WWUTT 2449 This House Shall Become a Desolation (Jeremiah 22:1-30)

The kings of Judah were warned, if you walk in the ways of God, then the only people that will come through your gates are righteous kings. But if you go away from the ways of God, then God is going to bring evil against you to conquer you, when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Judah’s Kings Must Walk in the Ways of David

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Jeremiah, we are up to chapter 22, where Jeremiah is going to confront the kings of Judah and tell them to repent and walk in the way of their father David.

If they do righteously, as God has instructed them to do, then they will actually prevent the exile from happening. But if they don't walk in the ways of their father David, then the exile will be inevitable.

God will drive them out of the land, into the hands of the Babylonians, and there will not be on the throne of David a successor. So how is it then that God would be faithful to his promise to David, to that covenant that he made with David, that he would always have a successor on the throne, and he would establish his kingdom forever?

Well, we'll get to that when we arrive at the end of the chapter. Let me begin reading verses 1 -10. Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord, Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates.

Thus says the Lord, Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed, and do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.

For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings, who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people.

But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah, You are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon, yet surely I will make you a desert, an uninhabited city.

I will prepare destroyers against you, each with his weapons, and they shall cut down your choices cedars, and cast them into the fire. And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, Why has the Lord dealt thus with this great city?

And they will answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them. Weep not for him who is dead, nor grieve for him, but weep bitterly for him who goes away, for he shall return no more to see his native land.

And we'll stop there. That's just a third of the chapter. We have 30 verses that we're looking at here, and we'll try to get all the way through this. But again, this is Jeremiah going to the people, and he is delivering to them the word that God has given to him.

Remember that we had a section where Jeremiah had spoken to his people. They persecuted him. The elders of Jerusalem had persecuted him, and he got angry at God, thinking that God had deceived him. But Jeremiah quickly changed his tune and realized that it was in the hearts of these stubborn people to rebel against the word of God.

They hated Jeremiah because they hated the Lord. They were not worshipping Yahweh. They had gone after the false gods of the pagans around them. They didn't do as God had told Israel to do when they came into the promised land.

Tear down all those altars. Tear down all their high places and their Asherah poles so that you would not be tempted to follow after their gods and walk in the ways of these pagans. And Israel didn't do that, and over time, here's where they have come.

Not even honoring Yahweh, but worshipping these false gods because these gods, which of course are after the image of man, they give them all the stuff that man wants. They go after those gods because they let me have all the passions of my flesh.

So they behave as the pagans, not just worshipping their gods. And so this word has now come down to them from the Lord. This is now Jeremiah going to the kings themselves, the kings of Judah, and saying to them, here is what God has promised.

Here's the judgment that he's going to bring upon you. Now, when Isaiah was a prophet in Israel, he prophesied to the kings of Judah, but also to Israel, so the northern kingdom. Now, the northern kingdom is already gone.

So at this time, Jeremiah is testifying to the kings of Judah. And here at the end, right before the Babylonian captivity, you have a series of kings that comes along pretty quickly. And I'll kind of lay that out here after we get through verse 10.

So there are several kings in a short succession right before Nebuchadnezzar comes in and takes the city. So Jeremiah is addressing more than just one king here. We'll come down to several who will hear this word.

So beginning in verse 1, thus says the Lord, go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David.

So remember, there were kings of Israel, the northern ten tribes, and there were kings of Judah, which was the southern kingdom consisting of Judah and Benjamin. And the kings of Judah sat on the throne of David.

The kings of Israel, yeah, different sort of throne. It wasn't equated with the throne of David. And all of the kings of Israel were evil. They were all wicked. There was 20 of them. They all did or walked in the way of Jeroboam.

That's what it was said of them when these kings would do wickedly, when they would rebel against God and go after the false gods. It would be said of them that they did as Jeroboam had done. It would erected even golden calves in Israel for the people to worship.

So the kings of Judah, there were 20 of them, 12 were wicked, 8 of them were righteous. And when it says of those 8 kings that they ruled righteously, it would say that they walked in the ways of their father David.

So you're going to have this appeal to the kings of Judah that they would repent and do as David had done before the Lord, David who was a man after God's own heart. So say to him who sits on the throne of David, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates, thus says the Lord, do justice and righteousness.

Do what God has said is just and what God has said is right. And that's not just a command for kings. You know that's for us as well. 2 Timothy 2 .22, flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

So these kings were being told to pay attention to God's word and do as God has said in His word. In addition to this, deliver from the hand of the oppressor, him who has been robbed, and do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.

Be a just and righteous king. For if you will indeed obey this word, this is verse 4, if you obey, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people.

But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. Now that's interesting that God would say this to the kings of Judah through Jeremiah.

Because if you'll remember to previous occasions where God had promised judgment on the people, he said to Jeremiah, don't plead for this.

People. Don't.

Pray for them as if I would turn my hand back because I have determined that I am going to do this. God is going to bring about the judgment on this people that he has promised. Here, God is sending Jeremiah to the king of Judah to say to him, if you obey, if you follow David, if you follow in the ways of David, you do as the king should who sits on the throne of David.

If you do that, then what shall come through the gates? Not the Babylonians to conquer this place, but you will have kings that come through the gates that sit on the throne of David riding in chariots and horses and it will be a blessed land in the hand of God.

So previously God had said to Jeremiah, don't pray for this people because I'm not going to turn my hand back. But here he gives this condition to the kings. Why would he do that? And I get the impression that the reason why God words it this way through Jeremiah here, this is speculative on my part, but this is why I think God does that.

It's to remind them that if you had done this, if you had been as your father David, then I never would have brought the enemy through these gates. I would have kept them out. It would have only been kings to sit on the thrones of David after the example of your father David.

So if you had obeyed, this land would be sustained. It could also be that God is saying.

That this will.

Come back again. So even though they're going into exile, it will be the case eventually that through these gates, a king will come who will be righteous and will sit on this throne. And that would prophetically, of course, be pointing to Christ.

I don't really think that's the intention behind these words, though, because of verse five, if you will not obey these words that I swear by myself, this house shall become a desolation. And there is not a king that sits on the throne of David again after.

This and.

Has never been. I was going to say until Jesus comes, but even he doesn't go up into the palace and sit on the throne of David. I believe he is sitting on the throne of David. It's just not the way that Israel would have expected that this was going to happen.

The throne that Jesus sits on is David's throne. This is the throne that God has said that he would establish forever. It's through David's line that the Messiah has come. So as Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God, having died for our sins, risen again from the dead, ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, where he is seated is therefore the throne of David.

God having fulfilled what he had promised to David, that it would be an heir of yours who would sit on the throne and through David he would establish his kingdom forever. And this is the kingdom of God that has been established forever through Christ.

But again, I don't think that's what 4 and 5, verses 4 and 5 are necessarily pointing to. It's kind of like a covenant of works. If you do this, then you get this. But if you don't fulfill the covenant of works, if you don't do righteously, then what do you receive?

It will be judgment. And the king here won't fulfill it. They are not going to fulfill what it is that God has said. If you do this, if you do righteously, then I will honor that and I will preserve Judah.

But saying this knowing that the king won't do it. It's kind of like when Josiah had repented before God. And there was great revival in Judah. The greatest legal revival that we read about anywhere else in 1st or 2nd Kings.

So under Josiah, there was this great revival in the land back to the law as God had said for Judah to follow. But God said to Josiah that it was already too far gone. That his judgment was going to come upon the land.

But Josiah would be honored. And indeed, right after Josiah died, Judah just went right back to doing what they were doing before Josiah had issued these reforms. So same sort of thing is going on here, really, knowing that this king is not really going to repent and the people not turn back to the Lord.

Judgment on Jehoiakim and the House of David

And so going on in verse 6,. For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah, You are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon, yet surely I will make you a desert, an uninhabited city.

I will prepare destroyers against you, each with his weapons, and they shall cut down your choices cedars, and cast them into the fire. And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, this was something that was promised in Deuteronomy, would happen to Israel if they turned away from the statutes that he had given to them.

So it was said even there that the people would reply, Why has the Lord dealt thus with this great city? And they will answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.

And so we have this closing kind of mourning to this particular address. Verse 10, Weep not for him who is dead, nor grieve for him, but weep bitterly for him who goes away, for he shall return no more to see his native land.

And it could be for him who is dead, do not grieve for him. That could be in reference to the one who is righteous who has died and has gone to be with the Lord. There's nothing to grieve for there. Grieve instead for the one who is still alive now in this place that is not doing righteously, but instead will be driven away from the city and go into exile, and he will not again see his native land.

So verse 11, going on now, and this is a message to the sons of Josiah. So remember, Josiah issued all of those great legal reforms, but his sons did not walk in the way of Josiah. So verse 11, for thus says the Lord concerning Shalom, the son of Josiah, and the word Shalom is another name for Jehoahaz, who was one of the kings that sat on Josiah's throne.

But Shalom reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went away from this place, he shall return here no more. But in the place where they have carried him captive, there he shall die, and he shall never see this land again.

So the one that the previous mourning sort of poem was for, was that one who would go away and would die in another land and never see his native land again. So then we have this woe that follows, verses 13 to 17.

Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing, and does not give him his wages. Who says, I will build myself a great house with spacious upper rooms, who cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar and painting it with vermilion.

Now this is not just being proverbial. This is not saying, what if you got a guy that comes in and does this? Well, woe to that man. This is speaking of someone particular. This is about Jehoiakim, who built a palace for himself while the people suffered.

And he required all of the people, all of his servants and his subjects, to work on this house without compensation. Didn't even pay them for it. So they suffered in the midst of a time of chaos and conquering, and here is Jehoiakim building his own house instead, forcing the people to labor for him.

This woe is for him. Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness. Verse 15. Do you think that you were a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness?

Then it was well with him. Josiah. Verse 16. He judged the cause of the poor and needy. Then it was well. Is not this to know me, declares the Lord? But you have eyes and heart only for your dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for practicing oppression and violence.

Exactly the things that God had said previously, this is how you are to be as a king. Don't do these things. And instead, that's exactly what Jehoiakim is doing. So this is what's going to happen to him.

Verse 18. Therefore thus says 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 majesty.

With the burial of a donkey he shall be buried, dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem. Go up to Lebanon and cry out, and lift up your voice in Bashan. Cry out from Abraham, for all your lovers are destroyed.

I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, I will not listen. This has been your way from your youth, that you have not obeyed my voice. The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity.

Then you will be ashamed and confounded because of all your evil. Oh, inhabitant of Lebanon, nested among the cedars, how you will be pitied when pangs come upon you, pain as of a woman in labor. So here is the judgment that God has promised upon Jehoiakim, and upon the people of Judah, who did not obey God, but went after false gods.

Coniah, the Broken Signet Ring, and the End of the Davidic Line in Judah

So going on in verse 24, As I live, declares the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, Jeconiah would be another name for him, but though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off.

I'm sorry, I said where. It's actually were. Coniah, though he were the signet ring on my right hand. In other words, this is the city of God. This is the city where God had chosen to put his name to dwell there.

And so the king who rules over Jerusalem, he is like the signet ring on the hand of God.

Doing what God.

Had instructed for the people and for the land, but though he be that ring, yet I would tear you off, God says, and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. But to the Lord, to which they will long to return, there they shall not return. Let me read that verse again, verse 27.

But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return.

Okay, then.

We have a final statement here, and this is a teaser for chapter 23. So this is verses 28 to 30. Is this man Coniah a despised broken pot, a vessel no one cares for? Why are he and his children hurled and cast into a land that they do not know?

O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord, write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah.

Well, that's quite a statement, because if there is not going to be another king sitting on that throne and ruling again in Judah, then how can that line continue that the promise that was given to David would be fulfilled?

If Coniah.

Is going to be cut off, where's the Messiah going to come from? We're going to answer that question next week. Because in chapter 23, verse 5, it says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

That is in reference to Christ. So we'll see how that prophecy would be fulfilled and how God would still be able to bring this to pass even though Coniah and the line of David is being cut off here at the end of their time in Judah before the exile.

So hold on to that thought. We'll come back to it next week. Now, for us, if we would walk in the ways that God sets for us in Christ Jesus, then no enemy could ever come through our gates. We will be in the presence of God and be sustained by Him, as said in James 4, draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

But if you walk in sinfulness, if you turn from the righteous ways of God and you go after the passions of your flesh and the ways of this world, then the enemy will come in and you will be conquered by that enemy, because really you would belong to that enemy all along.

Let us draw near to Christ, honor Him as king who sits upon the throne, and on the day that the king returns to judge the living and the dead, we will enter in with Him in glory. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read here and I pray that we would know the king who sits on the throne, Christ Jesus our Lord, who is coming back again to judge the living and the dead.

All who believe in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. So we warn this generation of the judgment to come and call them to worship Jesus who saves. Sustain us in Christ that we may live according to the will of the king until the day that he returns.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.

This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.

Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's Word when we understand the text.