Lux Lucet

Zedekiah is an interesting case study in unbelief.  In 2 Kings we read that “He also did evil in the sight of the LORD.” Based on that alone, we can’t say that Zedekiah was a good guy.  But for all that, he doesn’t come off as someone who is actively hostile to the Word of God either.  This certainly was the case with his older brother King Jehoiakim, who burned a scroll Jeremiah had written, because he didn’t like the message. Zedekiah, on the other hand, never initiated an attempt to silence Jeremiah on his own. It took the princes of Judah to do that. Zedekiah seemed, in fact, to have some respect for the prophet and at times actively sought his counsel. The respect seems to have been mutual, as Jeremiah more or less pleaded with Zedekiah to surrender to the Babylonians, so that his life would be spared.

So, what did the princes do with Jeremiah now that he was in their hand?  “[T]hey took him and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the prison, and they let Jeremiah down with ropes.  And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire.  So Jeremiah sank in the mire.”

Implied in their action was that Jeremiah would die there.  In their mind, that was a good thing.  The prophet would be silenced and they would retain their power and position. 

What are the takeaways from this account?  First, speaking the truth is not a good way to win a popularity contest.  That isn’t a new state of affairs, either. Truth is not popular, because since the fall men’s hearts are by nature evil and they naturally rebel against the truth of the Word of God. The well-known quote from George Orwell is apropos Jeremiah’s case, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”  And those in power are not fans of revolutionary acts.   

A second takeaway is that those in power will take extreme measures to silence dissent.  Here is the West, we have a tradition of free speech that can be traced to the Reformation.  Martin Luther realized that, because God is sovereign in salvation, it is not the place of the civil authorities to attempt to force men to believe.  For this reason, we do not seek to silence those who reject Christ. Likewise, as Christians we reserve the right ourselves to speak freely, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 

But desperate men in desperate times don’t view free speech and the dissent it invites as a positive.  The actions of the princes of Judah have been repeated by authoritarians both before and after them.  Think of the Sadducees and Pharisees in the time of Christ.  They had the Son of God murdered because they didn’t like what he had to say.  Think of the totalitarian regimes of recent times.  There was no dissent in Stalinist Russia or the Third Reich.  No free speech.  There is not dissent in Communist China. 

More and more here in the West, free speech is disappearing, and it’s disappearing because the Christian faith that created the West is disappearing.  Facebook, Google, and Twitter regularly delete and shadow band posts and accounts that dissent from received orthodoxy.  Whole YouTube channels and Facebook and Twitter accounts are removed, because their creators dare to challenge received opinion on Covid or some other hot button topic. 

Why do heretics and tyrants use force to suppress dissent.  In his essay “Why Heretics Win Battles,” John Robbins noted succinctly the reason they do so.  “Force works,” he wrote.  “It silences the opposition.  That is why tyrants use it.”

A third takeaway is that weakness in the face of evil is itself evil.  Zedekiah had the opportunity to stand up for the a prophet Jeremiah but he failed to do so.  Why did he fail?  The Scriptures don’t tell us specifically.  Perhaps he secretly wanted Jeremiah and his message of doom to be removed out of his presence and saw the complaint of the princes as an opportunity to have this done.  As the son of godly King Josiah, maybe Zedekiah, though not having the faith of his father, at least retained some respect for God’s prophets.  Zedekiah could say to himself that he himself had not killed Jeremiah, but that his underlings had done so without his knowledge.  Perhaps Zedekiah was afraid of his princes, that they would turn on him if he didn’t give them what they wanted. 

One thinks here of how, in a similar situation, the Elector of Saxony, Frederick the Wise, served as a shield and protector to Martin Luther.  The Lord providentially used Frederick to shield, not only Martin Luther, but to give breathing room to the incipient Protestant Reformation and to keep it from being snuffed out in its infancy by the predations of Antichrist and the machinations of the Roman Church-State.

Zedekiah could have done something like this for Jeremiah, but he chose instead to turn the prophet over to his enemies.    

Enter Ebed-Melech  

It is at this point that the hero in our story emerges, Ebed-Melech, an Ethiopian eunuch.  “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.”

We know few details about Ebed-Melech’s life.  As the text tells us, he was a foreigner by birth, an Ethiopian.  But for all that, he has a Hebrew name meaning Servant of the King.  One assumes that this was not his birth name, but likely an appellation he took on later in life.  And as is often the case in Scripture, his name tells us something about him.  He held, as the text notes in 38:7, some position in the king’s house.  One thinks of the Ethiopian eunuch Phillip would later evangelize in the New Testament.  That unnamed eunuch was a high official in the court of the Queen of Ethiopia. 

Now what is noteworthy about Ebed-Melech is not so much that he heard that Jeremiah had been put into the dungeon.  One supposes that many in Zedekiah’s household were aware of this.  What is noteworthy is that he took action.  He didn’t sit around and say, “Somebody needs to do something.” 

We read, “When the king was sitting at the Gate of Benjamin, Ebed-Melech went out of the kings 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.’”  

There are three verbs that capture quite well the righteous spirit of Ebed-Melech: heard, went out, and spoke.  Ebed-Melech heard that Jeremiah was in distress.  As we noted above, that was probably not unique to him.  But what he did next was unique to him.  As the text tells us, he “went out” to the king and “spoke.”  Heard, went out, and spoke.  Three key verbs. 

How many times as Christians have we heard but failed to go out and speak?  I can think of instances in my life.  This is not to say that every fight is our fight.  But God does put Christians, all of us, in positions where we have work to do.  We can’t solve all the world’s problems, but such opportunities to stand for the truth as God sends our way, these we must answer.  What is praiseworthy about Ebed-Melech is that he used his position and his knowledge to do just that.  When the bell rang, he answered.

Now this was not a risk-free venture on Ebed-Melech’s part.  In verse one of chapter 38, we read that there were four men, whom the text calls “princes,” who came to the king and complained that Jeremiah was, in effect, committing treason, calling for him to be put to death.  The king had agreed with them.  Very obviously, Ebed-Melech was inserting himself into a dangerous situation.  What if the king rejected his petition?  What if the princes heard about his plans to rescue Jeremiah and killed him?  Taking a stand for righteousness, for truth, for Christ is risky business.  At least from the world’s perspective.  And to be honest, even as Christians we can’t help but think about the risks involved in standing for Christ against his enemies and ours.

As a member of the king’s household, doubtless Ebed-Melech was aware of the danger he was putting himself in.  But he stepped up anyway.  Upon hearing Ebed-Melech’s petition, the king responded, “Take from here thirty men with you, and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon before he dies.”        

As the passage goes on to tell us, Ebed-Melech and his men successfully pulled Jeremiah out of the pit.  The text tells us, “So they pulled Jeremiah up with ropes and lifted him out of the dungeon.  And Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.” 

Points of Application    

“The Protestant Reformation is indeed over; the respite of peace, freedom, and prosperity it afforded the West from the long history of human brutality is drawing to a close; and the world is about to enter a new Dark Age of slavery, brutality, and war.  Only the second coming of Christ or an extraordinary work of the Holy Spirit can prevent religious totalitarians from imposing their will on billions of people.”  These are John Robbins’ words from his essay “The Religious Wars of the 21^st Century.”  But although they were written fourteen years ago, much of the believing Protestant church has not really taken the current danger to heart.

We are, much as Ebed-Melech was in 586 B.C. just before the fall of Jerusalem, living at the end of an era.   As Ebed-Melech lived during the Babylonian conquest of Judah, so too do we live at a time of conquest of the formerly Protestant West by forces of unbelief.  Just as the siege mounds of the Babylonian army foretold the impending fall of Jerusalem, the rise of anti-Christian philosophies, the decline of Christian doctrine, the loss of personal liberty and the ongoing disintegration of our institutions indicate the approaching end of our civilization.  America can’t even hold a presidential election anymore.  Much of Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand is suffering under a tyrannical lockdown, supposedly to prevent the spread of a cold virus.  Millions have been put out of work and had their small businesses destroyed, while big banks are bailed out and record profits are booked by major retail chains and online businesses.

It is because we live in a fraught state of affairs, much like Ebed-Melech did, that his example is a model for us today. The first point of application is that Christians today should not ignore the opportunities to serve God that he gives them.  It’s an easy thing to get caught up in the big events of the day.  But in truth, you and I have relatively little powers to affect the outcome of a presidential election or to get the government to end the unjust Covid lockdowns.   Yes, we can and should pray for God’s grace on our nation and for him to open the eyes of those in authority to the destruction their Covid policies are having, but there’s not much in the way of direct action we can take.  Ebed-Melech was in a similar situation.  He couldn’t prevent the Babylonians from conquering Jerusalem, but he could and did take action to save Jeremiah.  Let us pray to God that we would not despair, but that he would open our eyes to the opportunities to serve him that he brings into our lives. 

A second application is that, when God presents us with an opportunity to serve him, we not only need to act, we need to act boldly and effectively.  Taking bold, effective action can be intimidating, because it can mean stepping outside our comfort zone.   But Ebed-Melech didn’t beat around the bush or hem and haw when he saw what was done to Jeremiah.  He went right up to the king, who was sitting in a public place at the time, and asked him to spare Jeremiah’s life.  Was he surprised when the king put him in charge of the rescue detail?  The Scriptures don’t say.  But even if Ebed-Melech was surprised to find himself in charge of the thirty men, he didn’t act like it.  The Scriptures say simply that he and his men got down to the business of rescuing Jeremiah.  There was no hesitation in Ebed-Melech. 

A third application is that God is, as the Author of Hebrews tells us, a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.  As we noted above, Ebed-Melech put himself in real danger by speaking and acting as he did.  There were powerful forces in Jerusalem who wanted Jeremiah dead.  Doubtless these same forces would have been more than happy to kill Ebed-Melech as well.  But even in the midst of the tumult of the Babylonian conquest, as Jerusalem was falling, we read,

Meanwhile the word of the LORD had come to Jeremiah while he was shut up in the court of the prison [this was after Ebed-Melech’s successful rescue mission], saying, “Go and speak to Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will bring My words upon this city for adversity and not for good, and they shall be performed in that day before you. But I will deliver you in that day,” says the LORD, “and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.  For I will surely deliver you, and you shall not fall by the sword; but your life shall be as a prize to you, because you have put your trust in Me,” says the LORD (Jeremiah 39:15-18).

What great compassion and kindness the Lord shows to his faithful people, even in the midst of destruction! 

Those in Jerusalem were truly experiencing and end-of-the-world-as-they-knew-it event.  The unthinkable was taking place.  Jerusalem had fallen to the heathen.

For me, it is difficult to imagine the shock and terror of a foreign conquest.  Everything the people of Judah had known their whole lives, everything their forefathers for centuries before had known, was coming to a violent end.  The city wall would soon be leveled and the temple, God’s holy temple, would be burned with fire.  And yet in the middle of this horrifying destruction, we see the grace of God toward his servant Ebed-Melech.  God is indeed a rewarder of those who diligently seek him, of those who put their trust in him. 

This passage doesn’t tell us the men whom Ebed-Melech feared.  We noted earlier that by taking the initiative to rescue Jeremiah, he was painting a target on himself.  The same men who wanted Jeremiah dead would also want him dead.  From this, one supposes that the men whom Ebed-Melech feared were the same ones who approached King Zedekiah at the beginning of chapter 38, asking for Jeremiah to be killed.  These were princes of Judah and doubtless were men who could carry out an execution on Ebed-Melech.  But God did not let that happen. 

The God of Jeremiah and Ebed-Melech is the same God that you and I know.  He was able to deliver those men from danger and death.  He is able to deliver you and me as well. 

Let us, therefore, lay aside fear, trust in God, speak and act with boldness, and leave the results to him.     
 

 

            

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