Day One Hundred Sixty-Eight “The Obscure”
With years of classroom experience in my quiver, I have learned some important lessons, but none as important. or as unfortunate, as this. The problem invades every classroom, every age group, is found in public schools and private schools, both are equal opportunity offenders. And in spite of a teacher’s heart-felt effort to alleviate the problem, the effort expended is never totally successful. I am speaking of that obscure student, the secluded one, not prominent, but hidden in the shadows, the one not clearly understood, overlooked, quiet, different. Classrooms tend to be steeped in clicks and popularity contests at times, and some children, unfortunately, never seem to fit in, to find their niche. They are the loners on the playgrounds, the sit-alones on the bus and at the lunch table, those quiet kids chosen last when assembling teams.
Meet Ebed-melech, a brilliant Bible character often overlooked, unmentioned, in the shadows of history. He was not of the chosen tribes of Israel, but a little-known Ethiopian eunuch serving in the palace of Zedekiah, king of Judah. His name interpreted merely meant servant/slave to the king, so in a sense, he was an obscure man, just one of the servants eking out a living by performing his duties day after day. But this hidden gem, in a time of great national apostasy and falling away, found faith in the Jehovah God of Israel, believing the words of the prophet Jeremiah as judgment was falling upon God’s people. And it was Ebed-melech who stepped out in that faith, personally beseeching and persuading the king to rescue Jeremiah when the suffering prophet was thrown into a deep cistern and left to die. Although this Ethiopian was an alien and stranger to the covenant God of Israel, he exemplified the faith that God’s children should have had, but didn’t possess. And his faith was rewarded, for when Jeremiah’s prophesied disaster came upon the city of Jerusalem, Ebed-melech would be spared; he would witness firsthand the grace and power of a loving God. He may have been considered a nobody, but his was a somebody in God’s economy.
Centuries later, God would send a New Testament preacher, Phillip, on a well-planned detour to meet another Ethiopian eunuch, a man “of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians.” This unnamed man was desperately seeking for God, so Philip “opened his mouth…and preached unto him Jesus,” and this seeking man believed “that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” We don’t even know his name, but God does!
No one is unknown or obscure to God, NO ONE! There are no outcasts, no nonredeemable, no one beyond His reach. He seeks and saves regardless of social status, financial prowess, physical appearance, obvious handicaps, or position in life, “For there is no respect of persons with God.” Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me! What an awesome, merciful, loving, kind God we serve!
Luke 19:10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Lord, thank You that there are no outcasts in Your economy. Thank You for saving me.
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