Take your Bibles with me and turn to Jeremiah 37 tonight. We're going to look at one of the saddest chapters in the Scripture, one of the saddest stories in the life of one of God's servants.

Last week we talked about the story of the two figs. There was a basket that God showed Jeremiah of good figs and a basket that God showed Jeremiah of bad figs. The people in Judah looked at the people that had already been taken away to captivity and thought those guys are the bad figs. Jeremiah's message is no, you guys are the bad figs. You guys are the ones that are going to deal with God's wrath. Chapter 37 is where we see that come to fruition.

When I was in high school at my Christian school, we had this man named Samuel Wakim who was a member of our church come and give a slideshow. That wasn't something that was typical in chapel. It really stood out. And it wasn't really a sermon, he just showed this slideshow that was mostly a bunch of family pictures from his childhood.

This guy grew up in Lebanon and the country he grew up in was a beautiful country, a modern country with a strong Christian minority. He showed us these pictures that looked like paradise. It looked like California next to the Mediterranean Sea, just an idyllic and awesome place to grow up.

He then told us about the horrible civil war that happened and the state of the country then. Now mind you, this was the '90s. He told us how he had to flee, how some of his family was left behind, and how terribly they were treated. This beautiful country that he'd been telling us about is just totally destroyed. He showed us pictures of those same beautiful buildings with bullet holes in them. He told us how the Christian minority was either driven out or driven underground.

Can you imagine what it would be like to watch the fall of your country? That'd be horrible. Heartbreaking.

Imagine having to watch the fall of your country, being the only person who had been warning people about it. That's what Jeremiah is dealing with here in chapter 37. Jeremiah has spent his entire life preaching for Judah to repent and turn back to God and telling them what was going to happen if they didn't. His entire life the people of Judah have been mocking him, rejecting his message, and hating him for what he said.

And now Judah is on its last king. His name is Zedekiah. Zedekiah wasn't all bad. There's a glimmer of hope in Zedekiah. He doesn't hate Jeremiah. He doesn't hate the message of the Lord but he didn't listen to it either. He doesn't embrace it either. He lives in kind of this halfway state that a lot of people live in.

And so chapter 37 shows us these two men going through the end of Judah. And I think there are three things from this story that we can learn.

The first thing I think we can see is...

1. God's not interested in being a good luck charm.

Let's start by reading verses 1-4.

[1] And king Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah.
[2] But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, did hearken unto the words of the Lord, which he spake by the prophet Jeremiah.
[3] 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.
[4] Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people: for they had not put him into prison.
Jeremiah 37:1-4 (KJV)

Verse 2 gives us a summary of King Zedekiah and the people of the land. The summary is that they didn't listen. He didn't listen to the Word of God or the prophet Jeremiah. His servants didn't listen to the Word of God or the prophet Jeremiah. The people didn't listen to the Word of God and the prophet Jeremiah.

But they could tell it was bad. This is the end of Judah and it's obviously coming to an end. It's looking bad.

King Zedekiah does something interesting. He sends two of his highfalutin messengers to Jeremiah and asks, "Hey, will you pray for us? Will you pray to the Lord God for us?"

Now isn't that interesting? Here is a man and a people that have no interest in listening to God but they want God to listen to them. They want God to intercede for them. They don't want to hear the message of God from the prophet but they want the prophet to pray to God for them.

Church, I've experienced this with people before. People that are dead set against obeying God and yet they want you to pray for them. They are running headlong into the consequences God's Word said would happen because of their disobedience. They want you to pray for them.

And there's a lesson here: God is not your rabbit's foot. People used to get one of those little fake rabbit feet and stick it on their purse or on their backpack for good luck. God is not your good luck charm. God is not there to bless your mess. That is not the relationship that God has with his people.

What's really sad here is that Zedekiah and Judah had rejected God in practice and in principle but wanted God's blessing nonetheless. They wanted God's help nonetheless. They weren't willing to go all the way with it. It was like they were saying, "God, no thanks, but please bless me. No thanks to all that obedience stuff and all your Word stuff, but please straighten this mess out for me."

Jeremiah's message was the same as it always was: Babylon is coming. There's nothing you can do to stop it. Babylon is coming.

One of the saddest things that I have to see is people who think they can go on in their ways that God has condemned and still get the blessing of God. They think, I am just going to live my life my way. I'm going to forget the commands of God's Word. I'm baking the cake my way — but I want God to be the icing. And that isn't the way God works.

God is not interested in being your good luck charm.

A second thing we can see in this story is...

2. A break in the pressure is not God saying yes.

Look at verses 5-10:

[5] Then Pharaoh's army was come forth out of Egypt: and when the Chaldeans that besieged Jerusalem heard tidings of them, they departed from Jerusalem.
[6] Then came the word of the Lord unto the prophet Jeremiah saying,
[7] 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.
[8] And the Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire.
[9] Thus saith the Lord; Deceive not yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us: for they shall not depart.
[10] 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.
Jeremiah 37:5-10 (KJV)

Remember, God had said the Babylonians are going to destroy Jerusalem. That is what Jeremiah's message has been consistently for several kings now. The Chaldeans have already come twice, taken many of the people captive, and put King Zedekiah on the throne.

Zedekiah reigns for about 9 years and during those years they are under the foot of the Babylonians. They are a full on vassal state. Then the people rebel around year 9 and the Babylonians come and besiege Jerusalem. They are surrounding the city. Outside the city gates.

That is until Egypt brings an army up and for a little while it seems like the Chaldeans are going home.

Can you imagine what it would be like in Jerusalem? Seeing the armies of the Babylonians ride away. They think they've been saved. It was probably like a party in there. They've been saved!

But God speaks to Jeremiah and has him tell the king, "No, you're not. Don't be deceived. The Chaldeans are coming right back and this time they're going to take the city and they're going to burn it down." Jeremiah says even if there are just a couple of wounded guys left, they're still going to burn down this city. This is not something you're going to be able to escape.

One of the scariest times in the life of somebody is when somebody is away from the Lord. They know they're not living right and they hit bad times. I mean it, bad times. They get divorce papers, get thrown out of their house, and their life just falls to pieces.

They then maybe come back to the Lord a little bit. They take half steps, half measures, and the pressure eases ever so slightly. What happens more often than not is that as soon as the pressure eases up a little bit, they run right back into the sin that brought the problems in the first place.

I'm thinking about someone I love right now. His life is in utter shambles because of an addiction that he has. It's literally ruined his life. He's gotten back in church. He'll get back in church a little bit and things will just start to ease off. The pressure will just start to ease off a bit. As soon as it does, we hear about him going right back into that sin.

Church, just because the pressure breaks a little bit doesn't mean God is okay with our sin all of a sudden. We need to turn from our sin and turn from it all the way.

A break in the pressure is not God saying yes. God's word doesn't change with the ebbs and flows of our fortune.

And that leads me to the third part of this story tonight. Let's pick up in verse 11 and read to the end of the chapter:

[11] And it came to pass, that when the army of the Chaldeans was broken up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's army,
[12] Then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to separate himself thence in the midst of the people.
[13] And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he took Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans.
[14] Then said Jeremiah, It is false; I fall not away to the Chaldeans. But he hearkened not to him: so Irijah took Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes.
[15] Wherefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe: for they had made that the prison.
[16] When Jeremiah was entered into the dungeon, and into the cabins, and Jeremiah had remained there many days;
[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.
[18] Moreover Jeremiah said unto king Zedekiah, What have I offended against thee, or against thy servants, or against this people, that ye have put me in prison?
[19] Where are now your prophets which prophesied unto you, saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land?
[20] Therefore hear now, I pray thee, O my lord the king: let my supplication, I pray thee, be accepted before thee; that thou cause me not to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.
[21] Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers' street, until all the bread in the city were spent. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.
Jeremiah 37:11-21 (KJV)

So here is what happens. Jeremiah is living inside the city. When the Babylonians leave, he goes out toward Benjamin to take care of some property business among his people there. Nothing glamorous. Not defecting.

But as he's leaving, they recognize him, assume he's going over to the Babylonians, arrest him with no proof, beat him, and throw him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe. The Bible says he stayed there "many days." He is afraid he will die in that hole.

The word he preached has not gotten any less true. Zedekiah knows it. So do you know what King Zedekiah does? He gets Jeremiah secretly taken to the palace so he can ask him a secret question. And listen to this question:

Is there any word from the Lord?

Now, isn't that rich? Zedekiah and everyone else have been ignoring the word from the Lord all this time, and now they want Jeremiah to get some new message from God.

But Jeremiah just gives him the exact same message he's been giving all along. Babylon is coming and they are going to take you captive.

The third thing we can learn from this chapter is...

3. The word you already have is the word.

Church, Zedekiah wanted his own personal word of God. But God had already given the word of God. God had already written and spoken his word through Jeremiah and Zedekiah had already rejected that word.

Mark Twain is said to have said:

It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me; it is the parts that I do understand.

G.K. Chesterton said:

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.

The truth is there are a lot of people who pay lip service to God who are not interested at all in His word. They might even say "teach me something, teach me something pastor. Teach me a new word from God."

But they already have a pile of God's words that they have chosen to ignore. They've already rejected God.

[22] But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
James 1:22 (KJV)

What does it say about people when they reject what God has clearly said and keep asking for a word from God? They are looking for God on their terms. They are looking for God that fits with their plans. They are looking for a personal Jesus.

And God doesn't work that way. God is the rock. God is the self-existing one. He is I Am that I Am. He doesn't need us, we need Him. He doesn't bend to us, we fall on Him. He doesn't change His word to fit our desires — His word is forever and He changes us so we can live up to His word!

Look back at verse 21 with me. Zedekiah still will not obey. He will not send Jeremiah back to the hole. He will give him a loaf a day from Baker Street until all the bread in the city is spent. That's not repentance. That's managing the prophet. And that loaf is a countdown.

Church, that's exactly what happened. The bread ran out. The famine came. The walls broke. Zedekiah ran at night and they caught him by Jericho. They killed his sons in front of him and then they put out his eyes. They burned the house of the Lord. The city Jeremiah had been warning them about for a lifetime fell just like the word said.

Three things from this sad story. God is not interested in being your good luck charm. A break in the pressure is not God saying yes. And the word you already have is the word.

You can want prayer. You can throw a party when the army rides away. You can pull the preacher in at night and ask if there's any new word. And never humble yourself before the word sitting in your lap.

I don't think most of us in this room are Jerusalem in 586. I think a lot of us are sitting in the patience Zedekiah wasted. God sent early. God sent often. The door is still open.