“Go and tell Ebed-Melech the Cushite, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says: I am about to fulfill my words against this city through disaster, not prosperity. At that time they will be fulfilled before your eyes. But I will rescue you on that day, declares the Lord; you will not be handed over to those you fear.’” Jeremiah 39:16-17
In Jeremiah 38 we read of how Jeremiah was put in a cistern by the officials of Jerusalem and left to die, but then a man from Cush called Ebed-Melech went to King Zedekiah to plead for Jeremiah to be pulled out.
In the Bible, Cush refers to the present-day region of Ethiopia. This man, Ebed-Melech, was not an Israelite, although he was a palace official. He showed kindness to Jeremiah because he was the Lord’s prophet (Jer. 38:9). And because of this, the Lord promised to deliver him on the day that Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians.
Jesus gives us the same principle in Matt. 10:41-42, “Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is My disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.” In other words, there are rewards for us if we help someone, not because they need our help but because they are God’s servant. There will be a similar standard of judgement of the nations in the last days, for how they treated the people of Israel (see Matt. 25:31-46).
No comments:
Post a Comment