“24 “As surely as I live,” declares the Lord, “even if you, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off. 25 I will hand you over to those who seek your life, those you fear—to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to the Babylonians. 26 I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another country, where neither of you was born, and there you both will die. 27 You will never come back to the land you long to return to.”
28 Is this man Jehoiachin a despised, broken pot, an object no one wants? Why will he and his children be hurled out, cast into a land they do not know? 29 O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord! 30 This is what the Lord says: “Record this man as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah.”
1 “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. 2 Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed
care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares the Lord. 3 “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. 4 I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the Lord.
5 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up to David a righteous
Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness. 7 “So then, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when people will no longer say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ 8 but they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ Then they will live in their own land.”
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Vice-presidential debates are usually boring. In the most recent one, the fly that landed on Mike Pence’s head stole the show. The 1988 vice-presidential debate, however, had some fire to it. Senator Dan Quayle was 41 at the time. His youth and relative inexperience became a campaign issue. When asked about it on the campaign trail, Quale regularly reminded the reporters that JFK was young and relatively inexperienced when he ran not for vice-president but for president. During the debate, Quayle made the comparison again, and his much older and more experienced opponent, Lloyd Bentsen replied, “Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”
This evening’s text works the same way. God was telling these last kings of Judah who sat on David’s throne after Josiah, “gentlemen, I worked with Josiah. I knew Josiah. Josiah was a friend of mine. Gentlemen, you are no Josiah.” God was telling the men on David’s throne, “Gentlemen, I worked with David. I knew David. David was a friend of mine. Gentlemen, you are no David.”
Tonight’s passage is all about kings. This series is a sampler of Jeremiah. We are trying to understand the message of the whole book by looking at representative parts. Tonight’s part is all about the last kings of Judah. The last kings of Judah were nothing like Josiah or David. The coming king would be better than all. That’s the claim of this sermon: the last kings of Judah were nothing like Josiah or David. The coming king would be better than all.
We will study this in two points. First: the last kings of Judah. Second: the coming king. For the last kings of Judah, we will focus on verse 24 of chapter 22 to verse 2 of chapter 23 while also seeing how that relates to the rest of chapter 22. For the coming king, we will focus on verses 3-8 of chapter 23.
First: the last kings of Judah. The last four kings of Judah were disastrous for the nation. Their character and policies brought judgment upon the people and their character and judgment did nothing to avert judgment from the people.
Leaders have consequences. Having Churchill as Prime Minister had consequences for Great Britain during World War Two. Having Stalin as General Secretary had consequences for the Soviet Union before, during, and after World War Two. King Josiah’s reforms had brought some good consequences for Judah. His sons’ and grandson’s indifference and even outright opposition to the Lord brought bad consequences for Judah.
The four kings who came after Josiah were the last kings of Judah. Three of them were Josiah’s sons; one of them was Josiah’s grandson. Josiah was a king like David. He trusted in the Lord. He wanted nothing more than to be a covenant keeper. He was the last great or good king of Judah no matter how you define those terms.
Josiah’s son and successor Jehoahaz was nothing like him. Here is the author of 2 Kings’ comment on the man, “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his predecessors had done.” In other words, Josiah was the aberration and Jehoahaz was the norm and the norm was wicked. Rather than reigning for 31 years like Josiah, Jehoahaz reigned for three months before the Pharoah took him into captive in Egypt. Of him, Jeremiah said in verses 11-12, “He will never return. He will die in the place where they have led him captive; he will not see this land again.”
Another of Josiah’s sons—Jehoiakim—then became king. 2 Kings tells us, “And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his predecessors had done.” Rather seeking the Lord and governing according to God’s commandments, he put his attention on building a beautiful new palace for himself complete with costly cedar; in verse 15, we see God ask him, “Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father [Josiah] have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” The message is that Josiah knew the Lord and Jehoiakim didn’t. The man reigned for eleven years, became Nebuchadnezzar’s vassal, rebelled, and died. About him, Jeremiah said in verse 18, ‘[the people] will not mourn for him [saying] “Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!” He will have the burial of a donkey—dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.’
After Jehoiakim died his son Jehoiachin became king. About him 2 Kings says, “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father had done.” He was eighteen at the time. He reigned for three months and ten days before the Babylonians took him and the best and the brightest to exile in Babylon. This was the first group of exiles.
God’s judgment upon this young king was quite emphatic; verse 24, ‘“As surely as I live,” declares the Lord, “even if you, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off. I will hand you over to those who seek your life, those you fear—to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to the Babylonians.”’
A signet ring was a mark of authenticity. It had an emblem on it unique to the king. This emblem could be pressed into hardening wax to create a royal seal on a document to prove that the king had seen and approved of its content. The message here is that the Davidic king was to function that way for God. He was to rule only in ways that had God’s stamp of approval. Jehoiachin wouldn’t rule that way and so God said He would pull Jehoiachin off His right hand and toss him into the hand of the king of Babylon. Now Jehoiachin was only eighteen. Apparently God didn’t consider eighteen too young to be held responsible for a wicked character and selfish policies. Being eighteen might explain sin but it doesn’t excuse it. It doesn’t lessen the effect Jehoiachin’s foolishness had upon his people.
Jehoiachin would never return home from exile; verse 26, “I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another country, where neither of you was born, and there you both will die. You will never come back to the land you long to return to.” The possibility of exile was often included in secular treaties and its inclusion here shows the severity of the curse. Jehoiachin would long to return home just like any of us would. Jehoiachin never would make it home. As Jack Lundbom explained, God was telling Jehoiachin, “you will get what you don’t want, and what you do want you won’t get.” ‘You won’t want judgment for your sin, but you will get that. You will want to go back home, but you won’t get that.’
Jehoiachin would be buried abroad. He would never come home even after death. Today the US military makes it a point to bring fallen troops home for burial. It wasn’t always that way. A few weeks ago, I saw the Sioux Center veteran’s memorial. Some of those soldiers are buried in that cemetery. Others are buried abroad. There is a certain sorrow about being buried abroad. God wants you to see that sorrow when you consider Jehoiachin. “You will never come back to the land you long to return to.” Sin has serious consequences.
God had a word for the land to which Jehoiachin would never return; verse 29, ‘O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord says: “Record this man as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah.”’
God spoke to the land when He wanted a witness who had seen it all and would see it all. The message here was that it didn’t matter how many sons Jehoichin had, none of them would sit on the throne. We know from Chronicles that Jehoichin had at least seven sons. My guess is that most of us wouldn’t recognize any of their names because none of them became king. Little Shealtial never became king because Jehoichin would not obey the Lord. Sin has consequences.
The question is whether Jehoichin ever owned up to the fact that Shealtial would never become king because he wouldn’t obey the Lord. The question is whether Jehoichin came to understand that he was suffering consequences because he wouldn’t follow in the footsteps of his grandfather Josiah. The question is whether Jehoichin ever came to the point of understanding that God’s assessment of him and his situation must become his own assessment. You need to consider whether you’ve come to that point regarding your own situations and your own self.
The refusal of these last kings to follow the Lord was disastrous not just for them but for everyone; verse 1 of chapter 23, “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” Leaders lead. They can’t help but lead. These last kings led in such a way that the people they led were destroyed and scattered.
These last kings led by not calling the people to account; that’s another way to translate verse 2, “because you have not called the people to account, so I will call you to account for the evil you have done.” Josiah called the people to account. He called them to repent. That’s hard and often thankless work. His son and grandson didn’t see the point of following these policies and practices. They didn’t hold sin accountable. You see the result.
It’s no mistake that when king Jesus came, he came calling the people to account. He called them to repent. Rather than being concerned about his own welfare like Jehoiakim with his palace, he was and is concerned with the welfare of his people. Rather than being such a poor signet ring that he is cast off like Jehoiachin, he was and is the perfect representation of what God would do in every situation. The last kings of Judah aren’t just a conglomeration of names that are difficult to memorize; they are a sad testimony to what happens when leaders let sin run wild and care more about their comfort than about the righteousness of the people. These last kings were no Josiah. They were no David. They were no Jesus. We see that in our second point: the coming king.
There was never meant to be a human king of Israel. God’s plan was for He Himself to be their king. You see very clearly in the Exodus that the conflict wasn’t between Moses and Pharoah as rival kings but between the Lord and Pharoah as rival kings. After the Exodus, the Lord cut a covenant with at Sinai Israel as their king. He conquered the Promised Land as their king. When they demanded a human king, God rightly took it as a rejection of Him. As He told Samuel, “it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.”
The human king project, if we want to refer to the monarchy that way, was an almost complete disaster. The only exceptions were the kings who were like the Lord—men like David, who was a man after God’s own heart, Hezekiah who walked in all the ways of the Lord, Josiah, who called for a return to the Lord. The best kings were the ones who were most like the Lord. When you recognize that, you recognize how much better it would have been for Israel to keep the Lord as king. You recognize how much better it would be for our nation if we lived by the Lord’s ways.
The people rejected the Lord as king, but the Lord didn’t reject the people; that’s something of what’s behind verse 3, “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number.” The “I” is emphatic. The Lord wants the people to know that He is the shepherd/king they need. He will bring them back after the human kings have led them into exile. He will return them to a picture of Eden—being fruitful and multiplying.
The Lord himself will be their king and He will give them another Davidic king; verse 5, ‘“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.”’ There was no reason to think that the line of David would have any more relevance for the people of God. That tree seemed dead. Isaiah described it as a cut down stump. What we see here is new life growing from that seemingly dead stump. That’s what’s going on with this “righteous branch” coming off David’s family tree.
This return to a Davidic king was highly unlikely and if know the story of David, you know that he wasn’t a likely king to begin with. He was the least likely to be chosen in his family. He came to be hated by the then current king. Ten out of the twelve tribes held him at arms’ length. He dealt with numerous uprisings while he was king. He was not a likely success story. It was even more unlikely that one of his descendants would return to the throne once the nation went into exile. After Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Jehoiachin would you be eager to have yet another son of David for your king or would you be willing to give another, less corrupted family line a try?
The line of David’s stock price was at junk levels, but he was God’s chosen man. That is part of the grace of election. God chose David not because of David but because of Himself. God would continue the line of David not because of the line of David but because of Himself. He would make the line what it should be. This coming son of David would, “reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land,” as verse 5 puts it. In other words, this coming king would act nothing like Jehoahaz or Jehoiakim or Jehoiachin. They reigned foolishly and did what we evil in the land. He would reign wisely and do what was right in the land. This coming king is a critique of the last kings of Judah. He did what they should have done. That’s king Jesus.
In some ways Jesus is a critique of all of us. He did what Israel should have done as seen in the different ways he reenacted their story in his own. He did what the kings should have done. He did what you and I should have done. To see Jesus is to see what we were meant to be. To see Jesus is to recognize that we are not what we were meant to be. To see that and to recognize that Jesus will be for you and not against you is to understand a bit about grace.
The last kings of Judah were not like Jesus. We’ve seen Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Jehoiachin. Now we come to the Jehoiachin’s uncle, so Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim’s brother, who was Josiah’s other son and the last king of Israel—Zedekiah. We see him set into contrast with the words of verse 6’s, “This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.” The Hebrew for “The Lord Our Righteousness” sounds quite like the name Zedekiah. Jeremiah was playing with the last king’s name to say that this coming king—king Jesus—would be nothing like Zedekiah. If you want to understand how bad of a king Zedekiah is, compare him with Jesus. Compare the wicked king whose name means, “the Lord is righteous,” with the good king whose name means, “The Lord Our Righteousness.” If you want to understand Zedekiah, compare him with Jesus. If you want to understand Jesus, compare him with Zedekiah. If you want to understand yourself, compare yourself with Jesus. If you want to understand Jesus, compare him with yourself.
Jeremiah said this coming king would be referred to as, “The Lord Our Righteousness”, but what we don’t know is whether Jeremiah thought that this coming king would actually be the Lord. Jeremiah knew the Lord would be the king. He knew a son of David would be the king. We don’t know if he knew that they would be one and the same. We do. That’s why we are singing so many Christmas carols tonight.
Either way what we have is a better king—better than Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. Those kings were no just Josiah like Lloyd Bentsen said Dan Quayle was no JFK. Those kings were no David just like Bentsen said Quayle was no JFK, but Josiah was no Jesus, and David was no Jesus, and JFK was no Jesus. Obama was no Jesus. Trump was no Jesus. Biden is no Jesus. You’ve got the best king of all if you have Jesus as your king. If you truly know him, you know that that’s not up for debate. Amen.