June 16 Daily Devotional

Jeremiah 1; 2 Kings 22–24

While Josiah was king in Judah, God called a young man of Anathoth, Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, to be a prophet. When he heard the call, he replied, “Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.” But the Lord said, “Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee … Behold I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant … Therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.”

So Jeremiah became a great prophet of God. He stood in the gate of the house of the Lord and proclaimed, “Thus saith the Lord … amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place … The stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming: but my people know not the ordinance of the Lord. I will scatter them also among the nations of the earth, because of their sins, and I will cause them to fall by the sword and famine; and their carcasses will be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.” When Pashur the chief officer in the house of the Lord heard these words, he smote Jeremiah and cast him into prison. After the death of Josiah came up Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, against Jerusalem, and took away all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and carried away all Jerusalem, all the princes and ten thousand captives, and made Zedekiah king. He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and he rebelled. Then the king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem. At that time the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, “Go and speak to Zedekiah, Thus saith the Lord … Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire: and thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be taken, and delivered into his hand … and shalt go to Babylon.”

Then the princes said to the king, “Let this man be put to death.” They took Jeremiah and cast him into a dungeon, in which there was no water but mire. But an Ethiopian named Ebed­melech went to the king and pleaded for Jeremiah. The king commanded, “Take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon, before he die.” Then they let down ropes and drew Jeremiah out of the dungeon; he remained in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken.