God is resolute in His promise of reciprocity: mercy is returned to the merciful. Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian eunuch, a nameless, powerless foreigner, overcomes his fear and risks his life to speak up for Jeremiah and rescue him from the miry pit. His trust in God that Jeremiah is a true prophet empowers him. God, who shows no partiality, answers in kind with a firm promise that he will not fall to the princes he fears, and that his life will be as a prize to him (Jeremiah 39:17-18). This fulfills Christ's word that whoever receives a prophet in the name of a prophet receives a prophet's reward, and that even a cup of cold water given in a disciple's name will not lose its reward (Matthew 10:41-42). Solomon says the same with a different image: "Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days" (Ecclesiastes 11:1). The principle also works in reverse. Zedekiah, ruled by fear for his own safety, refuses to obey God's word through Jeremiah and so loses his sons, his sight, his freedom, and his city. This illustrates Matthew 16:25: the one who clings to his life loses it, while the one who risks it for God's sake finds it.