The Mire, the Eunuch, and the King Text: Jeremiah 38:1-13
Introduction: The Treason of Truth
We live in an age that desperately wants its prophets to be tame. It wants them to be chaplains to the establishment, offering soothing words and pious platitudes that bless the current arrangements. But a true prophet of God is never a pet of the state. He is a divine messenger, and his message is not his own. It is the unvarnished Word of the living God, and that Word frequently cuts against the grain of political expediency, popular opinion, and the self-preservation instincts of sinful men in power.
Jeremiah’s ministry occurred during the death throes of the kingdom of Judah. The nation was spiritually rotten to the core, and God had decreed judgment. That judgment was to come at the hands of the Babylonians. Jeremiah’s task, given to him by God, was to tell the people the hard, unpalatable truth: surrender. Do not resist. Accept God’s chastisement. To fight against Babylon was to fight against God Himself. Now, in any normal circumstance, this would be treason. But when God has declared a thing, obedience is the highest form of patriotism. True loyalty is not to the dirt under your feet, but to the God who made the dirt.
This message made Jeremiah an enemy of the state. The ruling class, the military men, the professional optimists, they all saw him as a demoralizing influence, a traitor, a fifth columnist. They wanted to hear about victory, about God’s blessing on their resistance, about how their special status as God’s people exempted them from consequences. They wanted a gospel of cheap grace, a theology of nationalistic pride. What they got was Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, telling them that the only way to live was to surrender to the pagan invaders. This is the background to our text. It is a story of political maneuvering, moral cowardice, unexpected courage, and the stark reality of what it costs to speak the truth of God in a collapsing civilization.
We see three central characters in this drama: the faithful prophet, the feckless king, and the foreign eunuch. Each one represents a different response to the Word of God when the pressure is on. And we must ask ourselves, as our own civilization sinks into the mire of its own making, which character we most resemble.
The Text
And Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchijah heard the words that Jeremiah was speaking to all the people, saying, "Thus says Yahweh, ‘He who stays in this city will die by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans will live and have his own life as spoil and stay alive.’ Thus says Yahweh, ‘This city will certainly be given into the hand of the military force of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.’ ” Then the officials said to the king, “Now let this man be put to death, inasmuch as he is making the hands of the men of war who remain in this city as well as the hands of all the people limp, by speaking such words to them; for this man is not seeking peace for this people but rather calamity.” So King Zedekiah said, “Behold, he is in your hands; for the king can do nothing against you.” Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchijah the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the cistern there was no water but only mire, and Jeremiah sank into the mire. But Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch, while he was in the king’s palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. Now the king was sitting in the Gate of Benjamin; and Ebed-melech went out from 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 cistern; and he will die right where he is because of the famine, for there is no more bread in the city.” Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, “Take in your hand thirty men from here and bring up Jeremiah the prophet from the cistern before he dies.” So Ebed-melech took the men in his hand and went into the king’s palace to a place beneath the storeroom and took from there worn-out clothes and worn-out rags and let them down by ropes into the cistern to Jeremiah. Then Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, “Now put these worn-out clothes and rags under your armpits under the ropes”; and Jeremiah did so. So they pulled Jeremiah up with the ropes and brought him up from the cistern, and Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guard.
(Jeremiah 38:1-13 LSB)
The Unchanging Message and the Predictable Outrage (vv. 1-4)
We begin with the confrontation.
"And Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchijah heard the words that Jeremiah was speaking to all the people, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh, ‘He who stays in this city will die by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans will live and have his own life as spoil and stay alive.’ Thus says Yahweh, ‘This city will certainly be given into the hand of the military force of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.’' " (Jeremiah 38:1-3 LSB)
Notice first that Jeremiah is not tailoring his message to his audience. He is speaking "to all the people." The Word of God is public truth, not a private hobby. And the message is stark and binary. There are two paths: stay and die, or go out and live. This is the essence of every gospel proclamation. There is a way of death and a way of life. The way of death is to trust in your own defenses, your own righteousness, your own city walls. The way of life is to surrender, to capitulate entirely to the one whom God has appointed to rule. For Judah, this was Nebuchadnezzar. For us, it is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The message is offensive because it bypasses all their categories of patriotism and national pride. God is telling them that their only hope for survival is to become refugees and vassals. This is a hard word. But Jeremiah does not soften it. He prefaces it twice with "Thus says Yahweh." He is a mailman. He doesn't write the letters, he just delivers them. And a faithful mailman delivers all the mail, not just the pleasant birthday cards.
The reaction of the officials is entirely predictable.
"Then the officials said to the king, 'Now let this man be put to death, inasmuch as he is making the hands of the men of war who remain in this city as well as the hands of all the people limp, by speaking such words to them; for this man is not seeking peace for this people but rather calamity.' " (Jeremiah 38:4 LSB)
Their accusation is that Jeremiah is demoralizing the troops and the populace. From a purely military and political standpoint, they are absolutely correct. His words were making their hands "limp." The truth of God often has this effect on carnal ambitions. When God declares a thing is over, and you are still trying to fight for it, the truth will feel like treason. They accuse him of not seeking the peace, the shalom, of the people. But Jeremiah had already told them that the only path to shalom was through surrender. These men were defining "peace" as "victory on our own terms." God was defining peace as "submission to My terms." This is the fundamental conflict. Sinful man always wants to define the terms of his own salvation, his own peace. The preacher of the gospel must insist on God's terms, and for this, he will always be accused of seeking calamity.
The Spineless King and the Sinking Prophet (vv. 5-6)
The officials bring their complaint to the man in charge, King Zedekiah. His response is a case study in failed leadership.
"So King Zedekiah said, 'Behold, he is in your hands; for the king can do nothing against you.' " (Jeremiah 38:5 LSB)
This is a staggering admission of impotence. Zedekiah is the king. He has the authority. But he is a man-pleaser, not a God-pleaser. He is more afraid of his own officials than he is of the living God. He is a political weathervane, pointing in the direction of the last person who spoke to him. He abdicates his responsibility, washing his hands of the matter like a proto-Pilate. "The king can do nothing against you." This is a lie. The king could have protected the prophet. What he meant was, "The king is unwilling to pay the political cost of doing the right thing." Weak leaders are not men who lack authority; they are men who lack the backbone to exercise the authority they have. They value their position more than they value justice, and in the end, they lose both.
Having received the king's permission, the officials act.
"Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchijah the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the cistern there was no water but only mire, and Jeremiah sank into the mire." (Jeremiah 38:6 LSB)
They don't kill him outright. That might be too messy, too public. Instead, they opt for a passive execution. They throw him in a cistern, a pit for collecting rainwater, that has run dry. But it is not empty. It is filled with mire, with thick, sticky mud. This is a picture of utter degradation and hopelessness. Jeremiah sinks into the mire. This is where faithfulness to God's Word will sometimes land you. It is a place of darkness, filth, and slow death. The world will not always crucify the truth-teller. Sometimes it will simply throw him in a pit and walk away, leaving him to sink under the weight of his own message.
The Courageous Eunuch (vv. 7-9)
When the prophet is in the pit, and the king is a coward, God raises up a savior from the most unlikely of places.
"But Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch, while he was in the king’s palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. Now the king was sitting in the Gate of Benjamin; and Ebed-melech went out from 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 cistern; and he will die right where he is because of the famine, for there is no more bread in the city.' " (Jeremiah 38:7-9 LSB)
Look at who this man is. Ebed-melech. His name means "servant of the king." He is an Ethiopian, a foreigner, a Cushite. He is a eunuch, a man who, under the Mosaic law, was excluded from the assembly of the Lord (Deut. 23:1). He is a man on the margins in every conceivable way, racially, nationally, and physically. And yet, it is this man, not the king of Judah, not the princes, not the priests, who has a functioning conscience. It is the outsider who sees the evil for what it is.
He hears what has been done, and he acts. He goes to the king, who is holding court publicly in the Gate of Benjamin. This is not a private whisper campaign. This is a public confrontation. Ebed-melech risks everything. He accuses the most powerful men in the kingdom, "these men have done evil." He calls Jeremiah what he is, "Jeremiah the prophet." And he lays out the stark reality: this is a death sentence. Jeremiah will die of hunger, as the city's famine was severe. This eunuch shows more courage in this one act than Zedekiah shows in his entire reign. True courage is not the absence of fear; it is doing what is right when you are afraid.
Rescue and Restoration (vv. 10-13)
Ebed-melech's bold appeal shames the king into action. The weathervane swings back again.
"Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, 'Take in your hand thirty men from here and bring up Jeremiah the prophet from the cistern before he dies.' " (Jeremiah 38:10 LSB)
Zedekiah, swayed by the last person to speak to him, now authorizes the rescue. He tells Ebed-melech to take thirty men, a significant force, perhaps to prevent the other officials from interfering, and get Jeremiah out. The king who could "do nothing" suddenly finds he can do something when pressed by a man of integrity.
What follows is a beautiful picture of tender, practical compassion.
"So Ebed-melech took the men in his hand and went into the king’s palace to a place beneath the storeroom and took from there worn-out clothes and worn-out rags and let them down by ropes into the cistern to Jeremiah. Then Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, 'Now put these worn-out clothes and rags under your armpits under the ropes'; and Jeremiah did so. So they pulled Jeremiah up with the ropes and brought him up from the cistern, and Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guard." (Jeremiah 38:11-13 LSB)
Ebed-melech could have just thrown down the ropes. That would have been sufficient for the rescue. But he does more. He goes to the trouble of finding old, soft rags to use as padding. He is concerned not just with saving Jeremiah's life, but with saving him from further pain. The ropes would have cut into the prophet's emaciated arms. This is true compassion. It is not just about the grand gesture; it is about the thoughtful details. It is about treating the sufferer with dignity. This foreign eunuch is a picture of Christ-like ministry. He enters into the suffering of another and provides not just deliverance, but comfort.
Jeremiah is pulled up from the mire, a living picture of resurrection. He is not set free entirely; he remains a prisoner in the court of the guard. But he is out of the pit. God did not deliver him from all trouble, but He delivered him in his trouble. And He did it through the hands of a despised outsider who feared God more than he feared men.
The Gospel in the Cistern
This entire episode is a profound illustration of the gospel. Jeremiah, the faithful messenger of God's Word, is rejected by his own people, handed over by a weak ruler, and cast into a pit of death. He is, in this, a type of Christ. Jesus came to His own, and His own received Him not. The religious officials accused Him, and a spineless Roman governor washed his hands and handed Him over to be killed. He was cast into the ultimate cistern, the pit of the grave.
And who is it that shows courage and compassion? Not the powerful, not the religious insiders, but an outsider. Ebed-melech is a picture of the Gentile church, the outsider brought near by the grace of God. Isaiah prophesied that eunuchs who keep God's covenant would be given a name better than sons and daughters (Isaiah 56:4-5). Here we see the fulfillment of that principle. It is the Ethiopian eunuch who acts as a true son of the covenant, while the natural sons are acting like pagans.
And the rescue itself is a picture of our salvation. We, like Jeremiah, were sinking in the mire of our sin. We were in a pit from which we could not escape. There was no hope in us. But God, in His great mercy, sent a rescuer. He did not just throw down the rope of the law. That would have only cut into us and condemned us. Instead, He sent His Son, who wrapped the harsh demands of the law in the soft rags of His own flesh. He put Himself under us, bearing our weight, and pulled us up out of the pit of sin and death.
The lesson for us is plain. First, like Jeremiah, we must be faithful to the Word of God, no matter the cost. We must not be surprised when the world calls our message of submission to Christ a message of "calamity." Second, we must beware the sin of Zedekiah. We must not be men-pleasers who abdicate our God-given responsibilities for the sake of political convenience. Weakness in leaders is a curse to the people. Finally, we must strive to be like Ebed-melech. We must be those who have the courage to speak up for the truth, to defend the righteous when they are persecuted, and to show practical, tender compassion to those who are suffering. God is not looking for the powerful or the well-connected. He is looking for faithful servants, even if they are foreigners and eunuchs, to do His work in a world sinking in the mire.