Jeremiah 38:1-13
The princes are furious with Jeremiah whom they accuse of having a defeatist attitude. They obtain from the king the authorisation they require to throw him in the pit and leave him there to die. How great is the distress of the man of God in that vile and muddy pit. But he calls upon the LORD and receives this precious reply: "fear not" (read Lamentations 3:52-57). Rescue is near. God has prepared an instrument to carry it out: someone who was not even one of the people, a black servant in the court called Ebed-melech (he reminds us of the young man whom God used to rescue Paul: Acts 23:16). Zedekiah can be influenced for good as well as evil and allows himself to be swayed in his decision. We notice the difficult operation of getting Jeremiah out of the dark pit; this serves to underline Ebed-melech’s devotion.
Falsely accused, beaten and thrown into that terrible dungeon, Jeremiah here is a type of the Lord Jesus. The end of v. 6 reminds us of Psalms 69:2 : "I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing . . ." It is a picture of the suffering and death of Christ. And v. 13 can be compared with the beginning of Psalms 40:1-17 concerning His resurrection: "He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay . . ."