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Judah’s Amazing Stubbornness
195
Taking another scroll, Baruch wrote on it “all the words of the
book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And
besides, there were added to them many similar words.”
Verse 32
.
Jehoiakim’s very attempt to limit the prophet’s influence gave further
opportunity for making the divine requirements plain.
The spirit that led to the persecution of Jeremiah exists today.
Many refuse to heed warnings, preferring to listen to false teachers
who flatter their vanity and overlook their evil-doing. In the day of
trouble such people will have no sure refuge. God’s chosen servants
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should courageously meet the sufferings that come to them through
accusation, neglect, and misrepresentation. They should discharge
faithfully the work God has given them, ever remembering that the
prophets, the Savior, and His apostles also endured persecution for
the Word’s sake.
It was God’s intention for Jehoiakim to obey the counsels of
Jeremiah and so win favor with Nebuchadnezzar and save himself
much sorrow. The young king had sworn allegiance to the Baby-
lonian ruler, and if he had remained true to his promise he would
have won the respect of the heathen. But Judah’s king willfully vio-
lated his word of honor and rebelled. This brought bands of raiders
against him. Within a few years he closed his disastrous reign in
disgrace, rejected by Heaven, unloved by his people, and despised
by the rulers of Babylon, whose confidence he had betrayed.
Jehoiachin [also known as Jeconiah, and Coniah], the son of
Jehoiakim, occupied the throne only three months and ten days
when he surrendered to the Chaldean armies that were once more
surrounding the doomed city. Nebuchadnezzar “carried away Je-
hoiachin captive to Babylon. The king’s mother, the king’s wives,
his officers, and the mighty of the land,” several thousand in number,
were also taken, together with “craftsmen and smiths, one thousand,”
and “all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of
the king’s house.”
2 Kings 24:15, 16, 13
.
The kingdom of Judah, broken in power and robbed of its
strength, was nevertheless still permitted to exist as a separate gov-
ernment. At its head Nebuchadnezzar placed Mattaniah, a younger
son of Josiah, and changed his name to Zedekiah.
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