BibleProject | One Story That Leads to JesusSample

Babylon’s army tightens its grip on the Southern Kingdom, squeezing Jerusalem harder each day and increasing pressure on Jeremiah. In today’s reading, the prophet ends up beaten and imprisoned on spurious charges of treason for exposing the truth and saying things that made people uncomfortable.

Scrapes and shackles do not silence Jeremiah. He proclaims Yahweh’s word, even if no one around him wants to hear it: If you fight back against the Babylonians, you will die. But if you surrender, you will survive; in exile, yes, but with hope that your grandchildren might one day make it home.

It’s not a message that boosts morale among the troops defending Jerusalem, so the city’s incensed officials throw Jeremiah into a cistern. Fortunately, someone intervenes before the prophet starves to death in the muddy pit. Ebed-Melek isn’t a priest or a Levite, or even an Israelite. He’s a Cushite eunuch. This makes him both an ethnic outsider and a religious outsider. He’s the non-Israelite who acts like an Israelite is supposed to.

Ebed-Melek, the outsider, receives Yahweh’s protection when Jerusalem finally starts crumbling under Babylon’s pressure. The city’s walls crack, and enemy soldiers flood the streets. The royal palace goes up in flames. All but the poorest people in Judah trudge to Babylon in chains.

Jeremiah’s worst predictions have come true. What are Judah’s destitute survivors and their heartbroken prophet going to do now?

Reflection Questions

• Can you think of any other stories in the Bible where a religious and ethnic outsider showed life-saving compassion to an Israelite? (Try Joshua 2 or Luke 10:25-37 if you need a hint.) What do these stories reveal about the role of outsiders in God’s family?
• Where else have you seen one of Yahweh’s prophets receive bread each day during a food shortage? (Look to 1 Kings 17:1-6 for a hint.) What other parallels do you notice between these two stories?