When you suffer for doing wrong, there is a sort of poetic justice. You are getting what you deserve. But when you suffer for doing right, that is extremely hard to take.
Jeremiah spoke what God told him to say. Powerful people did not like what Jeremiah spoke so they convinced the king to punish Jeremiah. He was thrown into a dungeon and sank in the mire. There was no food and no water.
Along comes Ebed-Melech. He was an Ethiopian and a eunuch in the king’s house. Ebed-Melech was a title that meant ‘servant of the king’. Evidently he occupied a place of respect in the mind of the king. Ebed-Melech went to the king and told him that it was wrong to leave Jeremiah in the dungeon. So the king agreed to let Jeremiah go. Now Ebed-Melech had free run of the king’s house including the treasury.
Jeremiah was a praying man. It is not recorded for us but you have to believe that he was praying for deliverance. “God get me out of here, please!” It is during those times that your mind begins to imagine how God will do it…a royal escort with brand new ladder and a royal robe and public apology!
Sometimes deliverance does not come the way we imagine. Just don’t lose sight of the fact that it is still deliverance and God can do it anyway that He wants to.
Ebed-Melech is an Ethiopian who is a eunuch and has free run of the house. He goes into the house of the king. He goes past the treasury where all the royal treasure is and bypasses that room. He goes under that room and finds old rags and old clothes. They let down a rope to Jeremiah and drop the rags and old clothes to him. He places the old rags and old clothes under his arms and the ropes go under his arms. He is lifted out. He is delivered from the dungeon.
God may not follow your blueprints but He will deliver you! Accept it and know that God knows best!