Sermon Central
-
The Other Ethiopian Eunuch
Contributed by Jason Smith on Sep 25, 2013 (message contributor)
Summary: There are great lessons we can learn from the Ethiopian Eunuchs in scripture. In this lesson we will examine an event in the life of the less well-known Ethiopian Eunuch, Ebed-Melech.
Turn to the story of the Ethiopian eunuch… Where did you turn, Acts 8? That’s not the eunuch I want us to look at this evening.
Introduction. In the dark days prior to Jerusalem’s destruction, when the people had rejected God and His word, a foreigner chose to trust in God; the Ethiopian eunuch Ebed-melech
In Jeremiah 38, we see that Jeremiah is preaching God’s word like he was supposed to.
Read Jeremiah 38:1-3
Jeremiah is telling the people what they needed to do to be saved from the coming destruction that would come upon Jerusalem. But this message is not listened to. If you were over the people who were about to fight a battle, and someone came among the people and said, there is no use fighting, you’re going to lose over and over again, you wouldn’t be too happy either, especially when he is saying you may as well surrender while you have a chance. This would trouble those who were about to fight the Chaldeans. As the princes of Judah say in verse 4, they were afraid that Jeremiah would weaken the hands of those who were going to fight. Their solution was to silence the messenger. They wanted to put him to death. They believed Jeremiah was against the people, though his message was one that was seeking their welfare.
Jeremiah, who had just got out of prison in ch37 for his preaching, is cast into the dungeon of Malchiah because of this message (some versions refer to it as a cistern or a pit). Verse 6 states that he was let down into this dungeon with ropes, and that in the dungeon there was no water, but mire, in which Jeremiah sank in.
So Jeremiah is in this pit, and the way it looks this could mean his death, but we see in verse 7 that there was a man, a foreigner that truly feared the Lord.
Read Jeremiah 38:7-13
So this foreigner, the king’s eunuch,, who seems to be a trusted man to King Zedekiah, comes because he heard of the evil that was done to Jeremiah. He takes action. There are just 3 points that I would like to make considering this event:
1. EBED-MELECH HAD COURAGE.
Many opposed the words of Jeremiah when he spoke them, but Ebed-Melech was willing to stand for what was right and to stand against the enemies of the truth and of Jeremiah.
The amazing thing is that this foreigner goes to the king to petition for God’s prophet, and he does so, calling the princes of Judah evil men. HE was taking a risk in standing up for what was right! Who knows what could have came upon him if the king did not agree. He may have been thrown in the same pit as Jeremiah.
What would we have done in Ebed-Melech’s position? Would we have stood up for the Lord and His prophet? Would we have put our necks on the line to do what is right?
Well, to answer those questions, just look at how we respond to situations that we are put into now.
How many of us have been ashamed at times for doing what is right or for standing up for the Lord, or just as bad, how many times have we been to ashamed to do anything? Are any of us unwilling to put ourselves in a position where we may be ridiculed or humiliated?
We need to not be ashamed!!! We have such a powerful message to share with others, and we do not need to be ashamed of it!
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:8 to not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, but to share with him in suffering for the gospel’s sake. Let this be our reminder to not be ashamed because our reward is at stake!
We may be looked at as strange for wanting to be with God’s people on Sunday’s as He wants us to be. Our family’s may look at us as having our priorities messed up because we put the Lord and His word before them as He instructs us to.
We don’t stand up for those who misuse the Lord’s name as we should, we don’t share the gospel as we should… Why? Are we ashamed?
Jesus says in Luke 9:26
For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels.
If we are not willing to confess our Lord when times get tough, we should not think that He will confess us in the presence of god as His servants!!!!
