Jehoiakim Series

The Last 3 Kings of Judah- Jehoiakim

CCCAG, Sept 18th, 2022

Scripture: 2 Kings 23:36-24:4

Have you ever trusted in the wrong person? (Feelings of betrayal)

We had a discussion recently at work about trusting people. The opinions varied from “I don’t trust anyone” to “I’m by nature a trusting person who gets hurt a lot”.

When they asked me, I said I trust everyone. They were a bit astonished by that as I’m one of the most skeptical people out there.

I clarified my statement with “I trust everyone to be who they really are”

If they are a weak person, I will expect them to lie when confronted.

If they are a prideful person, I will expect them to do everything they can to maintain the image that people have of them.

If they are timid, I expect them to crawl into their shell and sulk and not talk if the conversation becomes difficult.

I expect people to be human, with all of the interesting reactions that comes from the huge variations of personalities we see on a daily basis.

Jesus did the same- John’s Gospel- the apostle and not me, said he didn’t put his trust in humans, because he knew what was inside all humans.

So I do the same, and I don’t blame people for doubting me on occasion.

However, that doesn’t lessen the sting of betrayal when you have a person that you thought you could trust brazenly turn their back on you.

That’s one of the things that we will explore today in the 2nd of the last three kings of Judah. His name is Jehoiakim, and he was the older brother of the previous king who only reigned for 3 months before he was deposed.

Scripture

2 Kings 23:36

36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother’s name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah; she was from Rumah. 37 And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his predecessors had done.

24:1 During Jehoiakim’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the land, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. But then he turned against Nebuchadnezzar and rebelled. 2 The Lord sent Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite and Ammonite raiders against him to destroy Judah, in accordance with the word of the Lord proclaimed by his servants the prophets. 3 Surely these things happened to Judah according to the Lord’s command, in order to remove them from his presence because of the sins of Manasseh and all he had done, 4 including the shedding of innocent blood. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was not willing to forgive.

Prayer- healing the sting of betrayal

Trusting the right people

Not compromising

Repentance is always available

Jehoiakim’s life is a study in the perils of pragmatism.

If you don’t know what that is, pragmatism believes whatever works, do it regardless of the moral or ethical ramifications that action might produce.

Pragamatism is often what causes people to act in ways you’d never expect- like breaking a confidence or betraying you in ways that really hurt.

There is an extreme example of modern day pragmatism seen in those who believe in global climate change.

In the extreme fringes of that movement, there are those who hold to the belief that we need to reduce the world population from the current 8 billion people to only 500,000 to save the planet. What that means is we need to have 7 billion, 999 million, 500 thousand people die immediately.

My answer to them on that is, “Ok, you first”

Jehoiakim was a pragmatist in that he believed doing what was the easiest thing to do at any given situation. Unfortunately, he had no moral compass to guide those decisions so the decisions we pretty exclusively devoid of anything remotely resembling God’s will for that time.

In fact, the prophet Jeremiah sends him a written message giving him God’s instructions for a situation. Apparently, it was a lengthy scroll because as he read it, he would cut off the piece he had just read and throw it into the fire.

He trusted more in his own ideas and wisdom more than he trusted in Gods.

Let me show you an example here in 2nd Kings 23:35

I. He Trusted in Egypt 2 King 23:35 (Josephus)

2 Kings 23:35

35 Jehoiakim paid Pharaoh Neco the silver and gold he demanded. In order to do so, he taxed the land and exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land according to their assessments.

The Jewish historian Josephus gives us some background into why Jehoiakim paid off Pharoah Neco. Neco had just deposed his younger brother as King, and placed Jehoiakim on the throne of Judah. Basically, Neco wanted a puppet king in Judah as a buffer against Babylon should King Nebuchadnezzar decide to come west and try to conquer Egypt.