“For I will surely save you and you shall not fall by the sword, but you shall have your life as a prize of war because you have put your trust in me,” declares the Lord.
– Jeremiah 39:18
What a good verse, especially if you’ve been tracking the last couple of chapters in Jeremiah 37 and 38 as we prayed, according to these pictures of Jeremiah being unjustly accused and imprisoned, and then unjustly thrown into a cistern and in sinking in the mud.
God comes to him when he is shut up in the court of the guard, verse 15 says. Jeremiah 39:18, God says, “I will save you. You will not fall by the sword. You shall have your life as a prize of war because you have put your trust in me.”
Jeremiah 39:18 Gives Good News to the Suffering
This is good news, as we think about our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world who we’ve prayed for over the last couple of episodes in this podcast in Jeremiah 37 and 38 to know that Jesus is the defender of the persecuted. I’ve been thinking more and more reading through these chapters about all the pictures of persecution.
I think about Brother Andrew. Who he’s known for going into hard places around the world for decades at great risk. At great cost and faithfully proclaiming the gospel and the legacy of his faith. I think about times I’ve met with Brother Andrew. I have just been so encouraged by his boldness because he trusts in the Lord. He’s led a whole movement of people to come alongside the persecuted church. To serve and proclaim the gospel in hard places because they trust in the Lord.
Jeremiah 39:18 Reminds Us of Our Family Suffering Around the World
We have brothers and sisters doing around the world right now. This is how we want to live, right? Like today, don’t you want to live with trust in the Lord in such a way that nothing this world throws at you can stop you because you are trusting in the Lord who promises, “I am with you and I will surely save you. That in the end, whether your life is taken in this world or not, you know you win.”
This is Paul, Philippians 1, to live is Christ, to die is gain. People who believe that, who truly believe that life is Christ and dying is gain, cannot be stopped with the gospel in this world, cannot be stopped with God’s love and God’s grace and God’s mercy and God’s love and God’s protection in this world because they trust in him. God make us those kind of people.
Jeremiah 39:18 Delivers Us from Cultural Christianity
God deliver us from half-hearted, casual, cultural, comfortable Christianity. That is not Christianity, that’s not what we read about in your word. We pray for risk taking, gospel proclaiming, costly die to ourselves. Die to this world kind of Christianity. Which is what we see all throughout your word from Old Testament to Jesus’s invitations to us in the New Testament. To deny ourselves daily, take up our cross, and follow you, to be your witnesses to the ends of the earth.
We pray, give us that kind of faith. Give us that kind of trust in you amidst whatever we’re walking through in our lives right now, whatever we face in the days to come, as we face challenges and obstacles and barriers to the spread of the gospel and challenges and threats to our faith in this world.
Our Trust is in Christ
God, may it be said that we have put our trust in you. We know you will surely save us. God, help us to be bold with our faith in the line of Jeremiah and the line of Brother Andrew and so many others who have gone before us. Knowing that surely you will save those who put their trust in you.
Oh God, we pray for unreached people, for the Druze of Lebanon today. For hundreds of thousands of them who have little to no knowledge of the gospel. We know that unreached people groups that we’re praying for will not be reached without bold faith. Without people trusting you with all their hearts and going into hard places for the spread of the gospel.
Praying for the Spread of the Gospel to the Druze of Lebanon
God, we pray for the spread of your love among the Druze of Lebanon and thousands of other unreached people groups like them through our lives, through our families, through our churches boldly trusting in you and doing whatever it takes according to your word to get the gospel to them, knowing that you will surely save when your gospel is proclaimed. God, we pray all of this according to your word in Jeremiah 39:18. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
