THE COVETOUS KING – Jeremiah 22:13-19

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on December 4, 2011 under 2011 |

Preached December 4, 2011
from
Jeremiah 22:13-19

Theme: God’s verdict on the life of King Jehoiakim teaches us to seek His kingdom above all, with the confidence that He will be our Provider.

(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

Personally, I believe that out of all the prophets of the Old Testament times that God called to ministry, Jeremiah had the most difficult call of them all.

Jeremiah, God’s faithful spokesman to His covenant people, was called to proclaim a message that they did not want to hear. For twenty-three years, he was ordered to tell his Jewish kinsmen to repent of their rebellious spirit, to turn away from their idolatry and sinful life-style practices, and to return to a faithful obedience to God and His word. It was a message that was hated by the people for whom it was intended. And because of his obedience to God’s call on his life, Jeremiah suffered rejection, ridicule, persecution, threats of violence, and even imprisonment.

And then, in the twenty-third year of Jeremiah’s ministry, the message that God gave to him changed from a merciful call to repentance into a stern promise of judgment. Jeremiah 25:1-11 says;

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: “From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, this is the twenty-third year in which the word of the LORD has come to me; and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not listened. And the LORD has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, ‘Repent now everyone of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.’ Yet you have not listened to Me,” says the LORD, “that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.

“Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Because you have not heard My words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ says the LORD, ‘and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years” (Jeremiah 25:1-11).

What a message! And if you think Jeremiah suffered before that message began to be given, you ought to read all that happened to him afterwards! (I have opportunity occasionally to speak to preaching students at the seminary. And I sometimes tell them, “Before you decide that you want to be a preacher of God’s word, you’d better give the Book of Jeremiah a prayerful reading first—and make absolutely sure before God that you are prepared to pay the price!”)

As it says at the beginning of that new message from God, Jeremiah began to preach it during the fourth year of the reign of King Jehoiakim. And it’s the life-story of this particular king that we began studying last week.

Jehoiakim was a wicked man who was in continual rebellion against God and His word. As we saw last week, he actually cut-up pieces of God’s written word through Jeremiah as it was being read to him, and arrogantly threw the fragments into the fire (see Jeremiah 36:23). He was not at all like his godly father Josiah—a king who trembled at the reading of God’s word, and who sought diligently to lead his people to obey it. Quite the contrary; Jehoiakim was a prideful king who was not afraid of God. He held God’s word in complete contempt, and would not heed its warnings.

As a result, Jehoiakim was a king who brought the dreadful judgment of God down upon himself and his people.

* * * * * * * * * *

God has much to tell us in His word about this man Jehoiakim. And since we’ve already seen what it was that he hated—that is, God’s word—I ask that we take a look at a few other passages of Scripture and learn a lesson from what he loved instead.

First, turn with me to Jeremiah 22. That’s a section of Scripture in which God gives us His evaluation of several of the kings that reigned during Jeremiah’s time. In verses 13-14, we read these words from God:

“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by injustice, who uses his neighbor’s service without wages and gives him nothing for his work, who says, ‘I will build myself a wide house with spacious chambers, and cut out windows for it, paneling it with cedar and painting it with vermilion’” (Jeremiah 22:13-14).

This is describing God’s condemnation upon someone who abuses and oppresses others in order to advance a life of luxury for himself. When I read this passage, I can’t help thinking about how, in our day, large groups of people are taking to the streets and protesting this very kind of injustice. Sometimes they protest accurately and justly; sometimes they do so in a misguided and unjust way. But I believe all of us would have to say ‘Amen’ to what God says here. God does not necessarily oppose someone for building a prosperous place for themselves in life. But He does most definitely speak “Woe” those who ‘build their house by unrighteousness and their chambers by injustice’. These words from Jeremiah remind me of what it also says in James 5:1-6;

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you (James 5:1-6).

James’ words of “Come now . . .” to the unjust rich sound very much like Jeremiah’s words of “Woe . . .” to the one who “builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by injustice”. But did you know that those words of ‘woe’ that God gave through Jeremiah were spoken specifically with respect to one person? If you’ll look down to verse 18, you’ll see that these are words that the Lord spoke “concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah”. And this gives us an insight into what it was that he ‘loved’ instead of God and His word. He loved his own comfort and luxury. He loved it so much that he oppressed his people in order to obtain it. He even thought that a life of luxury would bring him protection from the promised judgment of God; because as God asks him in verse 15, “Shall you reign because you enclose yourself in cedar?”

Jehoiakim’s life of covetousness and greed teaches us a lesson that we all need to hear—whether we are poor in this world’s goods, or are blessed with an abundance. It’s the lesson that the Lord Jesus emphasized to us in His Sermon on The Mount: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” If we give God and His kingdom first place in our lives, not only will we learn to act with justice and righteousness toward others out of a reverent fear of Him, but He Himself will make sure that we have everything we need.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; please keep your finger in Jeremiah 22, but turn with me a little further back in your Bible to 2 Kings 23. Let’s look a little closer at what it tells us there of the history of King Jehoiakim; and let’s see how this lesson played out in his life.

Jehoiakim, you’ll remember, was one of the sons of godly King Josiah. Josiah died in battle against the king of Egypt, Pharaoh Necho. The people put Josiah’s youngest son Jehoahaz on the throne; but he only reigned for three months. As 2 Kings 23:34 tells us;

Then Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Pharaoh took Jehoahaz and went to Egypt, and he died there (2 Kings 23:34).

And then, looking a few verses ahead, we can see something of the character of this Jehoiakim that the king of Egypt placed on the throne of Judah. Verses 36-37 tell us,

Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebudah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done (vv. 36-37).

This means that Jehoiakim rejected the path of his godly father Josiah. Instead, he followed in the wicked paths of his grandfather Amon and his great-grandfather Mannasseh. In fact, we might say that the ‘chickens’ of Jehoiakim’s great-grandfather finally ‘came to roost’ in his reign. It was during Jehoiakim’s reign that the Babylonians finally came down upon his people. As 2 Kings 24:3-4 tell us;

Surely at the commandment of the LORD this came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also because of the innocent blood that he had shed; for he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the LORD would not pardon (2 Kings 24:3-4).

And I hope you don’t mind if I pause at this point to draw out an important lesson from this. King Manasseh was a profoundly wicked and evil man; but his sins didn’t just affect him. The impact of his sins spanned the generations and were finally visited upon Jehoiakim three generations later. As God told us in the second commandment—way back in Exodus 20:5; “For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me . . .” This was literally realized in the life of King Jehoiakim because he imitated the legacy that his great-grandfather had left for him.

We, of course, are not responsible for the sins of our predecessors. But we must not go to the other extreme and think that the consequences of our sinful choices today fall on us alone! We must repent of our sins and walk faithfully before God—not only for our own sakes, but also for the sakes of our children, and our grandchildren, and even our great-grandchildren! May God help us to leave them a legacy of faithfulness to Him!

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; at the beginning of Jehoiakim’s story, he was a vassal to King Necho of Egypt. It would appear that Necho imposed the same tribute upon Jehoiakim as he imposed upon his deposed brother Jehoahaz—one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. And here’s were we begin to see something of Jehoiakim’s oppressive greed. As 2 Kings 23:35 tells us;

So Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give money according to the command of Pharaoh; he exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, from every one according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Necho (2 Kings 23:35).

The law that God gave through Moses permitted a tax from the people for the support of the temple. But God made no provision for the king to tax his people in order to pay-off a foreign king. And we already know that—the whole while—King Jehoiakim was using his own wealth to beautify his luxurious palace and to insulate himself in a prosperous lifestyle. He did not humble himself in dependency upon God, nor did he fear the warnings that God gave to him through Jeremiah. Just as he despised God’s warnings by cutting-up God’s word and throwing it into the fire, he also further despised them by surrounding himself with a life of luxury as if he would live forever.

But the day finally came in which God began to take all his luxury and prosperity away from him. The first verse of chapter 24 tells us,

In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him (2 Kings 24:1).

The warning from God was becoming clearer and clearer. The Egyptians were fading further and further into the background, and the Babylonians were drawing closer and closer into the foreground; and Jehoiakim became the vassal of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and began to pay tribute to him.

And after three years of this, Jehoiakim rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. Why it was that he rebelled we’re not told. We know that he was an evil man toward God—and that the ancient historian Josephus wrote that he was neither “religious toward God, or good natured toward men”.¹ In any case, it was God Himself who brought judgment upon him. In verse two, we read,

And the LORD sent against him raiding bands of Chaldeans, bands of Syrians, bands of Moabites, and bands of the people of Ammon; He sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD which He had spoken by His servants the prophets (v. 2).

He may have paid tribute to the king of Egypt, but that king could no longer help him. As verse 7 tells us,

And the king of Egypt did not come out of his land anymore, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the Brook of Egypt to the River Euphrates (v. 7).

Historically, what was it that happened to Jehoiakim? 2 Chronicles 36:6-7 tells us this:

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against him, and bound him in bronze fetters to carry him off to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar also carried off some of the articles from the house of the LORD to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:6-7).

So much for his life of luxury. But turn back now with me to Jeremiah 22 and read God’s final verdict concerning him. In verses 15-19, God—speaking through Jeremiah—says to Jehoiakim;

“Shall you reign because you enclose yourself in cedar?” (v. 15a).

Clearly not! Jehoiakim trusted in prosperity and oppression rather than in God; but his prosperity and oppression couldn’t keep him on the throne. The God he had despised and rejected saw to that! And note how God points his attention back to his godly father Josiah;

“Did not your father eat and drink,

And do justice and righteousness?

Then it was well with him.

He judged the cause of the poor and needy;

Then it was well” (v. 15b-16a).

Josiah didn’t oppress the people. He didn’t seek to advance his own comfort and luxury in the face of coming judgment. He ruled with justice and righteousness. He judge the cause of the poor and the needy. And in all of it, God provided for him. He ate and drank in peace; and it was well with him. And as it says at the end of verse 16,

“Was not this knowing Me?” says the LORD (v. 16b).

To do righteousness and justice, and to rely on God for His provision while doing so, is to know God as both the gracious Provider and the just Defender of those who trust Him. That’s the way it was with Josiah; and that’s why God blessed him. But it was not so with Jehoiakim.

“Yet your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your covetousness,

For shedding innocent blood,

And practicing oppression and violence.”

Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:

“They shall not lament for him,

Saying, ‘Alas, my brother!’ or ‘Alas, my sister!’

They shall not lament for him,

Saying, ‘Alas, master!’ or ‘Alas, his glory!’

He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey,

Dragged and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem” (vv. 17-19).

* * * * * * * * * *

So ended the story of Jehoiakim. Far from living the life of luxury that he sought, he was buried with the burial of a donkey—just dragged off to the garbage heap and left to rot. How horrible! But this was because he trusted in that oppression instead of in God; and loved prosperity instead of God’s word. By despising God’s warning, he—as James said—he ‘fattened his heart in a day of slaughter’. He got exactly what he bargained for.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; this is not a warning just for kings. It’s a warning for you and me. We must remember that, in the challenges and trials of life, we must seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness first—and know that, as our Lord promised, everything else will be provided to us by Him. May we remember this, and live to affirm what it says in Psalm 33:16-22; that . . .

No king is saved by the multitude of an army;

A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.

A horse is a vain hope for safety;

Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.

Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him,

On those who hope in His mercy,

To deliver their soul from death,

And to keep them alive in famine.

Our soul waits for the LORD;

He is our help and our shield.

For our heart shall rejoice in Him,

Because we have trusted in His holy name.

Let Your mercy, O LORD, be upon us,

Just as we hope in You (Psalm 33:16-22).

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¹Antiquities of the Jews, 10.5.2.