In the Mud

Jeremiah 38:22 All the women left in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon. Those women will say to you: “ ‘They misled you and overcame you— those trusted friends of yours. Your feet are sunk in the mud; your friends have deserted you.’

Have you ever gotten stuck in the mud, I mean really stuck in the mud? I have, and it can be very difficult to get yourself unstuck. Whether it is just your feet and boots, or whether it is your car wheels, stuck means stuck. The more you try to extricate yourself, the worse it seems to get. We get the expression “spinning your wheels” from mud experiences.

No one likes the frustrating feeling of putting in effort but getting seemingly nowhere. We want our effort to move us, to make things progress, to make a difference. So when we do get stuck, we get frustrated.

Jeremiah has been telling the leaders of Jerusalem that the city was going to be conquered by the Babylonians, and that the only way they would survive is if they surrendered. Otherwise they would be killed and the city would be utterly destroyed. This did not make the leaders happy, because they had listened to some false prophets who had a more favorable message that didn’t require them to repent.

And no one likes to be told they need to repent!

So in their anger at Jeremiah, they grabbed him and threw him into a dry well, not so dry that the bottom wasn’t muddy, just no water. He got stuck. This Hebrew phrase “stuck in the mud” occurs two times in this chapter. The second time it is used in our text it refers to the situation the women will say to the king about the results of his choices. He ends up in an impossible to win situation.

So why is this important. In Hebrew narratives like that found in this portion of Jeremiah, when things are repeated they signal the meaning of the passage. They form structure to the narrative. They help point us to what is being emphasized.

Jeremiah “sank down in the mud” at the bottom of the well. But he was rescued and survived the battle intact. In fact, he is released after the battle and gets to spend the rest of his life “with his own people.” That is a good ending. He obeyed the LORD, even speaking difficult words to those who wanted to kill him, and he came out the other side blessed.

The king by contrast didn’t make the hard choices. He was afraid of what the Jews might say to him. He was afraid of his own subordinates! He was a terrible leader!

Jeremiah had laid out exactly what would happen to him and those for whom he cared. And this is exactly what happened. All those important to him were killed in front of his eyes and then he was blinded and taken into captivity. He had gotten himself into this mess, and there was no getting out of it. He was sunk in the mud of his own making!

So next time you feel stuck in the mud, take time to figure out how you got yourself in the mess in the first place. Have you been here before and didn’t learn the lesson the first time? What signs along the way did you miss or ignore? What advice did you not heed?

And then repent! Throw yourself on the mercy of the LORD and walk through the consequences. And this time, learn the lesson. Stay obedient. Don’t wander away.