them under his arms and was drawn up.

The prophet had remained many days in this pit and it was only because he desired to inquire more of him about the future that the king had him taken out. Even though the king despised Jeremiah and refused to recognize his words, he, nevertheless, in his heart realized he was a servant of Jehovah and feared his message was true. When questioned again by the king, Jeremiah altered not a word of what he had previously said, urging the king not to heed the predictions of his other counselors. He repeated that his own statements were true because they were the Word of the Lord.

At his entreaty, he was not returned to the mud at the cistern bottom, but was allowed to remain confined in the court of the prison, even being granted daily food.

The deliverance promised to Jeremiah in the words of our text was not to be one from persecution or even from death, but merely such protection as would prevent his enemies from prevailing against him to hinder the Lord’s purposes. God does not deliver his children from all the ills of this present life. They are permitted to share with the rest of mankind—even injustice, abuse, or martyrdom for righteousness. But, if faithful unto death, loyal and true to God, and to his truth, and to conscience, their glorious deliverance will come at last, with an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

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