Tuesday - Jeremiah 22 - A Family Astray

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OSIAH’S sons, Jehoahaz (or Shallum), Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, as well as his grandson Coniah, were the last kings in Jerusalem. They were also targets of prophecy. In this chapter, it is recorded that Jeremiah had words from the Lord directed specifically at Shallum, Jehoiakim and Coniah. Now, Shallum and Coniah each ruled only briefly (about 3 months each), and their time in office was split by the 11-year term of Jehoiakim. This tells us that Jeremiah's sermon here was not meant for a specific day, but for a period of time. It was not against just an individual but was aimed at a whole system and way of living. Whoever was sitting on the throne of David and whatever the names of those men who stood around the throne, it did not matter. They were all corrupt. They all served themselves and built their own houses at the expense of everyone around them & beneath them (vs. 13).

God did warn them through the mouth of Jeremiah, but He did not imagine that they would surrender (Jeremiah 22:5).  The warning was more of an excuse or a justification for the impending judgment than it was anything else. Not that God did not sincerely want these people to repent, He did. But His knowledge is infinite. He understood their past and their future with equal clarity.  He knew of their guilt, and He knew of their coming misery. He knew fully the righteousness of their father and the unrighteousness of his offspring. His disgust, with Coniah specifically, was so intense that He even refused to use Coniah's full name, Jeconiah, because the prefix of his name "Je" was a reference to Jehovah. In other words, God refused to be associated with a man so wicked. Josiah had been a good king, but his family went after the ways of Josiah's grandfather, Manasseh and their own grandfather, Amon. The family was hopelessly lost.