Jeremiah 22

Introduction

A. Chapters 21 and 22 comprise a single sermon Jeremiah was commanded to preach against the House of David.

B. Last four kings of Judah:

1. Shallum or Jehoahaz (whom Jehovah sustains)
2. Jehoiakim, Jeremiah 20, 25-27 (whom Jehovah sets up)
3. Coniah or Jechoniah or Jehoiachin (whom Jehovah has appointed)
4. Zedekiah, Jeremiah 21 and 28 (justice of Jehovah)

C. Historical Context

1. First Babylonian deportation in 605 BC occurred during the reign of Jehoiakim.
2. Second Babylonian deportation in 598 BC occurred during the reign of Jehoiachin.
   a. Treasures from Jerusalem taken to Babylon.
   b. More captives taken to Babylon, such as Ezekiel.
   c. Nebuchadnezzar deposed Jehoiachin and installed Zedekiah as a puppet king.
3. Third and final deportation occurred in 587 BC when Nebuchadnezzar raised Jerusalem.

Jehovah’s Message to the House of David, vv. 1-9

A. The Lord Requires Justice from the House of David, vv. 1-4

1. Execute Justice and Righteousness: don’t allow corruption and injustice.
2. If Judah’s Kings rule justly, God promises that the royal lineage will continue and prosper.

B. Judah’s Rejection Requires Punishment, vv. 5-9

1. Jehovah values the House of David as much as Gilead and Lebanon, choice and fertile regions of the Promised Land.
2. However, disobedience to Jehovah’s requirements will result destruction and exile.
3. Nations will ask why God allowed this to His chosen people: “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.”

Jehovah’s Message to the Sons of Josiah, vv. 10-30

A. The Message to Shallum / Jehoahaz, vv. 10-12

1.  Do not weep for dead King Josiah, killed in battle at Megiddo.
2. Weep for Shallum
   a. Ruled three months
   b. Deposed by Pharaoh Necho, 2 Kings 23:31-35
   c. Exiled to Riblah, then Egypt where he died, 2 Kings 23:33; 2 Chronicles 36:4.

B. The Message to Jehoiakim, vv. 13-23

1. Jehoiakim’s rule was filled with corruption and greed.
2. Jehoiakim’s rule was marked by ostentation at the expense of the poor.
   

   “Faced with a crippling tax imposed by the Egyptians, he extracted this from his subjects by heavy taxation (2Ki_23:33 ff.) and then embarked on a lavish palace-building scheme, forcing his subjects to work for nothing.” (Cundall)

3. Jeremiah called on Jehoiakim to remember his father Josiah:
   a. Josiah lived modestly.
   b. Josiah ruled justly, evidence of knowing God.
   c. Josiah lived well while attending to the king’s duty to justice and righteousness.
4. Jehoiakim did not know God; he only knew greed, violence, and injustice.
5. Jehovah’s judgment against Jehoiakim:
   a. Jehoiakim will have no one to mourn his death.
   b. Jehoiakim will be cast out like a dead donkey!
   c. Jehoiakim will be abandoned by his allies and friends, vv. 20-23.
   This is one of the great weaknesses and tragedies of the human condition. In prosperity we often refuse to listen to God and He only has our attention in seasons of woe. Nevertheless, better to hear God in our woe than to never hear and respond to Him at all.

C. The Message to Coniah, vv. 24-30, aka Jeconiah and Jehoiachin

1.  Exile for Coniah: “signet ring on My right hand, yet I would pluck you off,” vv. 24-27.
2. Curse for the lineage of Coniah, vv. 28-30–no descendant of Coniah would reign over Israel.

This is where we come to the differences in the genealogies of Matthew and Luke. Matthew recorded the genealogy of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ (Mat_1:16). He began at Abraham and followed the line down to Jesus, through Joseph. Luke recorded the genealogy of Mary: being, (as was supposed) the son of Joseph (Luk_3:23). He began with Jesus and followed the line back up, all the way to Adam, starting from the unmentioned Mary.

“Matthew’s genealogy includes Jehoiachin but shows only who Jesus’ legal father was, not his natural one. Luke traces Jesus’ parental line through Nathan, a son of David, not through Solomon.” (Feinberg)

<<Back<<