View Jeremiah 38 in the note window.
eremiah 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)
Verses 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?
Verses 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.
