Jeremiah is called “the weeping prophet” because of his broken heart over people who rejected God’s Word. The book is sometimes broken, too, and is not always in chronological order.
God called Jeremiah to serve Him in the thirteenth year of the reign of King Josiah. Josiah was a good and godly king. The prophet continued to serve the Lord through the reigns of four more kings, the last kings of Judah. Of these last four kings, three were Josiah’s sons and one was his grandson. All of them were wicked men.
Jeremiah 22 follows a chapter in which God said He would bring a devastating attack against Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonian army. King Zedekiah sent messengers to Jeremiah, asking the prophet to intercede with God on behalf of Jerusalem. The king and the people had no regard for God, but with the Babylonian army outside the city’s walls Zedekiah had a change of heart and wanted God’s protection.
Even though Jeremiah responded to the messengers, he then went to the king’s house with the word of the Lord. A preacher sometimes has to go where there are people, and it seems there were many who could hear Jeremiah since we read in the second verse the reference to the king’s servants and “thy people that enter in by these gates.”
In his sermon, Jeremiah called for justice and righteousness toward all people. “Do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.” King Zedekiah and everyone having any authority at all should see their duty and being faithful representatives of God.
Jeremiah opened a little window of opportunity, saying if they would do good, there would be a long line of kings on the throne of David. If, however, the king refused to repent, “the king’s house of Judah” would be destroyed. His dwelling place would receive no more consideration than any other house in Jerusalem.
“Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon,” God said. These words applied to the king, the citizens and every structure in Jerusalem. Gilead was a fruitful and productive region, and Lebanon was a majestic mountain. Those were special places, and Jerusalem was the holy city, but God said He would make all of Judah a wilderness. Cities would become ghost towns.
One day people would ask why God allowed the destruction, and the answer would be, “they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.”
“Weep ye not for the dead,” God told the king and the people. Perhaps they longed for the days when Josiah lived. There is no security in the memories of yesterday. The present is all we have, and we must use it to prepare for eternity.
Do not be stiff-necked and idolatrous. This could be that little window of opportunity for someone to be saved. Listen to God.
The Sunday School Lesson is written by Ed Wilcox, pastor of Centerville Baptist Church. [email protected].