“Now Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehucal* son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malkijah heard what Jeremiah had been telling the people. He had been saying, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Everyone who stays in Jerusalem will die from war, famine, or disease, but those who surrender to the Babylonians* will live. Their reward will be life. They will live!’ The Lord also says: ‘The city of Jerusalem will certainly be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon, who will capture it.’ ” So these officials went to the king and said, “Sir, this man must die! That kind of talk will undermine the morale of the few fighting men we have left, as well as that of all the people. This man is a traitor!” King Zedekiah agreed. “All right,” he said. “Do as you like. I can’t stop you.” So the officials took Jeremiah from his cell and lowered him by ropes into an empty cistern in the prison yard. It belonged to Malkijah, a member of the royal family. There was no water in the cistern, but there was a thick layer of mud at the bottom, and Jeremiah sank down into it. But Ebed-melech the Ethiopian,* an important court official, heard that Jeremiah was in the cistern. At that time the king was holding court at the Benjamin Gate, so Ebed-melech rushed from the palace to speak with him. “My lord the king,” he said, “these men have done a very evil thing in putting Jeremiah the prophet into the cistern. He will soon die of hunger, for almost all the bread in the city is gone.” So the king told Ebed-melech, “Take thirty of my men with you, and pull Jeremiah out of the cistern before he dies.” So Ebed-melech took the men with him and went to a room in the palace beneath the treasury, where he found some old rags and discarded clothing. He carried these to the cistern and lowered them to Jeremiah on a rope. Ebed-melech called down to Jeremiah, “Put these rags under your armpits to protect you from the ropes.” Then when Jeremiah was ready, they pulled him out. So Jeremiah was returned to the courtyard of the guard—the palace prison—where he remained.”  Jeremiah 38:1 – 13

The English word “jeremiad” (a word I use often in my everyday vernacular 🙂 means “lament” or “complaint.” Jeremiah is a prophet to us – but he seemed to be a complainer to the people of Jerusalem. G-d had called the prophet to take G-d’s complaints to the people. G-d’s message went like this: “Your sins are awful. The Babylonians will slaughter you and take the survivors into captivity. Repent!” The officials of Jerusalem felt the message was nothing short of unacceptable. Three of them went to King Zedekiah and demanded that Jeremiah be killed. “Do as you like,” said the king. “I can’t stop you” (Jeremiah 38:5). So they threw the prophet into a muddy cistern. None of the Judeans dared come to Jeremiah’s rescue. But an Ethiopian did. We do not know much about Ebed-melech. The Bible simply calls him “an important court official” , but he alone defended G-d’s prophet.

Have you ever been known as a whiner? Maybe as a child, or as a college student, you found yourself deep in a feeling of wanting to whine. You may have felt it was justified, or you believed that the situation you were in required you to speak up regarding your own injustice – and your parents just felt you were whining. Now think about Jeremiah – G-d had appointed him to take complaints to the people, legitimate complaints in the eyes of G-d, and the people felt he was just a whiner and complainer. And not just a complainer, but he was also passing judgment upon the people — the judgment that G-d declared upon the people.

When does complaining about something turn from “Justice” to “Whining”? There is the old saying: “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” – but it can be a fine line between the occasional squeak and purposeful complaining (otherwise called whining). But we do not need to whine to G-d to get G-d to pay attention to us. And when it comes to our friends and family, perhaps we need to be more discerning about what we choose to “complain” about, and what we need to pursue in the name of Justice.

Pastor Dave

“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. ²³ For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. ²⁴ For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.” (1 Peter 1:22-25)

“Living in a climate of deep insecurity, Jesus, faced with so narrow a margin of civil guarantees, had to find some other basis upon which to establish a sense of well-being. He knew that the goals of religion as he understood them could never be worked out within the then-established order. Deep from within that order he projected a dream, the logic of which would give to all the needful security. There would be room for all, and no man would be a threat to his brother.” (Howard Thurman. Jesus and the Disinherited (pp. 34-35). Beacon Press. Kindle Edition.)

“All people are like grass”. Don’t you sometimes feel as if the church has too many people who forget that they are not perfect, are not always solid citizens, and that they are not immune from making mistakes? Even in Jesus’ society, there were those who always believed they were above others – people like the Pharisees and other religious leaders.

I have been a pastor for fifteen years. In those years I have run across a few people in the church who believed that G-d had directly empowered them to point out the “specks” in their neighbor’s eyes, while ignoring the “logs” in their own eyes. They felt empowered to do or say whatever they wanted to do or say. They may or may not have realized this is how they were perceived, but it is clear they believed they had special privileges. Paul says “All people are like grass…but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

I remember a story about a young man who had put himself behind the wheel of his luxury car after he had too many drinks, and in making this decision he wrecked his car causing an accident that killed another human being. His defense at his trial was that his parents had spoiled him too much so that he did not know the difference between right and wrong. We hear about such stories and scoff at the ridiculousness of it all – that people do not or cannot take responsibility for their own actions. Fortunately for you and me the Bible is filled with people who failed to understand the consequences of their wrongful actions. Saul who breathed murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples until his conversion experience. And David, when confronted by Nathan about his indiscretion with Bathsheba finally said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

My friends, all people are like grass. We all will one day wither and fall. Thank the Lord Jesus came to save us all not only from the sinful, but also from ourselves.

Pastor Dave