Stuck in a pit

 
     The Old Testament book of Jeremiah is one of my favorites. It is filled with some of the most comforting and encouraging verses in the Bible.  Just check these out:
"For I know the plans I have  for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11)
"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things" (Jeremiah 33:3)
"I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33b)
      In the years of reading Jeremiah, I feel like I have come to know him as a friend. I can identify with some of his feelings, his excitement, and his sorrows. Jeremiah is known as the "weeping prophet" because of his heart felt appeals to the people of his time to turn back to God, but overall they wouldn't listen to Jeremiah. In fact they even made fun of him, taunting him, mocking him, and eventually throwing him into a cistern.
     Ok, this is one point where I can't completely identify with my friend Jeremiah. I have never been thrown into a cistern. In fact, I have never seen a cistern like Jeremiah was thrown into. For us modern Western readers, the idea of a cistern may seem a bit foreign. A cistern is a large hole in the ground, lined with rocks to collect rain water. Since the people of Jeremiah' s day couldn't just run down to Ingle' s and buy a case of bottled water, the cisterns were critical to their daily lives. In this region, however, when rain was not frequent, the cisterns would be empty of water, but still muddy on the bottom due to the damp and moist conditions so far down.
     That is where our story picks up. Jeremiah had aggravated some important people with his talk of God wanting them to change their ways, so they took Jeremiah by force and threw him into an empty cistern. I can't even imagine what was going through Jeremiah' s mind as he slowly sank down in the mud. Alone. Dark. Cold. Laughter from the opening above from the ones who had tossed him in.
     But knowing a little about the attitude of my friend Jeremiah helps me think what he might have done. I doubt that he was yelling and cussing  at the ones who threw him in. In fact, I doubt he put up much of a struggle at all. I do believe, however, that he prayed. Conversations with God, even when stuck in a pit, would have been natural for Jeremiah. I doubt he complained, I doubt he blamed others for his situation, I doubt he had a pity-party. I just think he prayed.      
     And God answered his prayer. Not in the way I sometimes would like to envision. It would have been so dramatic if God had allowed Jeremiah to fly up out of that cistern. Or if an angel had descended from heaven with a loud trumpet blast and lifted Jeremiah right out. Or if a mighty earthquake shook the walls of the cistern and cracked the ground around those guys who threw him in and Jeremiah was miraculously standing in front if them. Yeah, that would have showed those guys who's Boss. That would have showed them not to mess with a prophet of the Lord.
      But that's not what happened. A man named Ebed-Melek came and threw a rope down to Jeremiah and pulled him out. Not nearly as dramatic, is it? But it clearly shows me the point that I think God wants to make, at least in my life.
     Sometimes people get in pits. Sometimes it's their own fault based on their actions and decisions. Sometimes it's just one of those things that happen that they didn't mean to happen. Or sometimes they are thrown in. Either way, it's not my role to figure out why they are stuck, it's my role to help them out. And it's yours to. Be an Ebed-Melek today. And allow God to use you to help someone out of the pit they are stuck in, regardless of how they got there.