Jeremiah 38:20

But Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the LORD, which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live.

The promise was given to Zedekiah in a private interview even at that late hour, when deliverance and safety were still held open to him and he was still offered opportunity to receive mercy. It was an act of long-suffering mercy that kept the way of escape open when ruin was already near.

It met the king's particular fear that the Jews who had gone over to the Chaldeans would be given power over him to mock him and take his life. Against that fear came the assurance that they would not deliver him into their hand, and that the Babylonian princes would not hand him over.

To obey the voice of the Lord in that setting meant to change his course and go forth and surrender to the king of Babylon's princes. That going out was submission to Babylonian rule as the course God required.

Obedience carried the pledge that it would be well with him and his soul would live, preserved in safety. The city would not be burned with fire, the lives of the people would be spared, Jerusalem could have been saved, and the calamity coming upon him could have been avoided. Refusal, by contrast, would leave him with no way to escape.

He rejected the counsel and kept on toward ruin, and suffering and captivity followed his refusal to obey and place himself under God's protection. He thought he had gone too far to turn back and retract his course, and he lacked the resolve to act. He was held back by fear of the Jews, by fear of his princes and people, by fear of ridicule and danger, and by fear for his life. He was unwilling to bear the humiliation of saying openly to the people that he accepted the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah.

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