Jeremiah 38:7-13 Now when Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs which was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon… I. IT IS EASY TO SHOW KINDNESS. Some things are very hard to do. We know for how many years the Government of England, of our own country, and of other nations, have been trying to find the way to the North Pole. How much money has been spent, and how many valuable lives have been test in these attempts! And vet they have never succeeded. Getting to the North Pole is a very hard thing to do. Some things can only be done by those who have plenty of money. But it is very different with the work of showing kindness. There is nothing hard about this. We do not need much money to do it. The poor can show kindness, as well as the rich. Ebed-melech was a poor coloured man — the slave of King Zedekiah; yet he managed to show real kindness to the prophet Jeremiah. He wag the means of saving his life. II. KINDNESS IS USEFUL. Ebed-melech's kindness was useful to Jeremiah, because it saved his life. He lived for years after this, and was the means of doing a great deal of good to the people of Israel who were living then. Jeremiah has been useful to the Church of God, ever since that day, by the prophecies which he wrote. And a large portion of those prophecies was written after the day in which Ebed-melech saved his life. And this shows us how great the usefulness was of Ebed-melech's kindness. And in learning to show kindness to others, there is no telling how much good we may do. III. KINDNESS IS PROFITABLE. God sent word to Ebed-melech, by Jeremiah, that when Jerusalem should be taken by the Assyrians, He would put it into their hearts to show kindness to him by sparing his life. And so it came to pass. (R. Newton, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now when Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs which was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon; the king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin; |
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