Ebed-melech

Every morning at 8:30 (except Sundays), Living Hope has a service with all the students and faculty to start off the day. Each day, they read a chapter of the Bible, working through the whole Bible one chapter at a time. After they read it, someone will do a short devotion from that passage. Well, the whole time I've been here we've been in Jeremiah, and the passage for yesterday was Jeremiah 38. For some reason, I noticed something in there that I hadn't before - let me show you the passage, and then I'll explain.

At this point in the book, Jeremiah has been thrown into a cistern, where he will surely die. In verses 7-13 we see this:

7 When Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch who was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern—the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate— 8 Ebed-melech went from the king's house and said to the king, 9 “My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they did to Jeremiah the prophet by casting him into the cistern, and he will die there of hunger, for there is no bread left in the city.” 10 Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, “Take thirty men with you from here, and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.” 11 So Ebed-melech took the men with him and went to the house of the king, to a wardrobe in the storehouse, and took from there old rags and worn-out clothes, which he let down to Jeremiah in the cistern by ropes. 12 Then Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, “Put the rags and clothes between your armpits and the ropes.” Jeremiah did so. 13 Then they drew Jeremiah up with ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.

The thing that caught my eye was the name of the guy who got Jeremiah out of the cistern - Ebed-melech. In Hebrew, "ebed" (it's actually pronounced eved) means servant, and "melech" (pronounced melek) means king. So, what they call this guy in this passage is literally "servant of a king".

Now, although there's a possibility that this was indeed his real name, I personally kind of doubt it. I mean, for you parents out there, does "servant of a king" make it into your top 5 baby names? Didn't think so. So, although Ebed-melech is what the Bible calls this fellow, it probably wasn't what his buddies down at the synagogue called him.

Through this realization, the Lord really showed me something that I shared with my Hebrew class yesterday. In this passage, Ebed-melech is pretty much the sole reason that Jeremiah doesn't die in a pit, and we don't even know his real name - just his title and what he did for the Lord.

For us, it may often be the same way. We can minister to others and live our whole lives for the Lord, and many people will walk away only knowing us as "pastor of a church" or "director of an orphanage", "that nice person who shared Jesus with me" or "the person who fed me when I was hungry". There's a good chance they won't even remember our real names. However, like this passage in Jeremiah, what they will remember is what we did for the Lord in the position that we were in. That takes a lot of focus off of us and puts it back on the Lord, where it belongs.

There's also a little bit of poetic irony in Ebed-melech's name. You see, the king in "servant of a king" undoubtedly refers to Zedekiah, the guy who allowed Jeremiah to be thrown in the cistern. However, the king that Ebed-melech is really serving in this passage is the Eternal King. Regardless of the "title" that the world gives you, always remember who you really serve.