KEY VERSES: 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. 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 (Jer
37:14-15), and 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. 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. (Jer 37:20-21)
Last night at Bible study, it struck me that “prisons” are merely negative ways of looking at “safe- houses.” I had said that before, but it had never struck me before that incarceration is a method of God protecting His own people! Just the other day, I told my niece that her son who is in jail, is safer there than on the streets. He wasn’t in danger from others nor even dangerous to himself. However, all people sin; it affronts God but endangers the sinner. God understands our peril so much that he uses safe-houses to protect His people from perishing.
Generally speaking, the Bible provides examples of people who are safe behind some type of “bars,” but in peril outside them. Therefore “prisons” are a matter from one perspective in how they are viewed, and thusly “laws” are fairly well the same! There are 611 Mosiac Laws. No one has been able to keep even one of them, as from God’s perspective, breaking one Law is as if breaking them all (Jas 2:10). As we breath, we surely break one Law, and thus, all are sinners and deserve death (Rom 1:32). God knew that it is impossible to keep the Law of Moses, so he provided the Will of Jesus. The Law went from 611 to 10. Then when Jesus came, he understood how the Law was still misinterpreted and without changing the Laws written on stone, he summarized them for brevity. Basically, Jesus said, love Me and others, and you will not need to worry about the Ten Laws. Jesus was merely saying, change the perspective from which the Laws are viewed.
The Jews looked at the Ten Commandments as hindrances which they had to overcome on their own. The early Christians finally understood that all the previous Laws are the same; they were just looking at them from different perspectives. For myself, I quit looking at the “Ten Words” (what Jews call our “commandments’), not as demands, but prescriptions for eternal health as the Hebrew word has alternate meanings. I no longer HAVE TO DO the Word’s Will, but now CHOOSE TO DO them of my own will. (Yes, the Ten Words are the words of pre-incarnate Jesus as he is God.) God’s Will didn’t change for me, but how I viewed God’s Words. As such, with that new outlook, my own will was harmonized to God’s Will, and God had made some progress with me! The same will apply to you if you quit looking at Laws as reasons for bondage, but prescriptions for great and enduring health which scripture calls “blessed” (blissed).
The same applies to what we may see at prisons, jails, behind walls, and such! For instance, after Jesus was put to “sleep,” his body was placed in a tomb. We know from scripture that Jesus was not put into Joseph’s tomb to keep him in, but to keep his body safe until his Ghost had delivered all the sins of mankind onto Judas’s shoulders (Satan’s), as well to protect the people from a false perception.
Satan could not harm Jesus’s flesh because it was protected by stone walls and a heavy door. He could not harm Jesus’s Ghost because that aspect of Jesus is the Power of God! The Son of Man was safe inside his tomb because the law-keepers were about to break the ultimate Law – that was to deprive Jesus to his claim of Godhood. They took the Lord’s Name (Jesus) in vain, which was essentially denying Jesus’s Purpose -to die for mankind.
The first instance of safety inside walls was with Adam and Eve. They were safe from the Serpent inside the “walls” of the Garden of Eden. Job possibly identified the Garden’s walls, as “hedges.” I think of modern-day African “bomas” which are comprised of thorns and bramble bushes to keep harm outside its walls. As with Job, who Satan could harm but not kill, the Serpent in the Garden was kept from killing Adam and Eve, nor could be even lay a hand on them. Why? Because God kept them safe from the hands of the Serpent, but their own eyes, hands, and egos were dangerous. Anywhere God keeps righteous people safe, they can not be killed by Satan, but can still harm themselves!
I believe that Jesus’s crown of thorns was his “boma.” That rudimentary “hedge” kept God’s Will in Jesus’s mind from harm. In other words, evil ones on behalf of Satan could not destroy the Will of God because that wreath of thorns was protection of God’s Mind! Again, you see, it’s how we look at things! Just as Job had a hedge about him for protection (Job 1:10), the bramble wreath around Jesus’s forehead was for his safety against the cunning of the Devil (Gen 3:1).
Why was the crown of thorns even mentioned in scripture? Because every word in Holy Scripture is inspired by God. Why would God inspire words like the “crown of thorns?” Because, for some reason, that was significant. In my opinion, the Mind and Will of God was safe inside the boma of bramble to protect it from the “beasts” (Satan’s mob) who was out to destroy the whole concept of God.
I wrote a book called, Killing God. That book is all about the ways Satan has used, not to actually kill God, because Satan knows that can’t be done, but destroy His Will in the minds of His creatures. The crown of thorns protected God from figuratively perishing! Likewise, in the Garden of Eden, the hedge about it kept Adam and Eve safe from the world outside.
Where were they safe? Inside the Garden, the closer to the midst as possible; totally safe standing under the Tree of Life eating “very good” fruit, not the mediocre fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Many look at the Tree of Life as a prison – God insisted that they not eat of the forbidden tree. As with any innocent child, rules are made to be broken. Christians look at the Tree of Life has the Tree of Safety, and the Tree of False Knowledge as the “tree of peril.” Why so? It’s all about the fruits thereon!
Adam and Eve saw the Tree of Life as the Tree of Restrictions. They saw the Tree of Knowledge as the Tree of Opportunity. They took that “opportunity” and died, but were deceived as little children are wont to be; they didn’t understand death as it had never happened before!
Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Rules. They were “emancipated” to the entire world. They had escaped what some believe is a prison to freedom outside its thorny hedge. Thereafter, the creatures have always thought themselves free, but cunningly, they were and still are in bondage to the Serpent. Those who are in bondage are the “beasts” because unknowingly they need cages. Sin is the invisible prison that people can’t see that retains them in Satan’s prison. He is Prince of the Power of the Air, and those who do what comes “natural” (the natural man) are under his control. But again, they have the wrong perspective; they see themselves as free from God and out of His “prison.” Knowing and believing that natural man has a false perception of rules and freedom, frees the natural man from bondage. A true perception of what is happening is “truth.” Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Sinners are truly in bondage, and when the time comes that is understood, you are born-again and are released from the bondage of sin.The most obvious example of safety inside walls, besides Job’s safety inside God’s hedge, is Noah and his household on the ark. They were delivered from perishing in the world by safe-haven on God’s Ship! It may have been perceived as a stupidity by the skeptical world, and as a prison to Noah’s family, but in the end, it was a place of safety until they were saved. God shut the door on the ark when the time came, not to keep his people imprisoned, but to keep the law-breakers from entering a safe-space.
A less obvious example of my claim was when God provided Adam and Eve with a coat of skin. Before, they had made for themselves aprons of fig leaves. Which seemed to provide more freedom? Obviously, exposing more of their flesh to the world. God covered their flesh for their own protection. When they were expelled to the elements of the world, the covering which seemed burdensome in the pleasant atmosphere of the Garden would protect them from brambles and poisonous vipers out in the “freedom” of the world.
Jonah’s incarceration in the whale is another example of God keeping a man safe for his own good, and for God’s Purpose.
Now for the key verses: Jeremiah was in danger from the mob. Until they decided what to do with him, they incarcerated him in Jonathan’s house. Jeremiah was in peril because Jonathan’s house was a scribe’s not God. Scribes throughout scripture are dangerous because they not only wrote the laws of the princes, but interpreted them to the advantage of the elite (Much like liberal Democrats do at the present). Like Trump is now, Jeremiah – God’s chosen spokesman – was in danger of permanent “impeachment!”
By God’s grace, King Zedekiah, for once, was dependent on God. He sought God’s Word and called Jeremiah who told him nothing but the truth, and that was that Zedekiah would die in the hands of Babylonians. Because Jeremiah told the truth at his own peril, God had Zedekiah put Jeremiah under house arrest in his prison.
Jeremiah was afraid that he would be killed by the mob in Jonathan’s house, and sought protection. Zedekiah, because of God, provided safety to Jeremiah, of all places, in the least likely place – prison! Therein, Jeremiah would be nourished and kept safe from the unrighteous mob.
Did Jeremiah look at prison as incarceration? No. He looked at it as a place of safety until he was safe on his own property which he had just claimed. Of course, Jeremiah eventually died, but not before escaping death from either his “brothers” or his enemies. God had a purpose for Jeremiah, and prison was merely a safe place until conditions changed. Some believe that Jeremiah, along with Zedekiah’s daughter, Tea Tephi, escaped to Ireland by the way of Ethiopia and Spain, and brought Christianity to that pagan country. We know from history that Ireland became Christian early on but not how. Perhaps Zedekiah saw the light when he was blinded and caused Jeremiah to leave his prison to escape to more peaceful places.
Blindness for some is a prison, but perhaps for Zedekiah it was freedom. (He was blinded by his captors). Just as Saul was blinded to be set free for three days, perhaps Zedekiah was blinded to be set free from his iniquity.
Spiritual blindness is a prison but people are most often blind with eyes wide open. Right now, the reader may ignore my words, but if so, perhaps their prison walls are sturdy… too sturdy for them. Perhaps they need real walls to know the truth. Freedom comes when the truth (about themselves and God) is revealed. Oftentimes prisons are places of truth, and surely for the safety of those who do wrong to themselves.
My wish is that my nephew see jail as a place for safety until he sees that the “mob” in his case, are the purveyors of death who seek to destroy him by drug-usage. That is the present-day fruit of destruction from the Tree of False Knowledge and Fleeting Pleasure. Prison was for Jeremiah’s safety until he could be saved. Jail is for my nephew’s safety until he is rehabilitated and free from the cunning affects of drugs. The bars he looks through each day are silver cords to eternal health, if he is looking at them, not as a cage, but as an ark to safety. God speed, my nephew. Good sailing while God keeps you safe from outside harm.
Church is the place to be; it is sanctuary from the world. “Sanctified” is set apart for the Will of God, and is safe-space for babes in Christ until they mature. Sanctification, or right living, is not a prison, but sanctuary from the Devil.
“Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedom in my love
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.” (Richard Lovelace, from Althea Prison)
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