Jehoiakim was the son of Josiah. The people of the land had made his younger brother, Jehoahaz, king before him, but Jehoahaz had only reigned three months when the king of Egypt, under whose dominion Judah had fallen by the defeat of Josiah at Megiddo, annulled the choice of the people, and placed Jehoiakim on the throne. Jehoahaz was taken captive into Egypt, where he died. Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, "And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done." (2 Kings 23:37)
Publishing the Prophecy
In the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the Lord commanded Jeremiah to write in a roll of a book all the prophecies that had been given through him, from the beginning of his work. This was done, Jeremiah dictating the words to Baruch the scribe, who was then directed to stand at the gate of the temple and read them in the hearing of all the people.
Standing in this audience, when the roll was read to the assembly on the fasting day, was Michaiah, the grandson of that Shaphan who read to King Josiah the book of the law which was discovered by Hilkiah the priest during the cleansing of the temple. Michaiah went to the scribe's chamber in the king's house, and reported to the princes assembled there the startling character of the words that Baruch was reading in the ears of the people.
Burning the Roll
The princes sent for Baruch and, at their request, he sat down and read the roll to them. They cautioned him and Jeremiah to hide themselves and let no man know their whereabouts. Then the princes went in to the king, leaving the roll in the scribe's chamber, and told him of the words that God had sent. The king commanded that the roll itself be brought to him. "Now the king sat in the winter-house in the ninth month [which would correspond to our November 1]: 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)
Three of the princes begged the king not to destroy the roll, but he would not hear them. He would have been glad to serve Jeremiah and Baruch in the same way, and he ordered their immediate arrest, "but the Lord hid them." (Jeremiah 36:26)
Treasuring Up Wrath
The conduct of Jehoiakim is in strong contrast to that of his father Josiah. The latter, when God's judgments against the disobedience of Judah were made known to him, humbled himself and by sincere penitence and confession, averted from himself the coming doom. Jehoiakim was stirred to fury by the Word of the Lord and, instead of recognizing the justice of the sentence and turning from his evil course, willfully defied the righteous anger of God and burned His message.
By humbling himself, and turning at God's reproof, Jehoiakim might have yet been saved, but he cut himself off from the source of forgiveness and life, and while the roll itself was written out again in even fuller detail, there was added to it God's sentence against the rebellious king: "He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity." (Jeremiah 36:30-31)
In fulfillment of the first part of this judgment, his son, after a brief but wicked reign of three months, was carried to Babylon, where he spent thirty-seven years in captivity.
Honoring God
The principle upon which God has ever dealt with men was laid down to Eli, and is often repeated in the scriptures. "Them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." (1 Samuel 2:30)
This is not because God is like men, who will bestow respect where there is a likelihood of their getting at least as much back. God does not seek honor from men because He likes flattery, or finds it difficult to get honor among those who know Him better. He is not satisfied when men merely draw near Him with their lips, but desires that the heart may be yielded to Him, in confiding recognition of His love, in order that He may do marvelous things for those who trust Him. "Whose offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me; and prepares a way that I may show him the salvation of God." (Psalm 50:23,RV)
The greater the conception men have of the glory and power of God, the more they can rejoice; for God, who spared not His own Son, keeps nothing for himself. Those who believe Him to be the Almighty can sing for joy because of "the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe." (Ephesians 1:19) "Therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you...blessed are all they that wait for Him." (Isaiah 30:18)
Infidelity
Infidelity does not always take the form of burning the Scriptures. There are other ways of rejecting the Word of God.
Those of our readers who have been following, during the past few months, the studies contained in the Present Truth, on "God's Saving Power in the Things that are Made," (These articles have been collected into the book, The Everlasting Gospel: God's Saving Power in the Things That Are Made, by E.J. Waggoner.) will understand clearly why it is that Satan has been making such a special onslaught upon those parts of the Bible which deal with the record of creation. He knows what is involved in a right understanding of this question, and hence his efforts have been steadily directed towards creating false ideas of man's inherent power, and his real relation to his Creator.
To hide the truth from men, and at the same time develop in them that spirit of independence of God which will most surely render them subject to his own evil influence, he has led men to set their own ideas above the Word of God, and judge the inspiration of the Bible by their own imaginations.
But it is not only the avowed infidel who has been thus deceived. The satanic temptations are more subtle than men think, and many who hold in theory to the full inspiration of the Bible, have yet been insensibly influenced by the prevailing spirit of unbelief.
What is Man?
God's Word declares that man in himself is nothing more than dust. God's own life animating the dust produces a living soul, (Genesis 2:7) but only as God's Spirit is in man is he capable of any of the manifestations of life. This Spirit of God is the only life there is. By it all creation exists. "You hide your face, they are troubled: You take away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. You send forth your spirit, they are created." (Psalm 104:29-30)
The words "breath" and "spirit" here used are identical in the original. That which causes the dust to hold together and form the body of a man is the life of the Creator. "In Him all things hold together." (Colossians 1:17,RV)
Death is simply the undoing of this connection between God's life and the dust. "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." (Ecclesiastes 12:7)
Many refuse to believe that it is in God they "live and move, and have [their] being," (Acts 17:28) but their unbelief cannot make the Word of God untrue.
A Test
There is a real test which every one may apply for himself, by which he may know if he really believes the inspired Word of God, or if he has been deceived by Satan and has been unwittingly drawn into unbelief, only different in degree from the rampant infidelity which made Jehoiakim burn the roll that rebuked his wicked course.
If we believe God's record of our creation we will know that we are only dust and that all the life we have is God's life. Since it is absurd that dust should presume to direct or control the Divine life, (Jeremiah 10:23; O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his steps) he who believes the Bible will in all his ways acknowledge the Lord and allow Him to direct. He will not lean to his own understanding, but will trust in the Lord with all his heart. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
The man who trusts in himself at all is trusting in vanity, (Job 15:31) a vain or empty thing. If he seems to be something when he is nothing, (Galatians 6:3) he is a lie. "Men of low degree are vanity," (Psalm 62:9)
But all men are alike, so that if a man thinks he is a little better than any other man, he too is only vanity. "And men of high degree are a lie." (Psalm 62:9)
It does not matter how high the degree. It may not be very much, or it may look down upon every one else in the world. However high it is, it is to that extent a lie. This is infidelity. No lie is of the truth, and the man who cherishes his own lie cannot receive God's truth.
Men of High Degree
Even among professing Christians this lie of "high degree" is found. Some will say that there are certain lines of work which they feel competent to undertake, certain temptations which they can easily meet, and because of this they feel of higher degree than others who can only make a lesser boast. Jesus, the Son of man, who was "the truth," in whom there was no lie, said, "I can of my own self do nothing." (John 5:30)
He knew that God dwelt in Him and did the works and spoke the words. (John 14:10) It is the spirit of self-exaltation, of high degree, that hinders faith. The man who knows himself to be vanity will listen humbly to the words of life spoken by his Creator, and will not presume to criticize them. "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at my word." (Isaiah 66:2) "How can you believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that comes from God only?" (John 5:44)
Jehoiakim thought himself of high degree, and looked upon other men as instruments of his vainglorious ambition. He built his house by unrighteousness, using his neighbor's service without wages, to make for himself a wide house and large chambers, (Jeremiah 22:13-14) and his eyes and his heart were filled with covetousness and oppression. (Jeremiah 22:17) Seeking honor for himself he could not believe the voice of the Lord, and this is the secret of his burning the roll.
But it was seen by all that his high degree was only a lie, for before his death the word of the Lord spoke concerning him: "He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem." (Jeremiah 22:19)--Present Truth, December 1, 1898--Notes on the International Sunday-School Lessons, December 11--Jeremiah 36:20-32
E.J. Waggoner