Reading… and Thinking

When Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern—the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate—Ebed-melech went from the king’s house and said to the king, “My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they did to Jeremiah the prophet by casting him into the cistern, and he will die there of hunger, for there is no bread left in the city.” Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, “Take thirty men with you from here, and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.”

– Jeremiah 38:7-10 (ESV)

Ebed-melech is one of my favorite people. Anybody can see the man had guts. But beyond courage, what he had was faith.

Ebed-melech was obviously trusted. He served the king in some capacity. We don’t know his precise office, but it couldn’t have been a high office. The high officials are termed “princes” by Jeremiah (it’s clear that this term doesn’t mean the kings sons.) He was a foreigner, a eunuch, and was almost certainly a captive, that is, a slave.

The “princes” had put Jeremiah into an unused cistern full of muck and filth, to die. Zedekiah was a very weak king, and was almost powerless to control the princes. They clearly did most of the actual governing, and got the king to rubber-stamp their decisions. Zedekiah was still the king, however, and had power of life and death over his subjects – and certainly over a foreign slave. In a city under siege, where famine was already a problem, one less mouth to feed would be welcome to everyone.

But here comes Ebed-melech, and basically rebukes the king, publicly! He was certainly taking his life in his hands. The king could have had him executed for his insolence. Certainly he was making the princes his enemies, and they could have killed him also.

But he knew it was wrong to condemn Jeremiah to slow death by hunger and thirst in a dark hole full of slime. Jeremiah was the Lord’s prophet! Ebed-melech felt he had to speak out.

And what happened? The king immediately responded. Jeremiah was put in custody, but was protected, for the remainder of the siege. And Ebed-melech himself gained a blessing from the Lord, recorded in the next chapter (Jeremiah 39:15-18). We learn something more about Ebed-melech there. God tells him, “You will not be handed over to those you fear. I will save you; you will not fall by the sword but will escape with your life, because you trust in me, declares the LORD.” Ebed-melech was not stupid, and he was not a fool. He was afraid, and with good cause – these evil men were completely capable of murder, and they could get away with it. But his faith, his trust in God, overcame his fear.

The lesson is that stepping out in faith, putting yourself at risk against the odds, can accomplish great things. When one faithful man or woman speaks up, very often there are people around who will respond, who were perhaps too fearful until someone else showed the courage. How often do we just accept wrongdoing, thinking, “What can I do?” With God on our side, one thing we can do is speak up and call it what it is. The result might be amazing!