‏ Jeremiah 38

* Jeremiah is cast into a dungeon, from whence he is delivered

by an Ethiopian. (1-13) He advises the king to surrender to the

Chaldeans. (14-28)

1-13 Jeremiah went on in his plain preaching. The princes went

on in their malice. It is common for wicked people to look upon

God's faithful ministers as enemies, because they show what

enemies the wicked are to themselves while impenitent. Jeremiah

was put into a dungeon. Many of God's faithful witnesses have

been privately made away in prisons. Ebed-melech was an

Ethiopian; yet he spoke to the king faithfully, These men have

done ill in all they have done to Jeremiah. See how God can

raise up friends for his people in distress. Orders were given

for the prophet's release, and Ebed-melech saw him drawn up. Let

this encourage us to appear boldly for God. Special notice is

taken of his tenderness for Jeremiah. What do we behold in the

different characters then, but the same we behold in the

different characters now, that the Lord's children are conformed

to his example, and the children of Satan to their master? 14-28 Jeremiah was not forward to repeat the warnings, which

seemed only to endanger his own life, and to add to the king's

guilt, but asked whether he feared to do the will of God. The

less men fear God, the more they fear men; often they dare not

act according to their own judgments and consciences.