Dare to Be an Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian

Daily Scripture Threshing for Today, Monday, September 21, 2026

Today's Text: Jeremiah 38:1–13; 39:15–18

Key Verse: Jeremiah 39:18 (KJV) — "For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the LORD."

He was a foreigner in a doomed city — an Ethiopian eunuch serving a weak king in a dying kingdom. His name, Ebed-Melech, means "servant of the King," yet he served a God greater than the throne that employed him. While princes plotted and prophets languished, he saw what others refused to see and acted when others dared not move. Dare to be an Ebed-Melech: dare to serve God as a stranger in a strange land, to let your title as "servant of the King" define your actions, and to stand for God where no one expects you to stand.

He would not stay silent while justice bled. When the princes cast Jeremiah into the dungeon of Malchiah — a cistern with no water but deep mud — they left God's prophet to starve in filth. Ebed-Melech went straight to King Zedekiah and said, "My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon; and he is like to die for hunger in the place where he is" (Jeremiah 38:9). Dare to be an Ebed-Melech: speak truth to power when it costs you everything, refuse to watch injustice in silence, and risk your position to rescue a prophet others have abandoned.

He did not stop at complaint — he became the rescue. With the king's command, he took men with him, gathered old rags and worn clothes from the king's treasury, let them down by cords to Jeremiah, and lifted him from the mire (Jeremiah 38:11–13). He used what he had — old clothes, borrowed authority, and personal courage — to pull a man of God from a pit designed to destroy him. Dare to be an Ebed-Melech: let your compassion move from words to action, use whatever God has placed in your hands to rescue the forgotten, and pull the sinking prophet from the pit while others walk past.

Therefore when Jerusalem fell and the princes perished by the sword, God remembered the eunuch who trusted Him. The Lord spoke through Jeremiah: "I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me" (Jeremiah 39:18). Not by rank, not by nation, not by army — but by quiet trust and costly compassion, one Ethiopian stranger was spared when a kingdom collapsed. God is still searching for that kind of faith. Dare to stand, dare to rescue, dare to trust — what begins as your private courage to speak for the forgotten can deliver you when judgment falls.

Action Steps: Identify one person suffering injustice or abandonment whom others have walked past. Speak up for them today — to someone in authority, at whatever cost. Use whatever God has placed in your hands to pull them from their pit, and trust that the God who delivered Ebed-Melech will not forget your compassion.

Quote for the Day: "The God who rescues the forgotten also rescues those who rescue them; dare to be an Ebed-Melech." — (Simon Olatunji #quotablequotes)

Let Us Pray: Heavenly Father, like Ebed-Melech, I choose to trust You today — make me bold enough to speak for the forgotten and brave enough to rescue the abandoned. Give me a heart that cannot watch injustice in silence and hands that pull others from the pit. Let my compassion become my deliverance when judgment falls — in Jesus' most glorious name. Amen.

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Thank you for threshing the Word with me today. For further study on this topic, please read: Jeremiah 38:1–13; Jeremiah 39:15–18; Psalm 82:3–4; Proverbs 31:8–9; Isaiah 56:3–5; Matthew 25:35–40.

With all my love and prayers,

Simon Wale Olatunji, Ph.D.

Your Darling Bishop (DaBishop)

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