Are you at a low point? I know that crosses when they come can be hard. I don’t know what your crosses may be. I do know that you can carry them. When you say it’s heavy, I know that it’s not because God has promised to give you just the right amount of weight so that you are not crushed. His cross is designed to drive you back to him. It may be that you will carry your cross because God will send someone to help you? Maybe not. Ebed Melech was sent to help Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s cross would’ve been too much to bear so Ebed Melech went to the king and risked his own life – “My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have thrown him into a cistern, where he will starve to death when there is no longer any bread in the city.” Ebed Melech is Hebrew for servant of the King. He was a Cushite – an Egyptian or someone living in northern Africa. We don’t know his real name, but we know that God used Jeremiah’s cross to draw Ebed Melech’s faith into a blaze so that he stood up to these Godless Jews.
Jeremiah made it out of the cistern but his cross bearing days weren’t over. What could be worse for a prophet of God than to have to tell your people, give up, God has forsaken you? Watching it happen. Jerusalem was destroyed. Jeremiah sat in its ashes and penned Lamentations – found just a few pages later in your Bible. Yet it is there when you might expect Jeremiah to be a broken man – a failure in so many ways say, Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. – Lamentations 3:22-23.
Want to hear more? Watch this week’s message taken from Jeremiah 38.
Book(s): Jeremiah
Tag(s): Cross Bearing
Speaker(s): Fred Guldberg