Alistar Begg
February 8, 2001
9:30 am
Ropes and Rags
Message Summary
Alistar Begg explained one of the roles of Ebed-Melech, in saving Jeremiah from a slow and painful death. The story in Jeremiah 38 told of the prophet Jeremiah who obeyed the Lord and delivered His message to the king of Babylon. His message brought accusations of spreading panic and being traitorous by the nobles and the people.
As a result, the king let the nobles throw Jeremiah into a cistern, which was a sort of well, where he would die slowly of starvation. In order to save him, God raised up Ebed-Melech, foreigner who worked for the king, to stand up to the king and have Jeremiah rescued. A major part of the rescue was that Ebed-Melech used ropes to pull Jeremiah out of the cistern. In order to be gracious and gentle to Jeremiah, he gave the prophet rags to pad the ropes that would lift him out by his arms.
Begg showed that this story from the Old Testament was a glimpse of the characteristics of Jesus Christ. He described four personality traits of Ebed-Melech: his boldness, his sense of moral outrage, his resourcefulness, and also his tenderness and compassion. What made Ebed-Melech outstanding, said Begg, was his rare combination of boldness to confront the king and also his gentleness in giving Jeremiah the rags for padding. Three observations or applications Begg gave from this passage were that there was a challenge to face, an example to follow, and glimpse for us to catch.
To conclude his sermon, Begg connected well-known songs, such as "Lean on Me" and "You've Got a Friend", and also hymns to this story. He sang simply and softly the words that everyone knew to make this story more real to the listeners.
Student Response
Listening to this message was a challenge for me to be bold and also compassionate. I can better represent Christ in whatever ministry I am involved in by being bold and doing what I know is right or saying what needs to be said. However, I must also be compassionate and loving in all that I do. In doing so, I can, as Begg put it, use the "ropes of truth with the rags of grace".
—Eric Beach, Sophomore, Communications major