Year 2, Week 14, Day 5 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 14, Day 5

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Jeremiah 38-39.

Today’s reading continues the fourth segment of the Book of Jeremiah. This fourth segment (chapters 34-45) corresponds to the second segment (chapters 21-29) in that each segment contains messages and incidents that are historically oriented with dates and other historical markers. Like the second segment, this fourth segment does not have the messages of hope and salvation that were found in chapters 30-33, but the focus returns to the destruction brought on by disobedience. Today's reading, like yesterday’s, highlights some of the afflictions that Jeremiah faced from the hands of those who rejected God’s Word. Jeremiah 38 notes the consequence of Jeremiah’s continued faithful declaration of God’s Word: “So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. And there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud” (Jeremiah 38:6). Jeremiah had already been imprisoned for his prophecies, but now he was essentially transferred to a place where he would surely face a miserable death—starvation in a dark, muddy cistern. And yet the LORD preserved him through the efforts of Ebed-Melech. Jeremiah 39, which unfolds within a year of the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC., records the capture of King Zedekiah, the slaughtering of his sons, as well as the blinding of his eyes; all in contrast to the promise given to Ebed-Melech: “The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah while he was shut up in the court of the guard: “Go, and say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian…For I will surely save you, and you shall not fall by the sword, but you shall have your life as a prize of war, because you have put your trust in me, declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 39:15,18).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was how the efforts of Ebed-Melech are illustrative about informing how to think about matters of skin color and ethnicity: “When Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern—the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate— Ebed-melech went from the king’s house and said to the king, “My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they did to Jeremiah the prophet by casting him into the cistern, and he will die there of hunger, for there is no bread left in the city” (Jeremiah 38:7-9). Ebed-Melech acts heroically. A foreigner comes to the rescue of Jeremiah. It should not be lost on us that we are told that Ebed-Melech is an Ethiopian. Thus, Jeremiah is saved from his own countrymen by a foreigner. This is proof that Judah is among the most wicked of the nations. Highlighting Ebed-Melech reveals the shamefulness of the Israelites as they sought to kill the true prophets from the LORD.

In other words, there is a sense that a dark-skinned foreigner is portrayed in such a positive light, as the Judean King, who no doubt looks like the people he was to lead, is portrayed in a negative light. Of course, on the other hand, the issue is not really about skin color at all. It was not Eded-Melech’s skin color that was the real explanation of his actions, one way or the other. Earlier in the Book, Jeremiah rhetorically asked, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin?” (Jeremiah 13:23a); as it turns out, there is no need for an Ethiopian to change the color of his skin. Changing the color of skin is neither a problem or a solution. But the matter that really needed changing, that is, the human heart, was something that was elusive to many such a Zedekiah, who continued to reject the LORD’s instructions given through the prophet: “When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled, going out of the city at night by way of the king’s garden through the gate between the two walls; and they went toward the Arabah” (Jeremiah 39:4). Rather than submit to the LORD’s discipline by submitting to Babylon, Zedekiah attempts to flee. But Zedekiah does not get away: “The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes, and the king of Babylon slaughtered all the nobles of Judah. He put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains to take him to Babylon. The Chaldeans burned the king’s house and the house of the people, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem” (Jeremiah 39:6-8).

But in contrast to Zedekiah’s fate, Jeremiah, who was ill-treated by Zedekiah, was well-treated by the Babylonians: “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave command concerning Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, saying, “Take him, look after him well, and do him no harm, but deal with him as he tells you” (Jeremiah 39:11-12). Jeremiah received the very protection at the hands of the Babylonians that he offered to Zedekiah and any of the people of Judah who would take heed of the LORD’s instructions. Zedekiah and Jerusalem would face horrible consequences as they rejected the LORD. And while Israel disbelieved and disobeyed, a non-Israelite, like Eded-Melech, who would take God as his Word, would face an entirely different outcome: “Go, and say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will fulfill my words against this city for harm and not for good, and they shall be accomplished before you on that day. But I will deliver you on that day, declares the LORD, and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid” (Jeremiah 39:16-17). A non-Israelite with a heart to receive God’s Word is infinitely better off than an Israelite who rejects God’s Word. Skin color and ethnicity neither damns nor saves; but anyone who embraces God’s Word will be blessed.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe