WHEN GOD SPEAKS TO YOUR PRAYERS (JEREMIAH 37:1-21)

 

WHEN GOD SPEAKS TO YOUR PRAYERS

BIBLE PASSAGE: JEREMIAH 37:1-21

Picture taken from Google

Lesson Prepared by: Krisha of Solomon’s Wisdom FB page

Lesson ideas taken from: ttps://www.lifeway.com

SEPTEMBER 05, 2021

MEMORY VERSE

But Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the Lord, which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live.

JEREMIAH 38:20

 

INTRODUCTION:

What is your reaction when someone says, “PRAY FOR ME” or “PRAY FOR US”?  (wait for the audience response and have short explanation in regard to their answers)

 

Lot of Christians neglect prayer and they don’t see the importance of prayer. So, when problem and trials strike, the sweetness of prayer is there. But after the trials have overcome, they go back to negligence.

 

What if the cause of the trials and problems is sin and God only wants you to be humble, repent and obey but you refuse and follow your flesh?

 

In our lesson for today there’s a king who asked for prayers. His name is King Zedekiah, he was the last king of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. We have read from the scripture why he was asking for prayers to the weeping prophet, Jeremiah.  He said, “PRAY FOR US.” Let’s study what happened to the king’s request.

 

LESSON OUTLINE:

1.  HE WANTED PRAYERS BUT DIDN’T LISTEN TO GOD’S WORDS (JEREMIAH 37:3).

Verse 3 says, “And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Pray now unto the Lord our God for us.” We can see here that the king sent his people to Jeremiah to pray for them and God answered the prayers. Jeremiah told them what would happen to Jerusalem. Their prayers were not in favor according to their will. What will be your reactions or feelings when the prayers you are praying for is not in line with what you want?  They were praying for success regards to the war planning by the Babylonians to the land of Judah. God answered them that Jerusalem would be in the hand of the Babylonians.

The people in Judah believed that God’s will was to deliver them from their enemies and to preserve an independent Judah. Yet that was not God’s will; it was His will to bring Judah into judgment. Why was their prayer answered not according to their plan? Was God being unfair? Before we think of another else let’s see what kind of leadership Zedekiah had.

Zedekiah was 21 years of age when he became king. The Bible tells us both in II Kings 24:17 and Jeremiah 37:1 that it was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon who actually made Zedekiah the next king of Judah.  This right away tells us that by this time the people of Judah had already become more or less a captive people subject to the Babylonians. It was also a time of moral, spiritual, political decline in Judah and Zedekiah proved he was not a strong stable leader at all. Indeed, what we need to know further is that Zedekiah proved to be another ungodly king.  He reigned 11 years and II Chronicles 36:12-13 gives this sad summary of his reign, namely, “he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the LORD…but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the LORD God of Israel.”   (https://frcna.org/publications/banner-of-truth)

What we find out about King Zedekiah also is that he didn’t keep his promises to his own people but treacherously broke pledges made. His history, as the Bible tells it, shows he was a king clearly afraid to make decisions about anything. He feared man, especially the princes in the king’s court alongside of him more than he feared God and His word. Several times in the book of Jeremiah we see Zedekiah pay certain respects to Jeremiah and say even that he wants to listen to the prophet, but time and again he did the very opposite. What are we told in Jeremiah 38? When the leadership of the people wanted to get rid of Jeremiah because of him repeatedly saying Judah needed to surrender to the Babylonians and not fight them or rebel against them, then we read in vs.5 the king said to his princes, “Behold, he is in your hand: for the king is not he that can do anything against you.”

If you read that onwards you can see that king Zedekiah had merely a change of mind. He had no strong conviction in terms of what is good and right. In the previous verses, he allowed the palace people to do whatever they wanted to Jeremiah; he was put in dungeon with no water but mire. But when Ebed-melech, one of the eunuchs in the king’s palace, heard what happened to Jeremiah, he went to the king and asked to help Jeremiah out of the dungeon, then the king commanded him to get out of the dungeon.  So, you see, King Zedekiah has no strong conviction.

We see in this lesson how the king and the people reacted to God’s answers to their prayers. They still don’t listen to God; instead, they put the prophet in prison. May this lesson remind us that we need to listen to God’s word, and everything happens for a reason. Remember what happen to Afghanistan, we wanted them to be freed from the rule of Taliban but at this moment, God allowed that to happen. We need to listen to God’s word.

2.  THEY WERE PRAYING BUT DIDN’T DEPEND ON GOD (JEREMIAH 37:7; 42: 1-22)

The king depended on Pharaoh’s army to help them, but Verse 7 says, “Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say to the king of Judah, that sent you unto me to enquire of me; Behold, Pharaoh's army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land.” The help that they were expecting would not happen; Pharaoh’s army would return to Egypt. God told them to surrender to the Babylonians and they would live and their families, but they refused instead they made their own plans.  They asked help from Egypt. In verses 9-10 of chapter 37 say, “Thus saith the Lord; Deceive not yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us: for they shall not depart. For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet should they rise up every man in his tent and burn this city with fire.”  

Have you seen the lesson what these verses want to say? Whatever you do, you cannot do anything according to God’s plans. If you want your life to be spared, “JUST SURRENDER!”

Another situation happened in Jeremiah chapter 42; let us read the first 6 verses. We can see that the leaders of the tribe, people and other remnants of Judah had asked for prayers. They asked Jeremiah to pray for them for God’s guidance. After ten days, Jeremiah received God’s answers. God told the remnants to stay and be not afraid to the king of Babylon, “…for I am with you to save you and deliver you from his hand. And I will shew mercies unto you, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land. But if ye say, We will not dwell in this land, neither obey the voice of the Lord your God, Saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell: If they didn’t hear commandment of the Lord, they would experience famine, pestilence, war and even death. When the leaders and the people heard what the Lord said through Jeremiah, the leaders said, “Thou speakest falsely: the Lord our God hath not sent thee to say, Go not into Egypt to sojourn there:”

Sad to say whatever Jeremiah said to them, they were all happened. What lesson we could get from this situation? – God’s word is true, and always He means what He says. We need to be humble, repent and obey God’s commands.

3.  HE WAS ASKING GOD FOR HELP AND GUIDANCE BUT HE DIDN’T ACCEPT THE LEADING (JEREMIAH 21; 37:17-21; 38:14-28)

Jeremiah 21:2 Enquire, I pray thee, of the Lord for us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us; if so be that the Lord will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us.

Jeremiah 37:17 Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took him out: and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, Is there any word from the Lord? And Jeremiah said, There is: for, said he, thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.

Jeremiah 38:14-16 Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him into the third entry that is in the house of the Lord: and the king said unto Jeremiah, I will ask thee a thing; hide nothing from me. Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, If I declare it unto thee, wilt thou not surely put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, wilt thou not hearken unto me? So Zedekiah the king sware secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, As the Lord liveth, that made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand of these men that seek thy life.

On the last time, Prophet Jeremiah pleaded the king of Judah to surrender. Let’s read the following verses.

Jeremiah 38: ¹⁷ Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon's princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thine house: ¹⁸ But if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand. ¹⁹ And Zedekiah 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. ²⁰ But Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the Lord, which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live.

And the next verses, Jeremiah spoke the consequences if he disobeyed.

CONCLUSION:

In Jeremiah 39, we’ll see what happened to king Zedekiah. After many warnings from the prophet, he chose to follow the counsel of his ungodly friends. After seeing the courts and palace were in the hand of king Nebuchadnezzar, they fled during the night, but the Chaldeans pursued them and overtook them. Did the King Zedekiah think he would escape after the words from Jeremiah? Sometimes, we think we can do it by ourselves, and God wouldn’t allow bad things to happen, but God’s ways are different from ours. In verse 6 of chapter 39, “Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also, the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.” How painful to see that your sons were affected by your wrongdoings; they were killed before your eyes. In verse 7, “Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon.” Then the king of Babylon turned to Zedekiah, he put out his eyes and bound him with chains. There he was put in a prison cell where he also died according to Jeremiah 52:11. What a sad and tragic ending to the life of Zedekiah.  He heard no doubt also the news of the total destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple and the city. The best thing for Judah to do was to submit to this will of God, as Jeremiah told them to do – despite great opposition but they didn’t do it.

God’s promise to King Zedekiah and the people of Judah is very clear. Jeremiah 38:20 says, “But Jeremiah said, they shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the Lord, which I speak unto thee: so, it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live.” It’s clear but they refused to obey.

What do you think the last thoughts of king Zedekiah before he died? He found out too late, most painful and shameful state he had and what Jeremiah had been saying all along is true.