Jeremiah 38:10
So the king commanded Ebed-melech the Cushite, "Take thirty men from here with you and pull Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies."
Sermons
Foreshadowings and Analogies of the CrossA.F. Muir Jeremiah 38:4-13
Cast Down, But not ForsakenS. Conway Jeremiah 38:6-13
A Friend in NeedD. Young Jeremiah 38:7-13
Deliverance from an Unwonted QuarterThe Quiver.Jeremiah 38:7-13
Ebed-Melech the EthiopianG. M. Grant, B. D.Jeremiah 38:7-13
Ebed-Melech, the Model of KindnessR. Newton, D. D.Jeremiah 38:7-13
Ebed-Melech; Or, Unlooked for Sympathy and HelpA.F. Muir Jeremiah 38:7-13
Gentleness in Doing GoodJ. N. Norton, D. D.Jeremiah 38:7-13
Ropes and RagsT. Champness.Jeremiah 38:7-13
The Captive RescuedW. Hardman, LL. D.Jeremiah 38:7-13
The Tenderness of Ebed-MelechThe Quiver.Jeremiah 38:7-13














I. ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. These were such as to impress the mind of the prophet. He was deliberately consigned by the princes of the people to the dungeon, and the king consented, so that there would appear to be no appeal. His heart must have failed him as he felt himself sinking in the mire. In a prison like that he was in imminent danger of being forgotten and starved. Apparently it was intended as an effectual means of "putting out of the way." And all this was due to what? Doing his duty. The very persons whom he sought to benefit either turned against or ignored him. The whole situation was desperate. It appeared as if no human help could save. It is just at such times that faith receives its confirming, ultimate lessons.

II. ITS CHARACTER.

1. In itself. It Was:

(1) Thoughtful. It has been suggested that, as the dungeon was in the palace, "he came to the knowledge of it by hearing Jeremiah's moans." This may or may not have been; but when he knew of the situation of the prophet he was concerned and full of sympathy. It is this spirit which true religion, and especially the gospel of Christ, ever fosters, and the world has need of it.

(2) Prompt. In a question like that of a few hours at the utmost, no delay had to be made if the prisoner was to be saved. As the king was "then sitting in the gate of Benjamin," he went out immediately and sought an audience. And he urged expedition. One of the finest recommendations of help is that it is given when it is needed. The case is taken up as if it were his own. How many philanthropies miss fire because they are kept too long without being carried into effect? Bis dat qui cito dat.

(3) Courageous. He went straight to the king, by whose order he must have known the thing had been done, and spoke with quick, nervous fearlessness and condemnation. There was not only feeling here, but principle. He was evidently careless as to the consequences to himself.

(4) Practical. Ebed-Melech meant that the thing should be done, and so he took the requisite steps to carry it out. Everything is thought Of and applied to the purpose. Even in the "old cast clouts" there is evidence of forethought and careful, if novel, application of means to ends.

2. In its origin. Ebed-Melech was:

(1) An alien.Not a Jew, and one from his office disqualified from participating in the benefits of the covenant. It is the more remarkable that none of Jeremiah's countrymen interposed.

(2) A servant of a vicious king. The establishments of such princes are usually stamped with the same character, and their members are but the creatures of their masters. There is something doubly unlooked for, therefore, in such an advocate and friend. It is like a salutation from one of "Caesar's household."

(3) It is also probable that he was one called out by the occasion. No mention of him is made either before or after.

III. WHAT IT TEACHES.

1. True religion does not depend upon conventional forms. Not that these are therefore without value, but they are not of the essence of religion. It is Divine faith, with its outflowing charities and works, that alone can save man and glorify God. Rahab the harlot and Naaman the Syrian are but instances of many for really outside of the kingdom of God, but really within it. Let each ask, "Am I, who have received so much privilege, really a child of grace?"

2. The kingdom of God is always stronger than it seems. As to Elijah the assurance," Yet I have left me seven, thousand, in Israel," so to Jeremiah is this experience. We are never justified in despairing of human nature if God be in his world.

3. Implicit trust in God as the only Saviour. The raising up of such a deliverer was so unique and unexpected as to call attention to it as a work of God, It was supernatural and special, and spoke of gracious intervention. He would not abandon his servant, nor will he any who put their trust in him. - M.

The words that Jeremiah had spoken unto all the people.
Rays of hope had arisen in the clouded sky of the, nation. An Egyptian army was on its way to the city. Thus, it was believed, the Chaldeans would be compelled to raise the siege, which had been growing ever closer, so that first hunger and then starvation stared its inhabitants in the face. An escape from their horrible position seemed possible through an alliance with the Egyptian king. These hopes were dashed to the ground by the emphatic word of the prophet: This city shall assuredly be given into the hand of the army of the King of Babylon." He even went beyond this, and urged desertion to the enemy: "He that abideth in the city shall die by the sword, the famine, and the pestilence; but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live." All this seemed, not only unpatriotic, but treasonable. It has been well said, "No government conducting the defence of a besieged fortress could have tolerated Jeremiah for a moment. What would have been the fate of the French politician who should have urged the Parisians to desert to the Germans during the siege of 1870?" Jeremiah seemed a veritable Cassandra, and Cassandras, even if, as in this case, their warnings are but utterances of the inevitable, can only expect to be met with resentment and persecution.

(W. Garret Horder.)

True patriotism is love of one's native land. A good deal of modern "patriotism" is love of some one else's land, coupled with an unchristian hatred of other countries. Sometimes people ask whether Christianity and genuine patriotism can go together. For a sincere Christian will love all mankind. Racial hatred is a crime in the eyes of Christ, who teaches us that "One is our master, and all of us are brethren," and that we are to love our neighbour as ourself. A Christian can be a most sincere patriot, indeed the only true patriot. Christians are to love the whole world, as Jesus did. Yet, by natural association the soil of our fatherland is endeared to us by a thousand hallowed memories, which the soil of another land cannot recall. I think the limestone hills of Galilee, and the lap of the waters on the shores of Gennesaret were dearer to Christ than the seven hills of Rome, or the flow of the golden Tiber. Our Lord broke His heart over Jerusalem, the city of His love, as He saw "the doom from its worn sandals shake the dust against that land." Christ was a patriot, and the thing that cut His heart most painfully was not so much the coming destruction of Jerusalem, as the national sin which caused that national ruin. So, too, a Christian patriot will love his country's honour even more than its wealth and material greatness. He will value the good name of his fatherland, and the moral and intellectual elevation of his countrymen, far more than mere additions to its territory or additions to its wealth. And a true patriot will love his own land without hating other countries. The Christian must love other lands too, and seek their highest welfare. Charity begins at home: but it is a poor charity that ends at home. Love for other lands prompted the founders of missionary societies, which have been of such incalculable blessing to the civilisation of mankind. A true patriot will stand up for his fatherland; if others seek to enslave it he will make sacrifices for the home of his birth, as England did when the Spanish Armada threatened our liberty and our religion. But a Christian patriot will not do anything to cause hatred of another country. He will aim at making all the nations love one another. If he finds others trying to sow the seed of wicked hate, or if he sees his own land doing wrong, the Christian patriot will dare to speak the truth. When Lord Chatham urged England not to make war on the United States he was howled down by the bastard patriots of the day. But history stamps him as the true patriot, his opponents as the false ones. When John Bright spoke against the folly of the Crimean War he was made the butt of newspaper gibes, and nine-tenths of his countrymen laughed at him or sneered at him. But history shows that John Bright was right. He was the true patriot. The false patriot holds that you must never criticise your country's dealings with other lands. Perhaps the hardest duty that ever falls on a man who loves his fatherland is to point out that his country is doing wrong. That heavy duty fell often to the lot of Jeremiah. The Jews had so long persisted in idolatry that God's marvellous patience could bear with them no longer. After repeated warnings, all in vain, God told the people, by His prophet, that they would go into the land of bondage as a punishment for their sin. God also told Jeremiah to inform his fellow-countrymen that it was useless to struggle against the troops of Nebuchadnezzar. God had sent that monarch to chastise the rebellious Jews, to take them into captivity, and to bring ruin to the nation, because of its sin. This painful duty of urging the Jews not to resist, not to persist in a hopeless struggle, was heartbreaking to a true patriot like Jeremiah. The princes, who had no real faith in God, naturally thought Jeremiah's action most unpatriotic. Disbelieving in God, disbelieving in religion, disbelieving in Jeremiah's prophecies, no wonder they said, "This man seeketh not the welfare of the people, but their hurt," Poor Jeremiah! The bastard patriots of Jerusalem sneered at him, called him a Little Palestiner, said he was in the pay of the Chaldeans. Poor Jeremiah! He had no love for the Chaldeans in preference to his own nation. Nay, he loved the Jews with all their sins more than the heathen Chaldeans, who were only instruments in God's hands for punishing the guilty Jews. But he knew it was no use to resist. He knew that he had received a message from God. He knew he must deliver that message, though at the risk of his life. Like a brave hero and a true patriot he told his people of their folly, of their sins, and of their approaching doom. He met with the usual brickbat argument, brute force; he was put into a well, put into captivity, and ill-treated in various ways. But every word he spoke came true. And when the Chaldeans had utterly destroyed the city and crushed its inhabitants, the captain of the guard set Jeremiah free and said, "Will you return with me and find a comfortable home in Babylon?" Jeremiah was a true patriot, therefore he chose to share the sufferings of his people, though they had so grievously wronged him. The comfort and luxury of Babylon were rejected by the simple, honest patriot, who preferred to dwell in poverty among the people of the land. If those false patriots, who cried him down, had had a chance of the ease and comfort offered to Jeremiah, how they would have jumped at it! They would have preferred Babylon's fleshpots to Palestine's poverty and want. But Jeremiah chose to share his people's abject poverty and utter wretchedness. The intense, broken-hearted patriotism of Jeremiah stands out for all time in the magnificent Lamentations that he wrote, with his pen dipped into his heart's own blood. They are the saddest writings in the world. And what made the Jews' ruin so intensely sorrowful to Jeremiah was the fact that it was so richly deserved. Therein was the sting. And he knew that there could be no improvement in their lot till their lives became better. He is the ideal of a patriot. Some false teachers have been and are trying to breathe into England a spirit of defiance to other lands, and an unbounded lust for territorial extension of our Empire. These teachers are attempting to stir up racial hatred. A very recent author declares that Germany must be blotted out by England, because she is our great rival in trade. As readers of history we know the curse of the racial hatred that existed between England and France in the time of the first Napoleon. And as Christians we know how fiendish is the advice to cut the throat of a neighbouring nation because she is a commercial rival. Christians do not advocate doing away at once with all soldiers and sailors. Like policemen, they are necessary at present. And we know that our sailors and soldiers will always do their duty bravely. The Christian Church protests against this modern bastard patriotism, which is much the same as piracy, against this glorification of brute force, against this reversion to savageism, against this contempt for all that is gentle, spiritual, Christ-like. Such principles work —

1. Mischief in the social and political world;

2. Mischief in the realm of literature, and all that leads to the higher development of man;

3. Mischief to religion.These principles work mischief in the social and political world. At the end of last century and the beginning of this, how deplorable was the condition of the workers of this land. Why? Because of our incessant and unnecessary wars with France. These principles of false patriotism work much evil in the realm of literature, and all that leads to the higher development of man. The "patriotism" which means lust for other people's land, and hatred of other nations, may produce a "Soldiers' Chorus," but it will produce no Tennyson, no Shakespeare. Since the German Empire became cursed with militarism it has produced no great writers. The essence of the highest literature is to be cosmopolitan for all the world. The Republic of Athens was a commercial, a scientific, an artistic city. The kingdom of Sparta was military to the highest degree. Military Sparta has left us no literature. Civic Athens has left us a literature which even to-day is a wonder of the world. That is natural. The habitual practice of blind obedience, necessary for the soldier, is the greatest foe to thought, and prevents men from learning how to form judgments and pass opinions. Militarism must be for the masses of the soldiery unintellectual. Our literature during the last few years has in some respects deteriorated sadly. One of the aspects of its decadence is its excessive glorifying of the military spirit. Swarms of books for boys have been published the last twenty years, and they are very largely glorifications of physical force. That is a reversion to the savage. The principles of this false patriotism work deadly mischief to religion. This spurious patriotism is not love of one's country so much as love of more country. It is hatred of other men's patriotism. It cannot understand that foreigners may and ought to love their fatherland even as we do ours. Such teachings lead to bitter hatred instead of love. Racial hatred is as ungodly as it is idiotic. Nelson used to say to his sailors, "Fear God, honour the king, and hate a Frenchman as you hate the devil." How could they fear God if they hated God's children? Every Frenchman was as much loved by God as every Englishman was loved. The business of the Christian Church is to spread love and not hate, to tone down animosities, not to stimulate them. Though the student of history sees how insane and utterly unnecessary most wars have been, war may sometimes be a stern necessity. But the glorification of war is earthly and unchristian. The only argument for militarism worth anything is that it develops pluck. Well, so did gladiator fights. Shall we reintroduce them? Pluck may be learned on the football-field as well as on the field of slaughter, where the animal passions of savageism are let loose. If we are Christians we will turn away from this bastard patriotism which ends in hate of other lands. We will love our country dearly. If occasion comes, we must make great sacrifices for her. But we will ever preach the gospel of love against the badspel of hate. We will preach the superiority of intellectual pursuits to the pursuit of war. We will preach the blessedness of elevating mankind to the spiritual rather than drag humanity down to the animal.

(F. W. Aveling, M. A.)

People
Babylonians, Benjamin, Ebedmelech, Gedaliah, Hammelech, Jehucal, Jeremiah, Jonathan, Jucal, Malchiah, Malchijah, Mattan, Pashur, Shelemiah, Shephatiah, Zedekiah
Places
Babylon, Benjamin Gate, Jerusalem
Topics
Authority, Bring, Cistern, Commanded, Commandeth, Cushite, Death, Die, Dies, Dieth, Dungeon, Ebedmelech, Ebed-melech, E'bed-mel'ech, Ethiopian, Hast, Hence, Jeremiah, Lift, Orders, Overtakes, Pit, Prophet, Saying, Thirty, Water-hole
Outline
1. Jeremiah, by a false suggestion, is put into the dungeon of Malchiah.
7. Ebed-Melech, by suit, gets him some enlargement.
14. Upon secret conference, he counsels the king by yielding to save his life.
24. By the king's instructions he conceals the conference from the princes.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Jeremiah 38:10

     5216   authority, nature of

Jeremiah 38:1-11

     5828   danger

Jeremiah 38:6-13

     4221   cistern
     6738   rescue

Jeremiah 38:9-12

     5975   violence

Jeremiah 38:10-13

     6634   deliverance

Library
The Life of Mr. James Mitchel.
Mr. James Mitchel[152] was educated at the university of Edinburgh, and was, with some other of his fellow-students, made master of arts anno 1656. Mr. Robert Leighton (afterwards bishop Leighton), being then principal of that college, before the degree was conferred upon them, tendered to them the national and solemn league and covenant; which covenants, upon mature deliberation, he took, finding nothing in them but a short compend of the moral law, binding to our duty towards God and towards
John Howie—Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies)

Jeremiah
The interest of the book of Jeremiah is unique. On the one hand, it is our most reliable and elaborate source for the long period of history which it covers; on the other, it presents us with prophecy in its most intensely human phase, manifesting itself through a strangely attractive personality that was subject to like doubts and passions with ourselves. At his call, in 626 B.C., he was young and inexperienced, i. 6, so that he cannot have been born earlier than 650. The political and religious
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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