Especially when it comes into the Old Testament, you always want to look for Christ in the Word of God. We want to look for Him, especially in the Old Testament, because sometimes it's a little bit more difficult. But I do believe it shows fourth Christ throughout Scripture. In Isaiah 53, you remember the verse of Scripture, what Isaiah said in old time. He said about our Lord Jesus Christ that He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed Him not. And when you think about that, I want you to think about Jeremiah. Because Jeremiah was known as Weeping Prophet. Well, you know what? Now Chick would have done said that if he was here. Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet. That means he was a man of sorrows. He was acquainted with grief. And kind of a type of a forerunner of Christ in a sense. It shows forth Christ. Each one of these men, I want you to notice their lives. Jeremiah and our Lord Jesus Christ. Each came unto his own, and his own received him not. As Jeremiah preached the Word of God, proclaimed the Word of God, the people were against Jeremiah, and the same is true of our Lord Jesus Christ. Each one of them had times of rejection, desolation, darkness. They all went through struggling times. In each one, there's Jeremiah and Christ, we can see the godly in the hands of the ungodly. And what we look at in chapter 38, we can see God's deliverance, his salvation to whoever trusts in him or trusts in his word. In chapter 37, there's some similarities with 37 and 38. We see in chapter 37, Jeremiah was beaten, and he was thrown into the dungeon or prison, and then eventually he was moved to the courtyard prison. Same scenario happens in chapter 38, but there are some differences. It's not a repetition of the same thing. It's a separate occasion where this happens. But even though he is thrown into prison, what you find is Jeremiah cannot be made silent. That's one thing as far as when writing, I've mentioned to you all in the past, I've written Daniel Gordon, and oftentimes when I write him, you know, he's incarcerated, but if you know Christ, you're free. And not every prisoner understands that. Only those who know the Lord. And as we find Jeremiah, as a prisoner, he's still proclaiming God's Word. It's kind of similar to what we're going over in Philippians chapter 1. You remember the Apostle Paul? He was captive. He was a prisoner. He was chained to a guard. But you notice every time the guard changed, he was preaching the Gospels. They couldn't shut him up. That's what he was in prison for, for preaching the Gospels. Yet, they couldn't stop him from preaching the Gospels. Jeremiah was faithful in his calling. Look at verses 1 through 3 in chapter 38. Some tough names to pronounce there, but notice it says, Then Shephathiah the son of Matan, and Gedaliah the son of Pesher, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pasher the son of Malchiah, heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken unto all the people, saying, Now, here are four men that are mentioned, and this is the king's cabinet, you might say. They're officials that go hand-in-hand with the king. They have high positions. And they heard Jeremiah say, and notice it says he spoke to all the people, so he still had contact with all the people, though he was in prison. They could listen to him. They could hear His words, and what He said, it resounded unto other people. And that's often how I've said to y'all, you never know how far the Word of God will go when you share it. You don't know. So be a faithful witness. Be a faithful witness when you don't see results. If you don't receive results for years, you keep being a faithful witness, and you don't know how far God will carry that. He'll accomplish the purpose whereinto He sent Him. We know that. That's His promise. But here's what these four cabinet members heard. They heard Jeremiah said, Thus saith the Lord, he that remains in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. But he that goes forth to the Chaldean shall live, for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live. Thus saith the Lord, this city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which shall take it. Now, I want you to understand the scenario here. Remember that Jerusalem is under siege. They are surrounded. The walls are starting to crack. The army is about to come in of the Babylonians, and as they're about to come in, they've run out of food. They've run out of water. The only water that's left is muddy water at the bottom of the cistern. Now, I don't know how many of y'all have ever been out camping or hiking or something like that and you're looking for water and all you can find is murky water. You wouldn't drink that murky water, would you? If you saw it muddy and see little things moving in it, you wouldn't want to drink that kind of stuff, would you? It wouldn't be good for you. And here is the condition of that city. They're getting desperate. There have been people who have died. Listen to what it says over in Ezekiel. And it's a parallel passage with what we're reading about here as they're under siege. In Ezekiel chapter 7 and down in verse 15, it kind of gives you a picture of what's going on. The Word of God says, the sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within. In other words, outside the city gates, there's the sword. Inside, there's all kinds of disease, and there's famine, there's hunger going on, people dying from hunger. He that is in the field shall die with the sword. He that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him. So here what's happening, they're in dire straits. They're in a tough situation. They can't go out or they'll be killed with the sword. If they stay inside, they're going to die from starvation or some type of disease. What do you do when you're stuck in between a strait between two? What Jeremiah says, he says to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, surrender or die. Now you know what, if we're fighting them, let's say like all of us are in an army, and we're a particular group that's, this is our company, our outfit. We've been given marching orders. Can you imagine one within the group saying, we need to surrender or we're going to die. You need to surrender or you're going to die. You know what that sounds like? Sounds like treason. It sounds like somebody's undermining. And sounds like somebody's kind of evading the enemy and trying to help the enemy out. It doesn't sound good if you're in a battle if it's coming from your own sideline. Same thing if you can put it in, I guess we can understand it better if we were playing a game. If you were playing a football game. And you hear somebody, one of the offensive linemen say, well, you've got to quit. You've got to surrender or these guys are going to really run over us and hurt us. You see, what's happening is what these four officials are hearing. They're thinking that it's destroying the morale of the military that's remaining. Because notice what the Word of God says. It says in verse 4, Therefore the princes said unto the king, We beseech thee, let this man be put to death, for thus he weakens the hands of the men of war that remain in the city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them. For this man seeks not the welfare of this people, but the hurt. Now you can understand their reasoning in why they're saying this. But the problem with these four cabinet members, they don't understand that Babylon is being used as an instrument of God, and they're God's instrument in His hand to punish Jerusalem. And you know what? You cannot fight against God. Well, you can fight against God, but you're going to lose. And here, they are thinking Jeremiah is causing treason. You can think of it this way, these four cabinet members are very patriotic, aren't they? They want to fight to the end and they want everybody to be encouraged and take a stand for Jerusalem. They're patriots in that sense. But, the problem is, they're not listening to the Word of God. That could be the same in our day and time. If you notice what it says, in the middle of that verse in verse 4, for thus he weakens the hands of the men of war that remain in this city. In other words, there are some men that are remaining. That means some have passed away. Maybe the disease has got them. Maybe the hunger and famine has got them. Maybe they died by the sword. Maybe they deserted over to the Babylonian side. They heard Jeremiah's message, surrendered. Maybe they have surrendered. There are some still remaining though. And those hands are being weakened, is what these four cabinet members are saying, because of Jeremiah's words. Now here, these people, you remember what Jeremiah said about former people who were prophesying to the people in chapter 8, verse 11. He talked about how certain ones of them were saying, peace, peace, when there was no peace. Jeremiah is saying, you've got to surrender or you are going to die. Now you know what, that's bad news. But people need to hear the bad news, don't they? People need to hear about how they're sinners before they hear the good news. If they don't hear the bad news, they ain't going to appreciate the good news. But you know, once you hear the bad news that you're a sinner and you deserve God's wrath, then you hear the good news, that makes the good news great news, don't it? If you receive it. But you know what, it only becomes great news when you realize how bad the news really is. So here, we look at these four men, and they're listening to God's man give God's message, His word, but they don't want to receive it. It's kind of like they want to keep on in their sin, and they don't want to be punished for it. It's kind of like the message in our day and time, God is love. God wouldn't do anything to punish people because God is love. In other words, it's a love without discipline. It's an unrestrained type of love. That means it's unrestrained sin. And you know what? Some people preach that in our day and time. That leads to lawlessness. In our day and time, You have heard, probably recently on the news, how Christians are likened to terrorists. You know what? There have been some people in government positions that liken Christians to ISIS. They've actually made that statement. You know what they're saying? They're saying, like you and me, we're like ISIS. Now, you know what? That is some warped thinking. And it's sad that some would even think that way. But here is what they're saying concerning Jeremiah. He's the one that's causing the problem. He is the one that's breaking down morale. He is the one that's trying to get you to surrender. And he is the one that's trying to defeat Jerusalem. Now, the king, He's caught in the middle here. He hears this report by the cabinet members. He hears what Jeremiah said. And notice what the king does. There was politics back in that day and time too. Look, it says in verse 5, Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he's in your hand. For the king is not he that can do anything against you. In other words, he kills over to political pressure. He feels pressured into giving in. Now you remember King Zedekiah, this is the king we're talking about, he's the one that flip-flops on a lot of issues. And here he's flip-flopping on Jeremiah. And he's basically turning them over to the cabinet members. And so what the cabinet members do, they want to kill him. So you remember, as we read in chapter 37 last week, how they lowered him down into a cistern. How it's a narrow opening, but it's wide at the bottom. And that was kind of like a death sentence. Because once you enter into that, people would forget about you, you'd die. So here, remember at the end of chapter 37, Zedekiah had him pulled out. But this time, he's put into a different area. Notice it says in verse 6, "...then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah." This is the cistern of Malchiah. "...the son of Hamilech, that was in the court of the prison, and they let down Jeremiah with cords." In other words, they lowered him with ropes. That means it must have been a long way down. You think it must have been probably at least 15 feet down into that well, so to speak. And in the dungeon there was no water but mire, so Jeremiah sunk in the mire. In other words, the water had pretty much, they used all the water up and all they can get is mud and muck. Now, I don't know how many of y'all have ever been out in the woods or out when it's been raining. You know how it is when it gets real, real wet? Well, you know what? This is worse than that. You know how you can sink? Has anybody ever sunk in mud and you pulled up your foot and your shoe stayed under? You know, that's kind of frustrating, ain't it? Jeremiah goes deeper than that. He's deep into the mud. He is sunk in the mud. Now you think about it, it's only a small opening at the top. It's dark, muddy, damp, cold, no food. What's Jeremiah going to do? What would you do? Look over in Psalm 69. The 69th Psalm. It almost fits Jeremiah's situation. Psalm 69, the psalmist cried out, Save me, O God, for the waters are coming into my soul. I sink in deep mire, or the muck. where there is no standing. I'm coming to deep waters where the floods overflow me. I'm weary of my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail while I wait for my God." Couldn't that very well be describing Jeremiah's situation? Jeremiah was sunk. There is no hope in man, none at all. But you know what? If God brings you to something, He's going to bring you through that something. And that's where we've got to have trust in Him. And this is where Jeremiah's got to have faith in God, because man's help is nowhere in sight. Man's help is what put him there. So therefore, what God brought him to, God's about to bring him through it. Listen to what it says over in Psalm 40. In the 40th Psalm, Psalm 40, I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me, heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and He established my going. Boy, doesn't that sound like Jeremiah once again. So what does God do in this particular situation? He does something that probably don't sound like any of us would have come up with an idea. He chooses a man that has no name, though he's given a title, and he's a nobody, so to speak. I want you to notice what it says in verse 7, Now when Ebed-Melek, the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs which was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon, the king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin, Ibed-Milek went forth out of the king's house and spake to the king. He went out in public because the king's not in the house, and he speaks to the king. But who is this guy, Ibed-Milek? He's a Cushite. He is one from Ethiopia. That means he is a foreigner. That means he is a servant, a slave. He is one that's probably been captured and given the responsibility to serve the king. He is one that is a eunuch. That means he's been cut off. Here, that means he cannot go into the temple of God. He cannot go amongst God's people. He's banned from that. This name, Ebed-Melek, it means servant of king. In other words, he doesn't even have a name. That's just a title. Servant of the king. You're a servant of the king. You're a nobody. You don't have a name. We don't recognize you by a name. Yet here is this man that God has chosen to use. And what he does, if you think about it, he's a servant of the king. He comes and he approaches the king in public. Now, you know what, that's like taking your life in your own hands. That is like, you could have your head chopped off for that. Here is his faith. and is showing through as he goes to the king. And what he says in verse 9, My Lord, the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done in Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon, and he is like to die for hunger in the place where he is, for there is no more bread in the city. So you see here the situation. He's confronted the king. And I want you to notice how this servant, who doesn't even have a name, how his faith brings him deliverance. I want you to look down in verse 16, if you would. And down in verse 16, it says, So Zedekiah the king swears secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, As the Lord lives, that made us this soul, I will not put you to death, neither will I give you into the hand of these men that seek my life." Jeremiah said unto the king, Zedekiah, thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, if you will surely go forth unto the king of the Babylon's princes, then your soul shall live. This city shall not be burned with fire, you shall live, and your houses. But if you will not go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then this city shall be given unto the hands of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape. And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews. that are fallen in the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me. Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver you. Obey, I beseech you, the voice of the Lord, which I speak unto you. So it shall be well unto you, and your soul shall live. But if you refuse to go forth, this is the word that the Lord has shewed me." Now here he's giving warning to the king. Obed-Melech, he's going to be delivered from all this. In this scenario, because he's had faith, he's not going to be killed. I want you to notice what it goes on to say here. Zedekiah is changing his mind, because at first he didn't want anything to do with Jeremiah. So Zedekiah hears Ibad-Milek, and it says in verse 10, Then the king commanded Ibad-Milek, the Ethiopian, saying, Take from thence thirty men with you. Take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon before he dies. In other words, he couldn't do anything about it, now he can do something about it. He's waffling. He's changing his mind back and forth. Zedekiah's done changed his mind. Remember, he was put in power by the king of Babylon. Then he rebelled against the king of Babylon. He's constantly waffling, changing his mind. So it says in verse... So Ebed-Melek took the men with him. And as he took these men, it says, he went into the house of the king under the treasury. He took thence old cast cloths, or old rags, and old rotten rags. And he let them down by cords unto the dungeon by Jeremiah, or unto Jeremiah. Now here he's got 30 men. You think about it, pulling a man out of the muck, he's going to be stuck in the muck. You ever tried to pull your shoe out of the muck when it's stuck in the muck after your foot's come out but your shoe's still in there? You put your foot back in there and you try to pull it out, it's like a suction thing. It's suctioning down. Even so, here's the body, as they're trying to pull him up, it's suctioning down. I believe that's why they've got so many men. And so here, notice what Ibn Milad does. He says, he tells him to put those clouts and the rotten rags under his arm holes. Why is that? Because if you pull somebody up by a rope a long distance, it's going to cut into them. So he's concerned about Jeremiah. And he's taking great care of Jeremiah. So Jeremiah was obedient. They drew up Jeremiah with cords, took him up out of the dungeon, and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. So Jeremiah is rescued by someone who is a nobody as far as this world's viewpoint. And Zedekiah the king wants a second meeting with Jeremiah. And he took Jeremiah the prophet unto him, the third entry, into the third entry, that is in the house of the Lord. The king said to Jeremiah, I'm going to ask you one thing, just something here, hide nothing from me on this. Jeremiah said unto the king Zedekiah, if I declare it unto you, will you surely not put me to death? And if I give you counsel, will you not hearken unto me? Jeremiah knew the king wasn't going to listen to whatever he said. He already knew where the king was at. And Zedekiah the king swears secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, As the Lord lives that made us this soul, I will not put you to death, neither will I give you into the hand of these men to seek your life. I won't put you to death. Zedekiah is one that's just flopping on his word back and forth. But you know what? Sometimes God sends weak leaders to a nation. And by doing that, what God's doing, He's judging the nation. Because when a nation has a weak leader, what happens? They go deeper into trouble. Now, you know what? Some people would not want to admit this, but I do believe we've got a weak leader. And we've gone deeper into trouble in some areas. Because the United States is not visible in other countries as a power to help. You know what? We've lost our leadership. And it comes from weak leaders. Now, why would God do that? Because of the sins of a nation. Here, God is for Babylon. Zedekiah, he's reversing his foreign policy against Babylon. He was for Babylon, now he's against Babylon. Well, it sounds like a leader we know, don't it? It's reversing policy. Domestic policies reversed. He was for freeing slaves, now he's not for freeing slaves. You can have your slaves back. Back and forth, back and forth. And then what we have is the problem here. Zedekiah just simply lacked faith. In verse 19 we read, The king said unto Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me. The ones that had turned and gone to the Babylonians and surrendered to them, he's scared they're going to turn on him and kill him. Now what should he have done in that situation? You know what, have you ever been afraid? Have you ever been scared or something? You remember what the psalmist said in Psalm 56, what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. That's what we need to do. when scary times come in our life. Zedekiah, he let fear reign in his heart. The problem was, Zedekiah would not repent. He wouldn't turn. He didn't hearken to God's Word. And you know what, this is the same thing, same principle with people in our day and time. Why is God's hand of judgment coming down? because people will not repent. They will not turn from their sins. And you know what? The only way you can experience God's promises and blessings is by turning from your sin. Then you experience the blessing of God. What we find in verses 20-23, we see the results of obedience and the results of disobedience. Jeremiah says if you obey, the voice of the Lord, it's going to be well with you, and your soul's going to live. But if you refuse to go forth, this is the word that the Lord has shown me. Behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah's house, this is all his concubines, are going to be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes, and those women are going to say, your friends have set you on, and have prevailed against you. Your feet are sunk in the mire. Look how it's turned around. Jeremiah was in the mire, and these women that were his concubines are going to say to the king, your feet are sunk in the mire, and they are turned away back. So they shall bring out all your wives and your children to the Chaldeans. Thou shalt not escape out of their hand, but shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon, and thou shalt cause this city to be burned with fire. That's the result of disobedience. So what does Zedekiah do? In verse 24-26 it says, Then said Zedekiah unto Jeremiah, Let no man know of these words, and thou shalt not die. You know what? It sounds like Zedekiah is more concerned about what people think about what he looks like. Don't let nobody hear what I've talked to you about. But this is kind of an interesting passage of Scripture. Notice what it goes on to say. He promises them life if you don't tell what they talked about. And then he says, But if the princes hear that I have talked with you, and they come unto you, and say unto you, Declaring thus now that what thou hast said unto the king, hide it not from us, and we will not put you to death, also what the king said unto thee. Then thou shalt say unto them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan's house, to die there. Now notice what he put in the mouth of Jeremiah. He's telling Jeremiah to say this. Don't say what we talked about, but tell them this. So what does Jeremiah do? Look in verse 27. Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah, just like the king said they would, and asked him. And he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded him. Now, think about that for a moment. Do you see a problem with that? Jeremiah lied. Did anybody pick that up? Jeremiah told them what the king wanted them to hear. So they left off speaking with Jeremiah, for the matter was not perceived. Jeremiah went right along with what the king had said. Now, why would that be? Let me tell you, Jeremiah was human. Back in verse 15, he said, if I tell you like it is, you put me to death. Jeremiah didn't want to die at that time. He had a fear of death. And you know what we all do at times? I do believe when our time comes, we have dying grace. So if you're scared of dying, don't worry about it. You ain't got dying grace. But here Jeremiah, he lies in this matter. So Jeremiah abode in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken. He was there when Jerusalem was taken. Hear what Jeremiah has done. He has been faithful. He has preached the Word. He has even been persecuted. He suffered. He's been faithful, persecuted for the Word. And all of a sudden he lies. You know what? Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Though you've been faithful in the past does not guarantee you're going to be faithful in the present or in the future. You know what? That's not guaranteed in our lives. Therefore, we need to take heed lest we fall. This shows us Jeremiah was in need of a Savior too, doesn't it? He needed a Savior. I want to draw a little bit of a conclusion with this. Time to give you an illustration of where it's something you could put into practice. If you look at this life of this servant who was a slave, a eunuch, a nobody, a king's servant, that's all he was known as, the king's servant. You look at how he risked his life to help somebody else. I read a story about a little girl. This little girl was named Little Annie. Little Annie was taken into an asylum. where people were crazy. This happened many years ago. And because this little girl, they thought she was crazy, they eventually put her into a dungeon, into the dark area, all in a caged area by herself. If anybody ever came up to her, sometimes she would attack them. Little Annie was pretty much left isolated. There was one nurse that was about to retire. And as this nurse was about to retire, she decided she'd try to help little Annie. So what she did, she went down to where Annie was caged at, and she'd eat her lunch with her every day. Little Annie didn't even pay her attention. So what this nurse did, she brought her brownies one day at lunch. Little Annie didn't even acknowledge it. The nurse left, but the next day when she came back, the brownies were gone. So she started doing that regularly every day. Eventually, Little Annie was able to communicate with that nurse. She moved into another room out of the dungeon, out of that cage. When they said she could go home, Little Annie said, I don't want to go home. because I think I can be a help to some others. She stayed at that asylum and she helped one lady. There was the Queen of England honored Helen Keller. She's the only time a foreigner has been honored by the Queen of England at that time from what I read. And what happened, she asked, what made the most positive influence in your life? She said it was a woman by the name of Little Annie. And if it weren't for Little Annie, Helen Keller wouldn't have been the Helen Keller we know about. That was known pretty much world-renowned. You see, Little Annie, you don't know the story about her. Or what about that nurse that was about to retire? who maybe she thought like her life really wasn't of much significance anymore. I'm about to retire. There's nothing left for me to do. Look at the impact one life has upon one life that has upon another life. See how God can use you. Look at Ibn Malik, a nobody, seemingly, but look how God used him. and deliver Jeremiah. Don't you ever say, God can't use me. There ain't nothing for me to do. Uh-uh. Your life can be an influence in other people's lives. And you never know how far that will go. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, we pray that Your Word would settle in our heart, get rooted in our heart, and prosper in our heart to the point that we might be an influence in other people's lives. Lord, we will confess. Without You, we can do nothing. But through Your strength, we can do all things. So we ask that You use our lives in the lives of others. helping them to prosper and grow, to be edified, to be built up in the faith, to be a witness to the lost, that souls might come into your kingdom. Lord, we pray that you would work effectually in us and through us into the lives of others, that other lives might be bringing you glory. We thank you in advance for how you're working. The things you're going to do magnify your glory for Christ's sake.