UP FROM THE BOTTOM

Jeremiah was thrown into a muddy cistern for speaking truth to people who wanted lies.
(Jer. 38:1-6)

He told them to surrender to the Babylonians and not resist God’s judgment.
The oppressive government was not the problem, the people were.
They had their own plan and did not want God’s.
So they had to learn obedience in captivity to return to freedom. (Jer. 29:4-14)

It is risky business to speak truth to people who wants lies.
They wanted to hear good news, not the truth.
Prosperity was mistaken as approval for sin. (Jer. 5:30-31)
Jeremiah said so…
And was thrown in a cistern, in waist deep mud and was left to die.

But God sent a man to help.
Ebed-Melech – “slave of the king.”
He was a black slave with a big heart. (Jer. 38:7-13)
He was an oppressed man who knew injustice.
He knew the pain of hard times and felt another’s hurt.
Our Father “comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us.” (2 Cor 1:4-5 Msg.)

Ebed-Melech eased Jeremiah’s pain.
He fixed a rope with rags on the end to pad the hurting man’s shoulders.
He rescued Jeremiah.
He didn’t just talk about doing it, he did it.
“If you know these things, then blessed are you if you do them.” (Jn. 13:17)
“My brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” (Luke 8:22)

Jeremiah was not kept from the trial.
He went through it.
He probably thought it was the end.
But this time it wasn’t.
He was pulled to safety and protection under the oppressors.

Ebed-Melech was rewarded for throwing a rope to a drowning man.
“You shall have your life as a prize for war, because you have trusted me, says the Lord.” (Jer. 39:18)

So…
If you were planning to go around the trouble, not through it…
And find yourself waist deep in mud at the bottom of the barrel,
It’s not necessarily over.
God has unseen alternatives you can’t see.
God He has unnoticed “good hearts” in unlikely places,
Who can throw you a rope and pull you out.
But remember God is the hidden hand behind the help.
Give Him the credit when you reach the top.
Remember Who put you there and be grateful.

And know why God put you back on solid ground…
So you can throw a rope to another soul at the bottom of the barrel.

Remember the man down there is not waving, he’s drowning.