The Folly of Foxhole Piety Text: Jeremiah 37:1-10
Introduction: The Broken Reed of Egypt
There is a kind of piety that only shows up when the bombs are falling. It is a desperate, bargaining sort of religion, born of fear and not of faith. It is the religion of the foxhole, the deathbed, the crashing airplane. It is the religion of men who have ignored God for decades, but who, when the Chaldeans are at the gates, suddenly remember the prophet's phone number. This is the kind of religion we find on full display in our text today, with King Zedekiah as its chief practitioner. And it is a religion that God despises.
The historical situation is straightforward. Jerusalem is under siege by the most formidable military machine on the planet, the Babylonian army of Nebuchadnezzar. The prophet Jeremiah has been faithfully preaching the same message for years: this judgment is from God. You have broken covenant, you have chased after idols, you have oppressed the poor, and now the bill has come due. Your only hope is to repent and surrender to the instrument of God's wrath, the Babylonians. But this is a message that no one wants to hear. It is unpatriotic. It is demoralizing. It is, in a word, offensive.
So, the leadership of Judah does what godless leadership always does. They look for a political solution to a spiritual problem. They form an alliance with Egypt. They trust in the arm of the flesh, in Pharaoh's chariots and horsemen. And for a brief moment, it seems to work. The Egyptian army marches out, and the Babylonians, being tactically astute, lift the siege of Jerusalem to deal with this new threat. A great sigh of relief sweeps through the city. The politicians who brokered the deal are slapping each other on the back. The false prophets are saying, "I told you so." The crisis has been averted by shrewd statecraft. But it is all a delusion. They have mistaken a temporary reprieve for a final deliverance. They have put their trust in the broken reed of Egypt, and it is about to splinter and pierce their hand.
This chapter is a stark warning against trusting in human solutions, against the vanity of political saviors, and against the kind of superficial, self-serving religiosity that wants God's help without God's lordship. It teaches us that when God has decreed a judgment, no amount of political maneuvering or last-minute prayer requests can turn it aside. The only thing that works is repentance, and that is the one thing they refuse to do.
The Text
Now Zedekiah the son of Josiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had made king in the land of Judah, reigned as king in place of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim. But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of Yahweh which He spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.
Yet King Zedekiah sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “Please pray to Yahweh our God on our behalf.” Now Jeremiah was still coming in and going out among the people; they had not yet put him in the prison. Meanwhile, Pharaoh’s military force had come out from Egypt; and the Chaldeans who had been besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them. So they withdrew from Jerusalem.
Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Thus you are to say to the king of Judah, who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: “Behold, the military force of Pharaoh which has come out for your assistance is going to return to its own land of Egypt. The Chaldeans will also return and fight against this city, and they will capture it and burn it with fire.” ’ Thus says Yahweh, ‘Do not deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” for they will not go. For even if you had struck down the entire military force of the Chaldeans who were fighting against you, and there were only wounded men remaining among them, each man in his tent, they would rise up and burn this city with fire.’ ”
(Jeremiah 37:1-10 LSB)
Disobedient Desperation (vv. 1-3)
We begin with the context and the king's pathetic request.
"Now Zedekiah the son of Josiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had made king in the land of Judah, reigned as king in place of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim. But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of Yahweh which He spoke through Jeremiah the prophet. Yet King Zedekiah sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, 'Please pray to Yahweh our God on our behalf.'" (Jeremiah 37:1-3)
The first thing to notice is the deep irony of Zedekiah's position. He is a puppet king, installed by Nebuchadnezzar. He owes his throne to the very man he is now rebelling against. This is a man caught between a rock and a hard place, and his entire reign is characterized by weakness, fear, and vacillation. He is afraid of his own officials, afraid of the Babylonians, and, as we see here, afraid of the consequences of his own sin, but not afraid enough to actually repent.
Verse 2 is the crucial diagnostic statement. "But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of Yahweh." This is not a momentary lapse. This is a settled, stubborn, national policy of deafness. They have systematically ignored, rejected, and despised the plain word of God delivered by His prophet. They have made it their business to not listen. The word for "listen" here is shama, which means not just to hear with the ears, but to hear and obey. They heard the sounds Jeremiah was making, but they refused to heed the message.
And yet, in the very next breath, what do we see? "Yet King Zedekiah sent... to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, 'Please pray to Yahweh our God on our behalf.'" This is breathtaking hypocrisy. This is the action of a man who wants fire insurance, but has no interest in knowing the fireman. He doesn't say, "Go ask Jeremiah what God requires of us." He doesn't say, "Ask what we must do to be saved." He says, "Get the prophet to pray for us." He wants the benefit of Jeremiah's connection to God without submitting to God's commands. He is treating prayer like a pagan incantation, a magic lever to get God to do what he wants. He wants God to bless his political alliance with Egypt. He wants God to ratify his rebellion. He wants God to deliver him from the consequences of the very sin he refuses to forsake.
This is the essence of a carnal mind. It wants a God who serves its agenda. It wants a God who is a cosmic butler, on call for emergencies, but who otherwise stays in the kitchen and doesn't meddle in the affairs of the house. But the God of Israel is not that kind of God. He is Lord, or He is nothing.
A Temporary Reprieve (vv. 4-5)
The historical situation that prompts this hypocritical request is then laid out for us.
"Now Jeremiah was still coming in and going out among the people; they had not yet put him in the prison. Meanwhile, Pharaoh’s military force had come out from Egypt; and the Chaldeans who had been besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them. So they withdrew from Jerusalem." (Jeremiah 37:4-5)
Verse 4 is a small note of grace. Jeremiah is still free. His final imprisonment is yet to come. God, in His mercy, is still giving His people access to His prophet. The Word of the Lord is still available to them, if they would only listen. But their hardness of heart will soon put an end to even that privilege.
And then we see the great political hope of Judah. Pharaoh's army comes marching up from the south. The Chaldeans, not wanting to be caught in a pincer movement, fighting on two fronts, do the sensible military thing. They lift the siege and turn to deal with the Egyptians. Imagine the scene in Jerusalem. The watchmen on the walls would have seen the Babylonian siege lines being dismantled, the camps being struck, the long columns of soldiers marching away. The city would have erupted in celebration. The markets would have reopened. People who had been cowering in their homes would have poured into the streets. The politicians would have declared victory. They would have said, "Our alliance worked! Our trust in Egypt was vindicated! That doom-and-gloom prophet Jeremiah was wrong!"
This is what the world calls a political victory. It is what we would call a positive development. It is a tangible, visible sign that things are getting better. But it is a lie. It is a providential feint, designed to test the hearts of the people and expose their false hope for what it is. God often allows sinners a little breathing room, a temporary success, in order to reveal what is truly in their hearts. And what is in their hearts is not gratitude to God, but a reinforced confidence in their own worldly wisdom.
The Inevitable Word (vv. 6-8)
Into this atmosphere of premature celebration, the Word of the Lord comes like a thunderclap.
"Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Thus you are to say to the king of Judah, who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: “Behold, the military force of Pharaoh which has come out for your assistance is going to return to its own land of Egypt. The Chaldeans will also return and fight against this city, and they will capture it and burn it with fire.” ’ " (Jeremiah 37:6-8)
God's answer to Zedekiah's prayer request is a resounding and terrifying "No." Notice the formal, solemn introduction: "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel." This is not Jeremiah's opinion. This is not a geopolitical analysis. This is a sovereign decree from the throne of the universe.
The message is brutally direct. First, your saviors are going home. "The military force of Pharaoh... is going to return to its own land of Egypt." God doesn't even say they will be defeated. He simply says they are going back. Whether they are beaten or just lose their nerve, it doesn't matter. The Egyptian "deliverance" is a mirage. It will evaporate. The broken reed will break.
Second, the real problem is coming back. "The Chaldeans will also return." The siege was not ended; it was merely paused. The instrument of God's judgment has not been laid aside. It is simply being repositioned. And when it returns, the outcome is certain: "they will capture it and burn it with fire." There is no ambiguity here. This is not a warning of what might happen. This is a declaration of what will happen. The fate of the city is sealed, not by the strength of Babylon, but by the word of Yahweh.
Do Not Deceive Yourselves (vv. 9-10)
God concludes His message by exposing the root sin of the people: self-deception. And He does so with a terrifying illustration of His sovereignty.
"Thus says Yahweh, ‘Do not deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” for they will not go. For even if you had struck down the entire military force of the Chaldeans who were fighting against you, and there were only wounded men remaining among them, each man in his tent, they would rise up and burn this city with fire.’ ” (Jeremiah 37:9-10)
Here is the heart of the matter. "Do not deceive yourselves." The Hebrew is literally, "Do not lift up your souls to vanity." They were clinging to a lie. They were engaged in wishful thinking and calling it hope. Their optimism was not based on the promises of God, but on the retreat of the Babylonians. They were interpreting providence carnally. They saw the enemy leaving and concluded that God was on their side. But God says, "You are lying to yourselves. They are not going away for good."
Then comes the hammer blow in verse 10. God says that the instrument of judgment is, in a sense, irrelevant. The decree is everything. He says, imagine a scenario where you, Judah, were miraculously successful in battle. Imagine you routed the entire Chaldean army. Imagine that the only ones left were a few badly wounded men, crawling back to their tents to die. Even then, God says, those wounded men, on the point of death, would get up, stagger to your city, and burn it to the ground. Why? Because God has decreed it.
This is a staggering statement of divine sovereignty. God does not need a mighty army to accomplish His purposes. He can use a handful of invalids. He can use anything or nothing. The power is not in the Chaldeans; the power is in His Word. When God speaks a word of judgment, that word will accomplish what He sent it to do. It will not return to Him void. This is meant to utterly demolish their false confidence. Their problem is not military. Their problem is not political. Their problem is theological. They are at war with God, and that is a war you cannot win, even if you seem to be winning all the battles.
Conclusion: The Only Real Hope
The story of Zedekiah is a tragedy. He is a man who hears the word of the Lord and refuses it. He wants God to deliver him, but on his own terms. He wants the benefits of faith without the cost of repentance. And so he deceives himself, trusts in the world, and is destroyed.
We live in an age of Zedekiahs. We are surrounded by people, and we ourselves are tempted to be people, who want a comfortable, convenient, Americanized god. We want a god who will bless our political party, our economic prosperity, our way of life. We want him to make our enemies go away. And when we see a temporary reprieve, a favorable election result, an uptick in the stock market, we are tempted to deceive ourselves and say, "The Chaldeans are surely going away from us."
But God's message through Jeremiah thunders down through the centuries to us. Do not deceive yourselves. Do not trust in the broken reed of Egypt, whether that reed is called Washington D.C., or Wall Street, or military might. These things cannot save you. The only hope for Judah was to listen to the word of the Lord and surrender. The only hope for us is the same.
The judgment for our sin, a judgment far more terrible than the Babylonian army, has been decreed. The wages of sin is death. But the good news is that God has provided the way of surrender. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, stood in the breach and took the full fiery judgment of God upon Himself at the cross. He surrendered to the wrath that we deserved.
Therefore, the call of the gospel is not, "Pray and hope God makes the Babylonians go away." The call of the gospel is, "Surrender to King Jesus." Lay down your arms of rebellion. Stop trusting in your own righteousness. Stop deceiving yourselves that your sin is not that serious. Flee from the wrath to come and take refuge in the one who absorbed that wrath for you. For if you stubbornly remain in the Jerusalem of your own pride and self-reliance, judgment will surely come. But if you surrender to Him, you will not be destroyed, but saved. He will not just lift the siege; He will transfer you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of everlasting life.