Transcript
It seemed to me that it might be appropriate for the New Year to look at a passage which we are supposed to have read already this year. If my record of the schedule is accurate, we would have read this passage on the 3rd of the month, which I believe was Thursday.
So in your Bibles, will you turn to Jeremiah chapter 38.
If you read it this week, you’ll be familiar with it. If you didn’t read it this week, we urge you to get with the program, and the year will be more profitable that you read the Word of God faithfully.
Jeremiah 38. I’m going to begin reading at verse 1.
Now Shephatiah the son of Mattan, Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchiah heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken to all the people, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes over to the Chaldeans shall live. His life shall be as a prize to him, and he shall live. Thus says the LORD: This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, and he shall take it.’
Therefore the princes said to the king, “Please let this man be put to death, for thus he weakens the hands of the men of war who remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking such words to them. For this man does not seek the welfare of this people, but their harm.”
Then Zedekiah the king said, “Look, he is in your hand. For the king can do nothing against you.”
So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of the king, 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.
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.”
Then the king commanded Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, saying, “Take thirty men with you, and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon before he dies.”
So Ebed-Melech took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took from there old clothes and old rags, and let them down by ropes into the dungeon to Jeremiah. Then Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, “Please put these old clothes and rags under your armpits, under the ropes.” And Jeremiah did so.
So they pulled Jeremiah up with the ropes and lifted him out of the dungeon. And Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.
Now flip over to chapter 39, which by the way if you were reading was read on Friday, and verse 15.
Now the word of the LORD had come to Jeremiah while he was shut up in the court of the prison, 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.”
The title of my talk this afternoon is “Those Beautiful Old Rags.”
I suspect that every household represented at this table has a few old rags lying around somewhere in the house. And when you have a particularly dirty and undesirable job to do, you grab a few of these and you use your old rags. Even I have some old rags at home, and some of them are hanging in my clothes closet – clothes that I haven’t worn for years and can no longer wear. And when an emergency arises, I would not hesitate to tear them up and use them as rags. So most homes have a supply of old rags.
But may I suggest to you that in the Christian church our supply of old rags sometimes runs very, very short. And you probably have guessed I’m not now talking about the cleaning crew of the church. I am talking about a quality that needs to exist within a church, and without which the church cannot successfully serve the Lord.
Now I’m happy to tell you that the hero of the passage that we just read was a single man, probably not by choice, because he is called here a eunuch. And in ancient times it was fairly common for slaves to be castrated so that they could more effectively serve the king. That meant that the eunuch could be with the king’s harem without being tempted. He could do whatever tasks were necessary and be involved with any of the beautiful ladies at the palace without being tempted. And in all likelihood that’s the kind of person that Ebed-Melech was.
And it is interesting that his name actually means in Hebrew “servant of the king” or “the king’s servant.” The really striking thing, however, about Ebed-Melech in the story that we have is not only that he was the king’s servant, but that he was the servant of a greater king than Zedekiah. He was a servant of the living God. He was a servant of the God of heaven. So he lived up to his name, Ebed-Melech, which means king’s servant, in a very remarkable and impressive way.
And it was really his service to the King of kings that resulted in his name being inscribed on the pages of Scripture and, when you stop to think about it, preserved down through the centuries so that we can read about him today.
And may I just suggest this: I hope that in 2002 there will be a sense in which everyone sitting at this table can be called an Ebed-Melech, the king’s servant. And I hope that one of the things that we are committed to for the year ahead is serving the great King, the God who gave His Son that we might be saved.
Now Ebed-Melech was not only a eunuch, he was also an Ethiopian. The Hebrew word here indicates a Cushite, which is the general area of Ethiopia. And in all probability he was a black man. The likelihood is very high that Ebed-Melech was a black African. And we are very, very impressed by the fact that here in the city of Jerusalem, the city that God had chosen out of all of the tribes of Israel, that his name should be there. Here in a city ruled by a descendant of King David himself – Zedekiah, the last of the kings of Judah. Here in the city there was the center of God’s purposes for His chosen race. That when His servant Jeremiah was in need, nobody who was a Jew came to his assistance. The man who came to his assistance was a black African, Ebed-Melech.
And Ebed-Melech will remind us, are we not, of the very famous words that were spoken by the Lord to Samuel when Samuel went to the house of Jesse and was reviewing Jesse’s sons to see which of them God wanted as king. You remember when the first son came before him, even a very impressive young man, he looked no doubt every inch a king. And God said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD does not see as man sees, for man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”
And that’s a principle that is very important in this passage, isn’t it? Here’s a black man, but what God finds in the heart of this black man is so impressive that it is recorded for us on the pages of the Word of God.
And even though we already know this, it isn’t foolish to remind ourselves that God is not concerned about how we look on the outside. You may be taller or short. You may be thin or fat. You may be black or white or brown or yellow or even green. And the Lord is not concerned with the outward appearance. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. And it’s what He sees in the year 2002 in your heart that will make the difference between a spiritually successful year and one that is not.
Now what did He see in Ebed-Melech’s heart? Well, one thing He obviously saw, as the verses we read from the next chapter indicate to us, was faith. Because there the Lord speaks to Ebed-Melech and He can guarantee that he will pass safely through the calamities that lie ahead. He will not be turned over to the men he is afraid of. And the reason God gives is “because you have put your trust in Me.”
And here in the city where everybody ought to be filled with faith, the man who had the most faith, apart from Jeremiah himself apparently, was Ebed-Melech the eunuch, the black servant of Zedekiah.
What else did God see in his heart? Well, I would like to suggest the obvious courage. You see, Jerusalem is under siege at this point in time by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar. Finally, after warning the nation through His prophets time after time after time, God is bringing down upon Jerusalem the judgment that He had prophesied for that city and nation. Zedekiah was destined to be the last of the sons of David to sit on the throne of Judah.
And Jeremiah has been preaching to the people that if they stay in the city they will die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. But if they go out of the city and surrender to the king of Babylon, then their lives will be preserved.
Now the princes of Judah, who are men of considerable political importance here, don’t appreciate that. And they appear before Zedekiah and they say, “Why are we letting this man do this? By speaking words like this he’s undermining the morale of the army that’s defending our city. He’s undermining the morale of the people. He needs to be put to death.”
Obviously they didn’t believe Jeremiah’s words, did they? They didn’t have faith in the Word of God through Jeremiah. Instead they want to kill Jeremiah.
Now I have to say to you that at this point, in the bad sense of the term, Zedekiah acted as an old rag. In place of a spine, in place of vertebrae, he caved in completely to the princes of Judah. And even though it’s evident from the remainder of this chapter, if you’ve read it, that he in some kind of way believed that the word spoken through Jeremiah was true, he’s willing to give Jeremiah up. And he says to the princes, “He is in your hand. For what can the king do against you? You take him and do what you want to.”
Which was like signing the death warrant of God’s prophet.
So there he is taken away by the servants of these men. He is cast into what is called a dungeon in our Bibles, but the chances are it was a deserted pit of a well that no longer produced water. And in the bottom there was mud. So when Jeremiah was lowered by ropes into this pit, he finds himself in mud and he sinks down into the mud. It’s obvious that if he’s left that way he won’t live very long.
And nobody speaks up for him except – except the black Ethiopian, Ebed-Melech.
Well, put yourself if you will in Ebed-Melech’s place. It wouldn’t have been easy. What can I do? I mean the princes of Judah have gotten this concession from Zedekiah. What I am is a eunuch in the household of the king. And if I speak up and try to interfere with what the princes want to do, I probably won’t succeed in rescuing Jeremiah and I’ll get myself into trouble. The best thing for me to do is to just keep my mouth shut.
Would you like a prediction for 2002? I suspect that at some time or other during 2002, for every one of us there will come an opportunity to speak up for God in some way in circumstances that are not entirely easy to do it in. Maybe on the job, maybe with relatives and friends, maybe within an unsaved group of people. And it is then that we will be tested in terms of our faith. Yeah, we believe the Word of God. We believe that it’s going to come true. But how easy it is to rationalize that it would be better to just keep quiet and not trouble the waters and not to create any offense. And we give ourselves a million reasons why we shouldn’t say anything at all under these circumstances.
And if Ebed-Melech had done that, apart from some other intervention from God, Jeremiah would have been dead. But instead, acting with courage on his faith in God, he – and I’m really impressed by this – he goes directly to the king and he said, “What these men have done to Jeremiah the prophet is evil.” Whoa! The princes of Judah! Zedekiah, I should say, “What do you think you’re doing? Those are the princes that you’re talking about!” Furthermore, says Ebed-Melech, “they put him in this dungeon and if he’s left there he is going to die of hunger because there’s no more bread in the city. Nobody’s going to give him food down there in that dungeon. This is wrong.”
Well, he could have given himself all sorts of reasons for not doing it. But the wonderful thing is that when we have the courage to speak up for God, it’s amazing what God can do with our simple word.
So here is Zedekiah. I’m surprised by this, but maybe God gave him a guilty conscience at this point, and he says, “Go pull Jeremiah up out of the dungeon.”
Isn’t that impressive? “It won’t do any good for me to say anything. I’ll just keep my mouth shut.” But who knows what God can do with the right word spoken at the right time.
So now we come – are you all with me? – now we come to those beautiful old rags. Those beautiful old rags.
You see, all that Zedekiah had said to Ebed-Melech to do is, you know, get him out of there. And he apparently lets him have thirty men who will pull Jeremiah out. But remember Ebed-Melech is a servant in the king’s household, so he knows where the old rags are. He knows where the old clothes are. He goes into the treasury of the king and he gets the old rags. And then he lowers these old rags to Jeremiah in the pit of that abandoned well. And he says to Jeremiah, “Please put these old clothes and rags under your armpits, under the ropes.” And we’ll pull you out.
I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of impressed by this. I mean after all Ebed-Melech could have said, “My job is really to save him from the pit, so we’re going to go directly to the pit and put the ropes down there.” And yeah, he’s an aging man and maybe when we jerk him out of the mud there’ll be a few rope burns under his arms. Well who cares about that if he gets out of the pit?
Instead, not only does Ebed-Melech secure the release of Jeremiah from this terrible situation, but he does whatever he can to make the extraction of Jeremiah from that well as comfortable for Jeremiah as he could make it. In other words, he cared about Jeremiah’s feelings, not just about Jeremiah’s safety mind you, but he cared also about how it felt when they pulled him up out of the pit.
You know what sometimes happens in Christian churches? We have firm faith in God. We have the courage of our convictions. But we are careless of the feelings of other people. We say things that are cutting. We do things that are kind of insulting. And we do not have the necessary compassion and concern for the feelings of others.
Remember the words of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4 and verse 32. He says,
Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
And do you remember the words of the Apostle Peter in First Peter 3:8? He says,
Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another, love as brothers, be tender-hearted, be courteous.
Hey folks, did you know that the Bible tells us to be courteous? “Having compassion for one another, love as brothers, be tender-hearted, be courteous.”
What happens in churches? Oh I’m sure sharp words are exchanged. Feelings are hurt. Anger and resentment is around. Nothing ever happened at Victor Street Bible Chapel? Don’t try to look innocent. Of course it happens. In fact it happened last year on more than one occasion. It did. The pastors know it. You know it. We all know it.
What do we need at Victor Street Bible Chapel? Well there may be a number of things we need, but one of the things we need is to be compassionate for every brother and sister in this room. We need to be tender-hearted. We need to be gentle and forgiving. We need to be courteous.
One of my favorite stories is about Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, the very famous Russian writer. He died I think in 1910. He left behind as his major literary monument the famous work called War and Peace. But the story is told that on one occasion Tolstoy was walking down the street in a Russian city and he was accosted by a beggar. And the beggar naturally asked for a handout. So Tolstoy starts going through all the pockets and vests of the clothes he’s wearing and doesn’t find a thing. And then he says – and mind you this is this great literary man talking to a miserable beggar – he said to the beggar, “Please don’t be angry with me, my brother. I haven’t brought anything with me. If I had, I would gladly share it with you.”
The story is that the beggar’s face lighted up brightly and the beggar replied, “You have given me more than I asked. You have called me brother.”
Kindness, compassion, courtesy. Tolstoy didn’t have any money to give him but he gave him something far more valuable than money. He gave him consideration.
You know the wonderful thing about the old rags we’re talking about, they don’t cost you anything to have them and they don’t cost you anything to give them away. There may be a limit on what you can give to God of your material substance this year. The amount that you can give financially may be limited. But there is no limit on kindness, compassion, and courtesy to others.
Is it too late to make another New Year’s resolution? I hope not. Wouldn’t it be nice if all of us as members of Victor Street Bible Chapel would decide that by the grace of God this year is going to be marked by compassion and consideration and courtesy to others in our group. That everybody in the group – or to put it another way, wouldn’t it be wonderful if in the year 2002 Victor Street Bible Chapel had a huge supply of those beautiful old rags.
Now I’m not going to open it for discussion. I’m going to suggest that in place of the discussion we spend a few minutes in silent prayer. I don’t think there’s anybody at the table including the speaker who doesn’t feel that this is an area in which he or she can improve. And if you have any sense at all that you need to improve in this area, take a few minutes to ask God to make you a compassionate and courteous Christian in 2002. And when we’ve prayed a little bit silently I’ll give thanks for the table.