RESCUED

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

 “He is in your hands,” King Zedekiah answered. “The king can do nothing to oppose you.”

So they took Jeremiah and put him into the cistern of Malkijah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the cistern; it had no water in it, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.

But Ebed-Melek, a Cushite, an official in the royal palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. While the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate, Ebed-Melek went out of the palace and said to him, “My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have thrown him into a cistern, where he will starve to death when there is no longer any bread in the city.”

Then the king commanded Ebed-Melek the Cushite, “Take thirty men from here with you and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.”

So Ebed-Melek took the men with him and went to a room under the treasury in the palace. He took some old rags and worn-out clothes from there and let them down with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern.

Ebed-Melek the Cushite said to Jeremiah, “Put these old rags and worn-out clothes under your arms to pad the ropes.” Jeremiah did so, and they pulled him up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.

Jeremiah 38:5-13

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In yesterday’s devotion, you’ll recall that we saw Jeremiah move into a precarious situation as we looked at the opening four verses of Chapter 38. In that passage, we read where four of King Zedekiah’s officials approached him with concerns about what Jeremiah had said to the people, asserting that he had needlessly stirred up discouragement among the soldiers and people within Jerusalem, seeking their ruin and not their good.

How did the officials wish to handle the matter?

They wanted to put Jeremiah to death. For although he had only spoken the words that God had given him, the officials refused to listen and believe the message, even though that message was playing out in truth before their very eyes. The city of Jerusalem as well as the surrounding kingdom of Judah was under siege by the Babylonians led by King Nebuchadnezzar. Soon, the Babylonians would rule over all of Israel and add the territory to their vast empire.

But before that happened, Zedekiah’s officials were bent on getting rid of Jeremiah.

So how did the king respond to the request of his officials?

After Zedekiah showed Jeremiah mercy and took him out of imprisonment after the prophet challenged him about his unjust arrest and incarceration, you may think that the king would have brushed off any talk of killing him.

You would be wrong.

For as we read, Zedekiah showed no resistance to what the officials wanted to do. He said he could do nothing to oppose them and placed the prophet’s fate in their hands. Things were not looking good for Jeremiah and if he thought the dungeon cell he was in was bad, he was about to see that it could get a lot worse.

This is because scripture tells us the officials lowered Jeremiah into a deep cistern in the courtyard of the guard. We’re told the cistern had no water in it but before you think this was a good thing, you need to read on and understand that there was nothing but mud at the bottom, mud so soft and deep that Jeremiah sank down into it once he was lowered.

Would this be the end for God’s loyal messenger? Was he destined to sink into the mud until he suffocated in it? And if he didn’t sink all the way in, he would surely starve in the cistern without someone providing food?

He would have if it had not been for another royal palace official named Ebed-Melek. The Bible tells us that he went to Zedekiah at the Benjamin Gate, ironically the place where Jeremiah was arrested in the first place, and expressed his deep concern over what had happened, saying to the king:

“My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have thrown him into a cistern, where he will starve to death when there is no longer any bread in the city.”

The words of Ebed-Melek had a huge impact because King Zedekiah commanded the official to “take thirty men from here with you and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.” And Ebed-Melek did just that, fashioning together padding out of old rags and worn out clothes to protect Jeremiah’s arms from the rope, before pulling him out of the cistern.

Jeremiah had been rescued, pulled out of what would surely have been a muddy grave to new life.

Friends, we need to remember that God is still in the rescuing business. For all of us are mired in the muck of sin, in need of someone to pull us out and save us. God did just that when He sent His only Son, Jesus, to pay the price for our sins. His death was the impetus that pulled us out of the miry pit of wickedness and brought us to new life, and not just any life but one that would endure forever.

Without Jesus, we would be without hope, trapped like Jeremiah was in the cistern and facing certain death.

With Him, we are rescued, liberated and set free to live and love and learn while helping others find their rescue.

Give thanks today and every day for Jesus and the God who sent Him out of love to save His people.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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