Scripture
So the officials took Jeremiah from his cell and lowered him by ropes into an empty cistern… There was no water in the cistern, but there was a lick layer of mud at the bottom, and Jeremiah sank down into it. Jeremiah 38:6

…This is what the Lord has revealed to me: All the women left in your palace will be brought out and given to the officers of the Babylonian army. Then the women will taunt you, saying, ‘What fine friends you have They have betrayed and misled you. When your feet sank in the mud, they left you to your fate!’” Jeremiah 38:21-22

Observation
Jeremiah had such open spiritual ears, that the could hear God even at the bottom of a hole. Wading in mud. No solid place to stand. Slimy walls too slick to climb. Centipedes, crawling things and the smell of mould. The mud pit was not an ideal place for spiritual insight or encounter with God. Yet at the bottom, Jeremiah heard God speak clearest to him.

At ground level not a single politician could see what was coming. Babylon was marching. The city would be destroyed. The people would become refugees. Buildings would be burned. But at ground level life went on as usual. To give perspective, God let his man be dumped at the bottom to see what others could not and would not see.

Jeremiah came from the pit with a message for the king. One day the friends around him would abandon him. The king, now so sought after, would himself land in a prison cell. He would sink in the mud. Now was the time for right decisions.

Application
I want to be a man who can hear God speak anywhere. There are times God gives us a mountain top to give us a clear view. But there are other times he lowers us below ground level to isolate us with himself. If we can hear him speak there, we will hear him anywhere.

Prayer
Father, I open my ears to hear you speak today. Amen.