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Prophets and Kings
The wrath of the prophet was aroused, and he was inspired to
pronounce judgment upon the faithless ruler. “Woe unto him that
buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong,”
he declared; “that useth his neighbor’s service without wages, and
giveth him not for his work.... Shalt thou reign, because thou closest
thyself in cedar? Did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment
and justice, and then it was well with him? He judged the cause of
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the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know
Me? saith the Lord. But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy
covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and
for violence, to do it.
“Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of
Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my
brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord!
or, Ah his glory! He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn
and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.”
Verses 13-19
.
Within a few years this terrible judgment was to be visited upon
Jehoiakim; but first the Lord in mercy informed the impenitent nation
of His set purpose. In the fourth year of Jehoiakim’s reign “Jeremiah
the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants
of Jerusalem,” pointing out that for over a score of years, “from the
thirteenth year of Josiah, ... even unto this day,” he had borne witness
of God’s desire to save, but that His messages had been despised.
Jeremiah 25:2, 3
. And now the word of the Lord to them was:
“Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Because ye have not heard My
words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith
the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and
will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof,
and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy
them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual
desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and
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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 candle. And
this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these
nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”
Verses 8-11
.
Although the sentence of doom had been clearly pronounced, its
awful import could scarcely be understood by the multitudes who
heard. That deeper impressions might be made, the Lord sought to