Jehovah chose Jeremiah to be a prophet to the people of Judah. He told him to preach to the people and warn them that they needed to stop doing bad things. Jeremiah said: ‘But Jehovah, I am only a boy. I don’t know how to speak to the people.’ Jehovah told him: ‘Do not be afraid. I will tell you what to say. I will help you.’

Jehovah told Jeremiah to gather the elders of the people, smash a clay jar in front of them, and say: ‘Jerusalem will be smashed just like this.’ When Jeremiah did what Jehovah said, the elders got very angry. A priest named Pashhur beat Jeremiah and put him in wooden stocks. All night long, Jeremiah could not move. Pashhur let him out the next morning. Jeremiah said: ‘I can’t take this anymore. I’m going to stop preaching.’ But did he really give up? No. When Jeremiah thought about it some more, he said: ‘Jehovah’s message is like a fire inside of me. I cannot stop preaching.’ Jeremiah continued to warn the people.

Years passed, and there was a new king in Judah. The priests and the false prophets hated Jeremiah’s message. They told the princes: ‘This man deserves to die.’ Jeremiah said: ‘If you kill me, you will kill an innocent man. I speak Jehovah’s words, not my own.’ When the princes heard that, they said: ‘This man does not deserve to die.’

Jeremiah kept on preaching, and the princes got very angry. They asked the king to put Jeremiah to death. The king said that they could do whatever they wanted with Jeremiah. They took Jeremiah and threw him into a deep, muddy well, hoping that he would die there. Jeremiah began to sink into the mud.

Then a court official named Ebed-melech told the king: ‘The princes have thrown Jeremiah into a well! If we leave him there, he will die.’ The king commanded Ebed-melech to take 30 men with him and pull Jeremiah out of the well. Shouldn’t we be like Jeremiah, who did not allow anything to stop him from preaching?