The Bible is filled with stories of people at their wits’ end who cried out to the Lord! He then heard and answered by delivering them. The Hebrew children enslaved in Egypt, their entrapment at the Red Sea by the Egyptian army, the three Hebrew men in the fiery furnace, Daniel in the lions’ den, Mary and Martha at the tomb of Lazarus, and so many others too numerous to mention describe that desperate times can be stepping stones of experiencing God’s miraculous intervention on our behalf.
One story that is not as well known is that of the prophet Jeremiah who spoke God’s words to the defiant Judean king, Zedekiah. The king was enraged and had Jeremiah cruelly beaten and thrown into a dungeon for speaking the truth. The Bible says he was there for a long time (Jeremiah 37:16). He was later released, but it wasn’t long before some other men became infuriated by Jeremiah’s boldness to speak God’s words to the people. These wicked men dumped him into a cistern of wet mud that he sank down into (Jeremiah 38:6). A pit! There was no way out for Jeremiah who described his agonizing experience in Lamentations 3:53-57: “They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off. I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.”
From up in Heaven, God heard Jeremiah’s cry of desperation from down in the pit! He came near and answered! Ebed-Melech, an African, who was an important government official, heard what had been done to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 38:7). God moved him to boldly go before the king and intercede on Jeremiah’s behalf. As a result, the king responded to Ebed-Melech’s plea by sending him along with thirty of the king’s men to pull Jeremiah out of the pit! The Bible describes details of the incredible deliverance! Ebed-Melech lowered down rags and cloths to put under Jeremiah’s arms, so when he was pulled up out of the sucking mud the ropes wouldn’t burn him. Jeremiah was not just pulled out of the pit, he was gently pulled to safety, then tended to and cared for in the courtyard of the guard (Jeremiah 38:11-13).
Are you at your wits’ end? Are you in the “pit” with no way out? Then take this thrilling story to heart as encouragement! Keep praying! God’s Word to Jeremiah and to us is: Pray but do not fear! No matter how desperate your situation is, God will hear your cry! And He will send help! One key to receiving a miracle is that He wants you and me to trust in Him completely! To put the full weight of our faith down on Him. In fact, that could be the reason He has allowed you to be at your wits’ end with no one else to turn to, but God!
It may be that you are not at your wits’ end, but someone you are concerned for is. Then could you be like Ebed-Melech? Go before the King of kings on their behalf! God may use you to respond to someone else’s prayers as He sends you, along with His Angelic Royal Guard, to pull your loved ones out of a pit!
Your prayers matter! For yourself and for others. Your prayers of desperate faith in God, and God alone, bring the power of Heaven down to hopeless situations. He is the God of the impossible! He can make a way when there is no way!! When you have God, you are never without hope! Even in a world that has gone mad, God is still on the throne. He still responds to prayers of desperation with all the power and might of Heaven! No one or nothing is out of His grasp! So… pray with all your heart! Don’t stay in your pit of despair, hopelessness, desperation, and ruin! God will make a way, and He uses our prayers to catapult His deliverance. Pray! Trust! And wait with expectancy for the God of the impossible to move!
