Preached January 8, 2012
from
Jeremiah 26
Theme: God faithfully upholds those who uphold His word in faithless times.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
Recently in our study of the lives of the King of Judah, we’d set our attention on King Jehoiakim. And before we depart from him completely, there’s one more passage that I ask that we consider—although it isn’t so much about Jehoiakim himself. Rather, it’s about the prophet Jeremiah—that bold prophet that God sent to speak to the people of Jehoiakim’s time.
In the first verse of Jeremiah 26; we read these words::
In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the LORD . . . (Jeremiah 26:1).
This is a story about a message that God gave to the prophet Jeremiah around the year 609 B.C.—right at the beginning King Jehoiakim’s eleven-year-long reign. Just a short while before then, Jehoiakim’s godly father King Josiah was killed by King Necho. Jehoiakim’s younger half-brother Jehoahaz had been placed on the throne by the people of Judah—and then, Necho quickly removed Jehoahaz from the throne, and put Jehoiakim in his place.
And it’s important to remember what kind of a man this new king—Jehoiakim—was. 2 Kings 23:37 tells us, “And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.” According to Jeremiah 22, he was a king who was in love with the comforts of a luxurious palace—thinking that he was safe because he had ‘enclosed himself in cedar’ (v. 15). We’re told that his eyes and heart were for ‘nothing but covetousness’ (v. 17). And what’s more, not only did he love comfort and luxury; but he was also characterized by a profound hatred for God’s word. You might remember that he was the king who was so rebellious that he actually cut up pieces of God’s word and threw them in the fire as it was being read to him (Jeremiah 36:20-32).
Jehoiakim’s rebelliousness against God characterized the times. And it was into these times—at the very beginning of this king’s reign—that this word of command from God came to Jeremiah;
. . . saying, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Stand in the court of the LORD’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD’s house, all the words that I command you to speak to them. Do not diminish a word. Perhaps everyone will listen and turn from his evil way, that I may relent concerning the calamity which I purpose to bring on them because of the evil of their doings'” (vv. 2-3).
The people had perhaps gathered in the temple in order to celebrate the beginning of the reign of their new king. And God was calling Jeremiah to go to the temple, stand in the midst of the court of the Lord’s house, and speak to all those people who had gathered there from all the cities throughout Judah. No doubt, the people from these various cities would have returned home after all the ceremonies and bring the report of what God had said through Jeremiah.
And because this would take great courage, note carefully what God told the prophet: “Speak all the words that I command you to speak to them. Do not diminish a word.” Why would God need to tell Jeremiah that? It would have been because the message He had to give to them would be something that they would not welcome. It would have been something that they would have found inappropriate and objectionable. It would have been a message that would make them very angry to hear. And Jeremiah would have naturally been tempted to ‘water it down’, and leave some of it out in order to ‘soften the blow’.
Do you know what God told Jeremiah at the beginning of his prophetic ministry? Several years prior, back when God first called him, He told him, “. . . [Y]ou shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you” (1:7-8). The faces of the people to whom Jeremiah would speak would be intimidating to him. Their looks would register their extreme displeasure as he spoke. Their eyes would throw threatening glares at him. But he was not to be afraid of their faces. God even had to tell this to him more than once; saying, “Therefore prepare yourself and arise, and speak to them all that I command you. Do not be dismayed before their faces, lest I dismay you before them” (v. 17). So; Jeremiah was to make sure that He said everything that God commanded him to say to the people, and make sure that he not diminish one word of God’s message—trusting that God will be with him and will deliver him from the threats of those who made angry faces at him.
And did you notice why God said that Jeremiah was not to diminish a single word of the message? “Perhaps everyone will listen and turn from his evil way, that I may relent concerning the calamity which I purpose to bring on them because of the evil of their doings.” God’s purpose in it all was to lead them to repentance; so that He would not have to bring His judgment down upon them for their sin. Therefore, every word of the message was absolutely necessary in order to put the people at the crossroads of a decision. They would either allow themselves to be changed by what God had to say to them, and be led through repentance into the place of God’s mercy; or they would harden their hearts to God’s message, and be led through their hardness into the place of God’s judgment. It was not Jeremiah’s place to alter the message in any respect, or make it easier for them to hear. He was to speak the truth of what God told him to say without diminishing any of it, and let God’s word do its work in their hearts.
Perhaps you’re like me; and you hear all this, and think to yourself, “Boy; I’m sure glad that I’m not Jeremiah—having to declare an unpopular message and look at a bunch of angry faces!” But the fact is, dear brothers and sisters, we have been given a message from God to give to this world that it doesn’t like to hear. We’re commanded to proclaim the message of the cross of Jesus Christ. It’s a message that says that our condition of sin before a holy God is so bad that God had to send His own sinless Son to die on the cross in our place. It’s a message that we must turn from our sin and believe on His Son in order to be saved. It’s a message that Paul said is “foolishness to those who are perishing” (1 Corinthians 1:18); but it’s the only message by which we are saved. And we are to be faithful to go out into this world and speak it, and live it as a message from God, and “not be afraid of their faces”. Paul—while he was in prison for preaching this same message—told his brothers and sisters in Philippi:
Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me (Philippians 1:27-30).
We really can’t just wipe our brow in relief and say, “Phew! I’m sure glad I’m not in Jeremiah’s position.” The fact is that, to some degree, we are very much in his position! We too are called upon to proclaim a hard message from a gracious God that the world doesn’t want to hear. And we must be faithful to our call and not diminish one word of it!
* * * * * * * * * *
So then; what was the hard message that a gracious God gave to Jeremiah to give to his people? We find it as we read on:
“And you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: “If you will not listen to Me, to walk in My law which I have set before you, to heed the words of My servants the prophets whom I sent to you, both rising up early and sending them (but you have not heeded), then I will make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth”’” (vv. 4-6).
Note first that God makes the appeal to His disobedient people that He has repeatedly set before them what He called for them to do. He had given them His law, and commanded them to walk faithfully in it for their good. And he had repeatedly sent His servants the prophets—”both rising up early and sending them”. He wasn’t obligated to send such warnings to them. But He did so in love for them. And notice, sadly, that He also told them, “but you have not heeded”. This hard message through Jeremiah, then is one more final warning: “If you will not listen to Me . . .”
If they would not listen now to this last warning—given right at the beginning of the reign of King Jehoiakim—then certain consequences would follow. First, He said that He would make “this house”—that is, the temple—”like Shiloh . . .” Shiloh was the place, long ago in the days of the Judges, in which the ark of the covenant was kept. The high priest of that time was a worthless and disobedient man named Eli; and his two priestly sons were immoral men who took advantage of the people. They thought they were safe from judgment from God because they had the ark of the covenant in their possession. But God had enough of their disobedience, permitted Eli and his sons to die, and allowed the ark to be taken away by the Philistines. In the same way, the people of Jeremiah’s time were thinking that they were safe from God’s judgment because they had the temple. But as God told them through Jeremiah back in Jeremiah 7:12-14;
“But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. And now, because you have done all these works,” says the LORD, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh” (Jeremiah 7:12-14).
But the people didn’t just trust in their possession of the temple. They also thought that they were safe from God’s judgment because they dwelt in Jerusalem—the holy city of God. They though God would never bring judgment on His holy city. But notice how God also warns the people through Jeremiah that He “will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.” As God said in Jeremiah 24:9-10;
‘”I will deliver them to trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth, for their harm, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them. And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers’” (Jeremiah 24:9-10).
Perhaps this means that Jerusalem would become a “curse” to all the nations because God would demonstrate through them that no one is exempt from the curse of judgment that comes from sin—not even His own chosen people. As the apostle Peter once wrote, “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17).
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What a hard message this was! What a temptation Jeremiah must have felt to “diminish” it! What courage it would take to faithfully proclaim it right in the middle of the temple to the assembly of hypocritical worshipers in rebellious times—and to trust God to faithfully protect the one who proclaimed it!
But proclaim it he did—just as God had commanded. As the Bible tells us;
So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD (v. 7).
And look at what happened as a result:
Now it happened, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, “You will surely die! Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without an inhabitant’?” And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the LORD (vv. 8-9).
God had warned Jeremiah not to be afraid of their faces; and he was certainly seeing a mob of hostile faces at that moment—not just from the people, but also from the disobedient and rebellious priests and from the false prophets who were telling the people what they wanted to hear.
It was then that the rulers of the people became involved. And as Jeremiah was called to make a defense before them of what he had done, note carefully his resolve of heart. I think it’s one of the most courageous expressions of godly bravery you’ll find in the Bible:
When the princes of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the LORD and sat down in the entry of the New Gate of the LORD’s house. And the priests and the prophets spoke to the princes and all the people, saying, “This man deserves to die! For he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears.” Then Jeremiah spoke to all the princes and all the people, saying: “The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city with all the words that you have heard. Now therefore, amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; then the LORD will relent concerning the doom that He has pronounced against you. As for me, here I am, in your hand; do with me as seems good and proper to you. But know for certain that if you put me to death, you will surely bring innocent blood on yourselves, on this city, and on its inhabitants; for truly the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing” (vv. 10-15).
Jeremiah’s courageous speech to the leaders of his people consisted, basically, of three affirmations: (1) “The words that I spoke to you are not my own, but the Lord’s. I was simply His messenger—sent by Him to tell you what He commanded me to say to you. I am an innocent man.” (2) “The thing for you to do in response to God’s message is not to be angry with what you heard, but to repent so that God can have mercy on you.” (3) “You can do what you want with me; but I am not departing from what God gave me to say.” This brave speech reminds me of the stirring words attributed to Martin Luther before the Diet of Worms. When he was called before the prince to recant of all his writings at the threat of his very life, he said, “[M]y conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen.”1 Truly, this was Jeremiah’s “Here I stand” speech.
So; Jeremiah spoke what God commanded him. He did not diminish a word. And he made it clear that he was willing to lay down his life for it. He affirmed his confidence in God’s authority through his resoluteness in the face of great opposition. And God’s sure word—combined with the resolve of God’s faithful servant—had an impact on those who heard! We read;
So the princes and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, “This man does not deserve to die. For he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God.” (v. 16).
They even thought back to the days of Jehoiakim’s great-great-grandfather—King Hezekiah—nearly 100 years prior. They thought back to the brave prophet Micah who spoke against the sins of Jerusalem back in Hezekiah’s day; and of how Hezekiah responded rightly:
Then certain of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying: “Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts:
“Zion shall be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins,
And the mountain of the temple
Like the bare hills of the forest.”’
Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah ever put him to death? Did he not fear the LORD and seek the LORD’s favor? And the LORD relented concerning the doom which He had pronounced against them. But we are doing great evil against ourselves” (vv. 17-19).
Jeremiah’s faithfulness to speak God’s word—and not diminish it—didn’t result in everyone repenting. But it did result in some people repenting. And it shows the power of what happens when God’s appointed spokespeople faithfully proclaim the whole testimony of what God says in His word to the people of their day—even in the face of great opposition and threat.
God does, indeed, protect His messengers until their appointed message is fully given.
* * * * * * * * * *
But our story isn’t over. And it’s here that King Jehoiakim makes another appearance.
Almost as if to provide an illustration by way of contrast, we’re told another story of another prophet in the same troubled times. We’re told;
Now there was also a man who prophesied in the name of the LORD, Urijah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjath Jearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah (v. 20).
Interestingly, this man comes from Kirjath Jearim—the very place that the ark of the covenant was kept back in the days when it was returned to God’s people after the destruction of Shiloh. Whether this man spoke this message that God had given him before it had been given to Jeremiah, or whether he simply sought to speak the same message he heard Jeremiah give, we’re not told.
And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death (v. 21a) . . .
and in that respect, he was not much different from Jeremiah. He spoke the same message to the same people in the same troubled times as Jeremiah spoke. It had the same divine authority; and provoked the same anger from hard-hearted listeners. But Urjiah spoke without the resolve of heart that Jeremiah displayed. Threats from the wicked King Jehoiakim—who fiercely hated God’s word—came because of Urjiah’s preaching; and we’re told;
but when Urijah heard it, he was afraid and fled, and went to Egypt. Then Jehoiakim the king sent men to Egypt: Elnathan the son of Achbor, and other men who went with him to Egypt. And they brought Urijah from Egypt and brought him to Jehoiakim the king, who killed him with the sword and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people. Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death (vv. 21b-24).
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Now; let’s not be foolishly presumptuous in the way that we apply this passage. Jeremiah never took it upon himself to go and preach God’s message in his own initiative—as if he was doing God a favor. God gave him the specific command to go; and also gave him the specific message to bring. We must learn to listen carefully to God’s Holy Spirit, and never seek to run ahead of Him, and never try to be His spokesmen apart from His call.
But the fact is, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that there are definite times when God calls upon us to faithfully take a stand for the cause of His Son in trying times. There are times when God gives us a clear message from His word, and puts it clearly upon our hearts to open our mouths and faithfully speak what He has said to the times in which we live. And when we feel that call, we’ll also find ourselves afraid of the faces of those to whom we’re to speak. They will be offended. They will be angry. They may call us names. They may even become threatening. The devil himself will almost shout at us to keep silent.
And at those times, we’re not to alter what God says in His word. We are to, as God says, speak “all the words that I command you to speak to them. Do not diminish a word. Perhaps everyone will listen and turn from his evil way, that I may relent concerning the calamity which I purpose to bring on them because of the evil of their doings”. We are to proclaim—above all—”Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
And we are to remember what Jeremiah’s obedience in the dark days of Jehoiakim teaches us; that God faithfully upholds those who uphold His word in faithless times.
Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (New York, Abingdon Press, 1950), p.185.