Formalism being so confirmed upon both king and people in the days of Jehoiakim king of Judah, it was inevitable that every kind of evil practice would abound.
There is no power in forms to correct the life. There is no power in forms to hold men back from the evil that is in human nature. Nothing but the power of God can do this; and the power of God can come to men and abide in men only by a living, personal faith.
It is this alone that can purify the heart and reform the life: the life can be reformed only by beginning and ending with the heart, out of which "are the issues of life." (Proverbs 4:23)
Purify the fountain, and the issuing streams will inevitably be pure; for: "no fountain can yield both salt water and fresh." (James 3:12)
Also when the heart is purified and the life endued with power, by the living faith of Christ, grace is given to all the forms of religion, and the Lord is honored and glorified in the worship so offered.
The essential iniquity of the lives of king and people in the days of Jehoiakim may be noted under several heads. Along with the general wickedness of murder, adultery, theft, false witness, and all the accompaniments of idolatry, there was:
1. Oppression and Injustice
"O house of David, thus says the Lord; Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go out like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings." (Jeremiah 21:12) "Thus says the Lord; Execute you judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor; and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place." (Jeremiah 22:3) "Execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; ... oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, ... Then will I cause you to dwell in this place." (Jeremiah 7:5-7)
2. Oppressing and Defrauding the Laborer in His Wages
While they in their wealth reveled in luxury: "Woe unto him that builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that uses his neighbor's service without wages, and gives him not for his work; That says, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cuts him out windows; and it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion." (Jeremiah 22:13-14)
3. Neglect of the Poor
"Shall you reign, because you close yourself in cedar? did not your father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him? He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? says the Lord. But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness." (Jeremiah 22:15-17)
4. Disregard of the Sabbath
"Thus says the Lord; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do you any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. ... And it shall come to pass, if you diligently hearken unto me, says the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein; Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain forever. ... But if you will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched." (Jeremiah 17:21-22, 24-25,27)
5. The Worship of the Sun
In Ezekiel 8 is recorded what he saw in Jerusalem, even in the very presence of the holy temple, as he was taken there in vision from the place of his captivity. First he saw "the image of jealousy," (Ezekiel 8:3) in the very entry of the gates of the altar. Next he saw, in one of the chambers of the court of the temple, "every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about, [with] seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel," (Ezekiel 8:10-11) every one with a censer in his hand, offering incense. Next he saw, "at the door of the gate of the Lord's house, which was toward the north, ... women weeping for Tammuz." (Ezekiel 8:14)
After all this the Lord said to him, "Turn yet again, and you shall see greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the sun toward the east." (Ezekiel 8:15-16)
6. Rejection of All the Word of the Lord in Counsel and Warning
King Jehoiakim himself, with his princes and counselors, persecuted a prophet of the Lord till, to escape their murderous hands, he fled into Egypt. But the king sent even to Egypt, and had him brought back, and then murdered him. They also persecuted Jeremiah, and threatened him with death. A testimony which the Lord gave by the hand of Jeremiah was read to the great assembly in the presence of the temple. The king commanded that it be brought and read to him. "Now the king sat in the winter house in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him. And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth." (Jeremiah 36:22-23)
Because of all these things, the Lord likened Jerusalem to Sodom, declaring that she and Sodom were sisters, and said, "As I live says the Lord God, Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters. Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good." (Jeremiah 16:48-50)
Because of all this, Ezekiel saw, in the vision, a man with a writer's inkhorn by his side, passing throughout the city, setting a mark upon the foreheads of the men who were sighing and crying for all the abominations that were done there. Six men followed this man, with slaughter-weapons in their hands, "slaying utterly" all to whom they came, but were to "come not near any man upon whom was the mark." (Ezekiel 9:6)
Now all these things have their parallel in the last days:
• Formalism in religion abounds; (2 Timothy 3:1-4)
• General wickedness prevails; (Matthew 24:12; 2 Timothy 3:2-4,13)
• Oppression, injustice, defrauding the laborer in his wages to increase the overloaded coffers of the rich, who revel in luxury, are all practiced; (James 5:1-8)
• There is neglect of the poor to such an extent that God is obliged to turn His attention especially to them; (Luke 14:21-23)
• The Sabbath is disregarded; (Isaiah 56:1-2; 58:13-14)
• The sun-in the Sunday-is honored; (Daniel 7:25; Revelation 14:9-12)
• The word of God in counsel and warning concerning all the evil and the impending destruction, is rejected. (2 Peter 3:3-7,10-14; Matthew 24:37-39)
So that again, looking upon it all, God is compelled to liken it also to Sodom, and the last days of the world to the last days of Sodom: "Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot, The same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." (Luke 17:28-30)
And because of all this, while destruction is impending, the holy prophet of Patmos saw in vision the heavenly messenger passing through the world, and setting the royal seal--the heavenly mark--upon the servants of God. (Revelation 7:2-3) And after him came the messengers of judgment, slaying utterly all upon whom is not found the mark. (Revelation 14:9-10; 15:1; 16:1-21)
Thus, again and overwhelmingly, is it demonstrated that the wickedness of Judah, which led to their captivity, to the destruction of the city and temple, and to the desolation of the land, is a perfect representation of the wickedness of the world in the last days, which leads to the everlasting captivity of the people and the desolation of the earth. And that situation of old is used by the Lord as an object-lesson of counsel and warning to the people of the world in the last days.
Thus the history of the times of Daniel is present truth today; and the divine principles of the book of Daniel are given to save the people from the wickedness that cursed Judah and Jerusalem to destruction and desolation. "Whoso reads, let him understand." (Matthew 24:15)--Advent Review, January 18, 1898.