Ebedmelech

Ebedmelech (JER 38-39) I. The Time, Place and Circumstances. A. This was during the last years of the last O.T. king of Judah. B. This was just prior to the fall of the city of Jerusalem and the subjugation of the Jews by the Babylonians. C. Much of Judah had already been taken captive by the Babylonians. D. Jerusalem had been greatly reduced by sin, then by Babylon. 1. Life was cheap. Truth and judgment had departed. JER 4:31; 5:1-4. 2. The people were only wise to do evil. JER 4:22; 9:3. 3. They abused...

C. Ebedmelech. His name means “servant of the king.” 1. He was an Ethiopian eunuch who feared the true God. a. The name “Ethiopia” is the same Hebrew word which is elsewhere translated as “Cush” (the son of Ham and father of Nimrod). b. The name “Cush” means “black” (per BDB Dictionary). c. Ethiopians were then, as now, obviously unwhite. JER 13:23. 2. As an eunuch, he could bear no familiar fruit (biologically); he was a “dry tree” (ISA 56:3). But his good deeds were fruit of another source of life with...

IV. JER 38:7-13. A. Ebedmelech the Ethiopian went in unto Zedekiah to intercede for Jeremiah. Given the abhorrent character of Zedekiah (EZE 21:25), it might be said that Ebedmelech went boldly unto the throne of disgrace. His compassion was love in deed and in truth. 1JO 3:17-18. B. The fact that he may have been putting himself at risk did not deter him from trying to help the man of God. He joined the ranks of the heroes of faith by his actions. HEB 11:27. C. Ebedmelech spoke out on behalf of a wrongl...