Who Responds to First Responders? Jeremiah 38,39

When the worse happens—fires, car accidents, collapsed buildings—those who respond first to give aid can be the difference between life and death. We call them first responders. We honor their efforts. They deserve the right response. A small child, unnamed but not unnoticed, felt the right response was to leave a handwritten note of thanks to the hundreds of first responders who have withstood wind, lightning and heat on 12-hour shifts to search for the victims of the Surfside Florida building collapse. Omar Blanco, a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue captain, was sifting through a mountain of rubble when a handwritten card on colorful construction paper was unearthed. “It stopped me in my tracks. It simply said,

‘Thank you for what you’re doing.’”

God, too, has a response to first responders found in Jeremiah, chapters 38 and 39. It gives us pause to broaden our perspective on who can come to the rescue of someone in dire circumstances, and how God will respond to His squad of the Kingdom.

First, anyone can be a first responder who is a servant of the King. Ebed-Melech was. In fact, his name means slave of the king. However, this Ethiopian eunuch was more than a servant of Zedekiah, the king of Judah. He was a servant of the Lord. Here is the backdrop: Jeremiah had been thrown into prison—a cistern full of mud—by his wicked enemies who did not like his prophecy that Judah would be exiled to Babylon by God for their apostacy. Who comes to the aid of the man of God—a lowly servant with a Godly perspective? He heard of the plight of Jeremiah and went to King Zedekiah on the behalf of the prophet. The king put Ebed-Melech in charge of thirty men to stage a rescue.

So Ebed-Melech took the men under his authority and went into the king's palace to a place beneath the storeroom and took from there worn-out clothes and worn-out rags and let them down by ropes into the cistern to Jeremiah. 12 Then Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian, said to Jeremiah, "Now put these worn-out clothes and rags under your armpits under the ropes"; and Jeremiah did so. Jeremiah 38:11-12

Here are some application principles we can glean from Ebed-Melech—the first responder:

1. First responders of the Kingdom have a sensibility to what is the right thing to do to promote the King of Kings agenda. If it doesn’t feel right, it ain’t right. Do something about it.

2. First responders of the Kingdom don’t have to be high ranking in society, just high minded in purpose. Ebed-Melech was a man of color and a eunuch. Don’t be surprised who’s at the end of your rescue rope. It doesn’t matter.

3. First responders of the Kingdom aren’t afraid to enlist the help of the world for the resources necessary to rescue victims of calamity and injustice.

Second, trust in God is the essential qualification for a Kingdom first responder, knowing that God will also rescue His rescuers. True to Jeremiah’s prophecy that exile was coming, Judah was invaded and burned. Most of the inhabitants were shipped off. A remnant of the poor Judeans was left as custodians of the land. What would happen to first responder Ebed-Melech? Enter God—"the first and last and is to come” first responder:

16 "Go and speak to Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Behold, I am about to bring My words on this city for disaster and not for prosperity; and they will take place before you on that day. 17 "But I will deliver you on that day," declares the LORD, "and you shall not be given into the hand of the men whom you dread. 18 "For I will certainly rescue you, and you will not fall by the sword; but you will have your own life as booty, because you have trusted in Me," declares the LORD.'" Jeremiah 39:16-18

The application principle is simply this: when you trust God and serve as His first responder, to come to aid of His Kingdom’s kids and agenda, you will also be rescued, as well, when tragedy lands you in a pit.

A heat-felt, handwritten thank you would be nice. Responding when it’s your time to serve the Kingdom would be fitting as well.