We’re going to be taking a look at, we’re going to be starting out in 2 Chronicles, and then we’re going to go to Jeremiah in 2 Kings. If you want to turn with me to 2 Kings, we’re going to be looking at after the death of Josiah, and when his children came to reign. The two that we’re going to be looking briefly at this evening, when we get into today’s afternoon, as we do the study.
2 Kings 23:31-37
Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
32 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.
33 And Pharaohnechoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of an hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.
34 And Pharaohnechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there.
35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaohnechoh.
36 Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.
37 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.
Prayer:
I want to pray that you speak to your word this evening.
As we look to the king of Judah, and father of the descendants of Josiah, and yet father of these men who grew up under a godly father, became godly men. Lord help us to understand the importance of instilling in our children an understanding of your word, that they still need to make decisions for you, and not against you. Lord speak to us through your word this evening.
It’s interesting that as we look at this, Josiah had brought revival and restoration to the land of Judah. He had driven out all of the pagan worship, tore down everything that his grandfather Manasseh and his father Ammon had placed in the land. And instead had rebuilt and brought the temple back to what it needed to be.
Brought the priests back so that they were leading worship properly. And we saw two weeks ago that he had established that this Passover is recorded during the time of the kings, going all the way back to Solomon and David. And yet we see that God has no grandchildren.
Your children have to come to accept the Lord, and they have to walk with God themselves. And also we see that even though Josiah was a godly king and did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked after the ways of David, yet the whole nation very quickly turned against God. And I want us to take a look, as we look at these kings, to get a greater insight into what was happening.
If you will come with me to the book of Jeremiah. And I want us to begin at Jeremiah chapter 1. And you probably are going to be studying a little through Jeremiah in relationship to the kings at the time of the captivity of Babylon. Now Jeremiah, and we’ll just open to verse 1, because it tells us when Jeremiah was carrying out his prophetic ministry in the land of Judah.
Jeremiah 1:5
1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:
2 To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.
And so we see that Jeremiah’s main ministry began about halfway through Josiah’s kingship and it carried on through the captivity to Babylon under Josiah’s son. Now we’re going to read this evening that Jeremiah had an interesting commission from God. And let’s just read what that commission was.
Jeremiah 1:4-5
4 Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Those who would say that life doesn’t start until the viability of the baby, where the baby can live on its own without needing the mother, have not read God’s word.
And do not know that Jeremiah, when he was being formed in his mother’s womb, God knew who he was already. God knew what his character would be. And he knew what God was going to call him to do.
And so we need to understand the viability of life and the importance of life and we need to encourage people to understand life begins at the moment of conception. And God places the person that at that moment is going to be the same person that is born and is going to live throughout their life on this earth. They’re not going to all of a sudden miraculously change into something else like the lives of the world.
They’re not just a mass of cells, they are a viable person. And the scriptures reveal this when it comes to the call of Jeremiah. He was called from his mother’s womb.
Just the same thing as John the Baptist was called from Elizabeth’s womb. And even left in his mother’s womb when Mary came in and pronounced the fact that she was pregnant with the Lord Jesus. And so we see that they are real people.
It’s also interesting to study that they’ve done studies and babies in the womb can hear and respond to music and voice it. And they’ll learn their parents’ voices because they hear them. And there are people that really even begin to sing spiritual songs and hymns and read scripture and Bible accounts to their babies in their mother’s womb.
Because they can hear it. And although they may not remember, they are being instructed even as they’re maturing within the womb. What’s going on in verse 6? It says, Then said I, O Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child.
But the Lord said unto thee, Say not, I am a child, but also go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Now I want you to see an interesting thing about Jeremiah’s response. It’s a very similar response to what Moses gave when God called Moses.
They deny that they have the ability to do this. And what God has done is placed in their heart a heart of weakness, and a heart of humility, and a heart that looks to the Lord for strength and the ability to accomplish the goal and mission that God is putting before them. Jeremiah, at his first calling, understood he did not have the ability within himself to do what God was calling him to do.
And God had to remind him and tell him, You’re not the one that’s going to be doing it. I’m going to be speaking through you. I will place the Word in your lips.
And sometimes we can, in our minds, think, Oh, I can’t do this. I can’t share with somebody. I can’t stand up in this situation and speak for the Lord.
I can’t share the Gospel. I can’t do these things. No, in and of ourselves, we can’t.
God will move in through us. He will give us the power and the gifts and the abilities to do what he’s called us to do. That’s what he’s going to do with Jeremiah.
And his commission that he’s going to give him is a very interesting commission.
Jeremiah 1:8
8 Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.
He says, Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. He’s already telling him, You’re going to be met with rejection.
So don’t be afraid of their faces. One of the things that you need to understand is that we should not be afraid of the response of people towards us when we are doing what God has called us to do in God’s manner and in God’s time. And he’s telling Jeremiah, I’m calling you.
I’m going to place these words in your mouth. But their faces are going to tell you that they’re not listening. They’re not receiving.
They’re rejecting you and your message. But really what they’re rejecting is God. And he says, I’m with you.
I will strengthen you. I will be there. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth.
Jeremiah 1:9
9 Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.
10 See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.
How is he doing that? How is Jeremiah doing that? Well, he’s going to be prophesying about different things.
He’s going to be prophesying about Israel. And if you look up here at the map, this is a modern map, but it shows the areas that we’re concerned with. Jeremiah was in Israel, right here.
But he’s going to be dealing with the nation of Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, which is going to be coming from all the way to Iraq, and be from Iran and over in here. And they are going to be coming all the way and coming in against Israel. And prior to them, the Assyrian empire was up here, and the Egyptian empire was down here where Egypt is today.
And those two were going to join together to fight Assyria. And they had done that during the time of Josiah, and they were going to continue to do it during the time of Josiah’s first son that reigned. And they were going to be coming through here, but Babylon was going to be defeating them.
And it would result in Babylon becoming the power in the Middle East. Babylon would be coming out of what is Iran today and Iraq. And that would be where Babylon would be coming from.
He goes on and he says, Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen, for I will hasten my word to perform it. And he said, I see a rod of an almond tree.
The almond would be a treasure to Jeremiah. It was that that he would hasten and to do will. And that he would be one that would be a blessing.
And the almond tree was an indication of that. It was a blessing. But the thing is, he also sees in the second vision.
And he says, And then the word of the Lord came unto me the second time saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot, and the face thereof is toward the north. And then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. And so he’s telling him, this is what’s going to happen.
During your lifetime and during your ministry, out of the north, and that would be Israel’s over here. And out of the north up here in Iran, is going to come a seething pot. And that’s going to be the land of Babylon.
And they’re going to come against the whole land. And there was a Nebuchadnezzar that would come against Israel and carry the people away into captivity from the land of Judah. Remember, a lot of the people in the northern ten tribes had been taken away by the Assyrians.
There had been a remnant that remained in the northern portion of Israel. And in Judah, those people had remained throughout the Assyrian attack. And now Babylon would be the seething pot that would come from the north and would come against not only Judah, but all the remnants that were still left in Israel.
And it would take them away. And we’re going to see that as he prophesies throughout his book, he’s dealing with these kings that we’ve been studying with Josiah. And now it’s Josiah’s son.
Jeremiah 1:15
15 For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.
And he said, in America, we don’t have a concept of this. The people that Jeremiah is writing to would understand immediately what he’s speaking about. When he says he’s coming against the gates of the cities, the gates of the cities were where you entered the city, of course.
But it’s also where all the political decisions were made. It was where the power structure was. Those that ruled the city ruled from the gates of the cities.
You remember during the time of David when you were studying there when Absalom was trying to usurp David’s throne, David was not going down to the gates of the city and judging the people. And Absalom went in his stead and began to turn the people’s hearts against David as he judged in the gates of the city. The gates of the cities are an important part of city life.
And they were going to come against the gates of the cities. Not only were they going to attack the gates and tear them down and break into the cities, but they were going to destroy the political structure and the ability of those cities to function and rule themselves. The second thing is to see walls of the cities.
The cities at this time had walls. It wasn’t until during the Roman era when they would come that really the walled cities just began to disappear. Because the Romans really brought a culture.
They controlled the Romans when they came to power. They controlled all of this area. They controlled up into Europe.
They also had established a culture where the people did not revolt against Rome. And Rome had a structure, as we saw in Sinai, where they had governors and those that would rule the various areas of their empire. So they had a uniform rule, a uniform military structure.
And there was a peace that hadn’t existed before. Cities would fight against cities and countries against cities. And they would come against cities and there would be individual cities that would have to be conquered.
For example, remember when the Assyrians first came against Hezekiah, they talked about the fact that they took the outlaying cities and they came against them and defeated them and defeated their walls and their structures. Hezekiah had gone out and fortified those cities, but the Assyrians came down and began to defeat them. And then they kicked out to Jerusalem and that’s when God intervened and defeated the Assyrians on behalf of Hezekiah, as Hezekiah prayed.
But we see here that there’s going to come this boiling pot out of the north that’s going to come against the cities and the city gates and it’s going to destroy them and take them captive and take away their power and their ability to rule and function and have their ability to live independently. And I will utter my judgments against them, catching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me and have burned incense unto other gods and worship the works of their own hands. Thou therefore gird up thy lines and arise and speak unto them all that I command thee.
Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. And so God’s telling him, don’t lack courage, but stand against them and don’t be confounded. Don’t confuse your message because you’re seeing the rejection that they’re bringing.
Because if you do, I will confound you. You’ll be confused. Instead, stand against it in my power and my strength.
Jeremiah 1:18
18 For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.
In other words, they would not be able to attack him and get at him and destroy him and silence his message. And an iron pillar. Iron was something that was highly prized and treasured at this particular time.
Not a lot of cultures had a lot of iron. It was a strong material. And the Lord is saying, I’m going to make you like an iron pillar.
You can take and you can burn a wooden pillar. You can take it and destroy it easy. But an iron pillar was indestructible.
And so he said, I’m going to make you an iron pillar and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. So, Jeremiah was called to this mission, and he’s going to be coming against the whole power structure of Israel. He’s going to be coming against the kings, the priests are going to come against the political power, the religious power.
He’s going to be coming against the structure of both of those, as well as all the people. Because the people had been greatly influenced already during the time of Josiah’s second reign to go back to the way Manasseh had reigned and the way that Abner had reigned, and to abandon Josiah’s bringing the truth to the land. And so Jeremiah is going to be a defense walled city with an iron pillar that cannot be destroyed.
And you see here that the Lord is going to use him to come against this whole hill, and he’s going to be one man doing it. He’s going to be one prophet. And as you get into the study of Jeremiah, you will see that this is exactly what the case is.
A lot of times he is the only one that is saying the truth. And oftentimes those that would side with him are taken out of the way by the others. But Jeremiah remains a defense strong walled city with an iron pillar and comes against them.
And they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee. So I want you to understand that what we’re looking at here is what’s coming out of Josiah’s reign. The sons are taking over.
They are totally corrupting the people, the culture. They’re corrupting the worship. Everything that Josiah put in place, they destroy.
And it’s in a very short period of time. We saw that in our own country. We saw how quickly when evil people come to power, how quickly they can change a whole direction of a nation.
And the whole political and religious structure that’s being promoted. And how quickly many people will fall in line with the lies that they’re promoting. That’s all going to happen in the nation of Judah and in the remnant of Israel under the sons of Josiah.
And it breaks one’s heart when you see the love Josiah had for the Lord and how wicked his sons became. But it wasn’t just for his sons’ wickedness that God is judging. It goes all the way back to Manasseh.
And Manasseh, as when we studied him, if you remember Manasseh at the end of his life, repented that the damage had been done. He had established the worst occultic worship that Israel would ever experience. And he had gone from Baal to Astaroth to Molech.
From worshiping the pagan gods that really just promote the pagan philosophies to the sexual perversion and the destruction of God’s intent for marriage and the family to ultimately a culture of death. And he had taken the whole nation of Israel down that whole spiral during his reign. And God said, I’m going to remember you have caused all of this death, all this blood that was shed in Israel.
And it’s going to be judged. Because the people followed. They didn’t stand against you.
And his judgment is coming because of what Manasseh did. His son Josiah, the judgment did not come because Josiah’s heart was for God. And God said, I will not bring it during Josiah’s life, but it’s coming.
And he also knew the hearts of his son, our wicked David. And Jeremiah, this one young prophet, gets called to stand against the nation. A political system, a religious system, and a people that love all that they’re embracing in the false teachings and the lies and the false gods that they’re promoting.
There’s a direct connection and you’re not going to be able to understand Jehoiakim and Jehoiakim and all that transpires and during their lifetimes and their rules without seeing what God is doing to Jeremiah.