HE fourth year of Jehoiakim was the year following Nebhadnezzar’s first visit to Judah (See Dan. 1:1). This, the second son of Josiah to become king appears to have been the most wicked member of the family. 2 Chron. 36:8 gives a brief statement about his life; Jer. 22:17-19 gives a slightly longer one and promises for him the burial of an ass; Jer. 26:21-23 tells of his seeking out and murdering the prophet Urijah. He was made king of Judah by the reigning Pharaoh of Egypt, and later had to submit to Nebuchadnezzar, but rebelled after three years (2 Kings 24:1). Scripture does not record his death, and his name is omitted in the short chronology in Matthew 1.
Jeremiah appears from verse 5 to have suffered imprisonment at Jehoiakim’s hands. In chapter 26 we learn that he was seized by the priests, prophets and people because of the testimony he gave for God, and it was thought to kill him, but his life was spared. He may have been kept in prison from that time.
Divinely directed, Jeremiah got a roll of a book, and Baruch the son of Nerijah wrote down all the words of Jehovah which He had spoken to the prophet. In chapter 30, where the latter was instructed to write in a book what God had spoken to him, the object in view was to give written assurance that Israel and Judah would return to the land from which they were removed into captivity. Here the purpose was to reach the consciences of the people; perhaps they would, hearing the testimony of God’s word, return from their evil way when God could forgive their iniquity and sin. There is no evidence that the people were affected at all by the reading (verse 8).
We pass over to the following year in verse 9, with Baruch reading from the book in the ears of the people. Micah, the grandson of that Shaphan the scribe who lived in the time of Josiah and carried the long lost book of the law to the king (2 Kings 22; 2 Chron 34) heard the word of God and went down to Jehoiakim’s house where his father and others were sitting, to tell what Baruch had been reading. They therefore sent for the reader, and bade him read the writing to them.
Fear now filled the listeners; they would tell the king, but first told Baruch to hide both himself and Jeremiah. Next, by God’s ordering, Jehoiakim heard the word, with all the princes that stood beside him. This wicked man, though begged not to do it, destroyed the whole book in the fire which warmed the apartment, and next commanded that Baruch and Jeremiah be taken, doubtless with the intention of putting them to death. But Jehovah hid them; in these few words we learn that in some way the hand of God was stretched out to preserve His servants.
The burning of the roll added to the burden of sin at the door of the king, but did not affect the work of God. Jeremiah was directed to get another roll and write in it again all that had been written in the first one. To it more was added (verse 32). Jehoiakim, too, was to get a word from God as to himself (verse 30), and the judgment to come upon him and his children, his servants and the people of Jerusalem and Judah (verse 31).
This chapter give unmistakable testimony that God’s word was totally rejected by Judah,—king, priests, prophets and people.
ML-03/03/1935