Daily Devotions
Jeremiah
"Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian"
Text: Jeremiah 38:7
RESCUE ON THE WAY
Jeremiah’s enemies must have thought that they had finally gotten rid of him. But rescue was on the way.
“Now Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs,
who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon.
When the king was sitting at the Gate of Benjamin,
Ebed-Melech went out of the king’s house and spoke to the king, saying:
‘My lord the king, these men have done evil
in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet,
whom they have cast into the dungeon,
and he is likely to die from hunger in the place where he is.
For there is no more bread in the city.'”
Jeremiah 38:7-9
1. “Now Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs,
who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon.
When the king was sitting at the Gate of Benjamin”
a) Ebed-Melech was an Ethiopian eunuch.
b) He served in the King’s house.
c) He heard that Jeremiah had been put into Malchiah’s dungeon.
d) The King was sitting around at the Gate of Benjamin!
e) What was he doing when Jerusalem was about to be captured?
2. “Ebed-Melech went out of the king’s house and spoke to the king, saying:
‘My lord the king, these men have done evil
in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon,
and he is likely to die from hunger in the place where he is.
For there is no more bread in the city'”
a) Ebed-Melech waited for the king to return to his own house first.
b) He then openly spoke to the king.
c) He knew that he was risking his life.
i) He spoke against the princes.
ii) He spoke of their evil done to Jeremiah the prophet.
d) He informed the king that Jeremiah would die if he stayed much longer in the dungeon.
i) There was no bread in the city.
ii) They would thus not feed Jeremiah.
ii) The prophet would die of hunger.
Would Zedekiah really like to see Jeremiah die in this manner?