Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Mar/63

Contributor - T. Hogerwaard

Title - Hear Israel, The Lord is Our God; The Lord is Unique: Jeremiah (Second of six articles)

Topic - Jeremiah

HAS THE LORD AS GREAT DELIGHT IN BURNT OFFERINGS AND SACRIFICES AS IN OBEYING THE VOICE OF THE LORD? BEHOLD, TO OBEY IS BETTER THAN SACRIFICE, AND TO LISTEN THAN THE FAT OF RAMS. 1 Samuel 15:22

King Josiah's reform

It is the year 621 before Christ. The young king Josiah has ruled for 18 years now. Jeremiah the prophet has preached already for five years in the Name of God against idolatry, against hypocrisy, against cheating, stealing, oppression of the poor but with no result at all.

When Jeremiah points out to them that they are guilty, godless people, that they have forsaken God, that they commit crimes which cry to heaven every day, they deny it brazenly: "We never do anything of that kind. We are innocent."

But the political horizon has darkened in the meanwhile; the feared horsemen, the Scyths who have wrought destruction in the Near East are dangerously near to the land of Judah. That fact makes the people sober, they are concerned about the future, about life and possessions.

King Josiah, a Godfearing man wants to restore the Temple which is in a bad shape indeed; when there is no love for God, people do not care to keep Temple or Church in shape.

While working in the Temple one of the men finds a Book of Law, the Book of Deuteronomy that is. The learned men to whom they gave it to read, consider it important enough to inform the king and Josiah orders that the Book be read to him.

Probably the part which was read to the king consists of chapters 5-26 and 28 : 1-46 of the Book of Deuteronomy in our Bible. So terrible was the situation in Judah that there was not even a Book of Law left to guide priests and king and people in ways of God..The King listens and with growing concern and alarm he hears :

"You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He Who gives you power to get wealth; that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers as this day. And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you this day that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the Lord made to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your -God." Deut. 8:18-20.

The entire land of Judah is full of idols of every kind and description ; those of Assyria, to please the powerful overlord of that country, Ishtars and Baals and those of the sun-cult. There are as many idols in Judah as there are cities, says Jeremiah. This is the situation and -From the Book king Josiah has heard what the will of God is. The scribe reads on and on ; the king is paralyzed with fear when he hears

"But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all His commands and His statutes which I command you this day, then all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. Cursed you shall be in the city and cursed you shall be in the field. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading through. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out". Deut. 28: 15-29.

The king knows only too well that the present situation in Judah fits the threats in the Book of Deuteronomy perfectly : they can expect the outpouring of God's wrath any time.

Finally the scribe has finished reading. The king rents his garments in sorrow and distress because of the unspeakable guilt which Judah has brought upon herself. Terrible punishment will surely be meted out!

God's Word confirmed

The king sends messengers to the prophetess Huldah to inquire what the Word of God in the present situation is. The Word of God spoken by Huldah confirms every word written in that Book they found in the Temple.

Because Judah has forsaken the Lord, worshipping worthless idols instead, the wrath of God will be poured out upon the people of Judah. The Judge of heaven and earth will not destroy the righteous with the unrighteous ones together. King Josiah repented; he was filled with sorrow and distress when he heard the Word of the Lord ; therefore, God will not bring this evil upon Judah in Josiah's days ; the punishment will be postponed, another time of grace, 13 years will be granted to them, 13 years to repent, to mend their ways. This period is given to Judah only and exclusively for the sake of Josiah, the last Godfearing king on David's throne in Jerusalem.

The Reform

Now the king acts in accordance with his newly acquired knowledge. Priests and people are summoned to Jerusalem to be instructed about God's will. All of them promise solemnly that henceforth they will walk blamelessly before God's countenance ; the service in the Temple is reorganized; the idols destroyed, their shrines defiled and the pagan priests, the instruments of evil and seduction, put to death. Led by the king the whole of Judah's population partakes in the religious revival, strongly mixed with nationalistic feelings and political ambitions. Even beyond the borders the idols are destroyed. In the meanwhile the feared horsemen - the Scyths - have gone back to their homeland. The people are now in a victorious mood. Have not the glorious days of King David come back ?

"Surely", they think, "God is on our side again, as He was in David's days". Now the glory of David's reign must be restored as well. There is nothing to fear from the Assyrians anymore; the men of Nineveh have enough trouble to keep the enemies from their borders: what a golden opportunity for Judah and its king to extend the power and enlarge Judah's territory

But in the meanwhile another man has cast covetous eyes upon the rich lands of Asia Minor which are no longer under the rule of Assyria. King Necho of Egypt, the Pharaoh, comes eastward with a huge army. Josiah wants to enter into a contest of power with him. The Egyptian king advises Josiah to be satisfied with his power in Judah, but the king of Judah is stubborn and does not listen. The battle is fought in the fields of Megiddo in the year 609 B . C. Judah is utterly defeated ; king Josiah is killed. His dead body is brought back to Jerusalem. The people mourn for him a long time remembering all the blessings they received during his benevolent reign.

To succeed Josiah the people chose Joahas, his son, as their king. His reign lasted only three months; wicked and godless, like so any of his forefathers, was he. However, the Pharaoh is the supreme lord now; the king of Egypt takes Joahas as a prisoner to Egypt where he dies. Judah has to pay an enormous sum to Pharaoh and the Egyptian king appoints another of Josiah's sons, Jojakim, as king of Judah. All this took place four years before the great battle between Egypt and Babylonia near Karkemis was fought, where the Babylonian king destroyed the Egyptian power completely.

Jeremiah's reaction to king Josiah's reform

Josiah has put an end to the worship of idols; he restored the holy service in the Temple. Was this not the crown upon Jeremiah's work, was he not delighted beyond measure with Josiah's reform? Did he greet and bless the king in the Name of God as the one who had executed God's holy will?

It is very conspicuous that Jeremiah did not comment at all upon the reform of king Josiah.

Not one word of joy, not one expression of consent, nothing ! Only once is the name of king Josiah mentioned in Jeremiah -3 Book. And not in connection with Josiah's reform at all! At the time the godless Jojakim suppressed the people and robbed them of everything they had in order to raise the sums required to satisfy his crazy building fury, Jeremiah told him : "Do you think you are a king because you compete in cedar ? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness ? Then it was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor and needy ; then it was well. Is not this to know Me, says the Lord. (Jeremiah 22 :15-16). So was the father! How was the son? But you have eyes and heart only for your dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for practicing oppression and violence" (Jeremiah 22 :17).

That Josiah renewed the Temple and restored the holy worship in it ; that he aroused the nationalistic feelings and that he gave back to Judah political self-confidence, Jeremiah passes over as something not even worth mentioning. He praised king Josiah for something dear to the heart of Jeremiah because it is dear to the heart of God, that is - - to execute justice and righteousness ; to protect the widows, the orphans and the oppressed. That is to know God; that is genuine worship of God, but not the slaughtering of animals in the Temple-court!

The prophetic view

Is it not remarkable that Jeremiah kept his peace all those years which passed since Josiah's reform till the day the king met his death in Megiddo ?

For five years Jeremiah had preached and laboured and suffered without any result - as a lonely man of God. And when after those five years the revival begins, accompanied by high waves of nationalistic pride and political self-consciousness, Jeremiah stepped aside and stopped preaching.

This revival was not what he had worked for, prayed for and suffered for. Jeremiah did not say one word. He did not want to discourage the upright and sincere king, but he could not encourage him either.

The judgment which he had announced in God's Name had not been executed ; the prosperity in which Judah delighted and which they took as a token of God's favour was for Jeremiah very suspicious.

During twelve years Jeremiah remained silent, but observed keenly what was happening. Twelve years of a postgraduate course which God gave him. And during this long period God burned into his soul the unshakable conviction that all external service of God is worthless in case the heart has no part in it. The honest desire to walk in God's ways is the only thing that counts.

Worse instead of better

The religious reform did not take root in the people ; there was no conversion, no turning back to God It was engineered from the court of the king.

Conversion in the heart, circumcision of the heart had not taken place; the reform of the Temple had placed the emphasis on the wrong things; therefore, in Jeremiah's eyes it was a complete failure! It did not last long before t was perfectly clear that the 'hearts of the people after Josiah's reform were even harder than before; the hardening of their hearts had proceeded. The conflict between the people and Jeremiah was to be in the future more vehement and dangerous than before.

There had been no breaking up of the fallow ground so that the good seed of the Book of Deuteronomy could have been sowed in well prepared soil the hearts remained hard as the road in Jesus' parable!

Now the terrible situation existed that godless men took Godfearing expressions in their mouth. Instead of the open apostasy from God there was now hypocrisy: do as if.

In the words of Isaiah, quoted by our Lord Jesus Christ:

"This people honour Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me".

As a youth of only 21 years of age Jeremiah had been called by God ; during 5 long and hard years he had struggled and suffered in all the towns and cities of Judah ; a pessimistic fool in the eyes of many and sundry, and when finally the great revival came, he was not satisfied. The best years of his life went by ; it seemed that his task was over, while he had accomplished nothing! When king Josiah died, Jeremiah was already a man of 40.

The more important the task, the longer the time of preparation

But, as is so often the case with men whom God wants to use for a special task, the long period of preparation is an indication of the importance of the task which God wants to be carried out. John the Baptist's preparation lasted 30 years and then he worked only for one year and a half ; the preparation of Moses was finished when he was an old man of eighty ; 40 long years he had led the quiet uneventful life of a shepherd in the desert. And when he thought that his life was almost over, his life task began.

For twelve long years Jeremiah did nothing. But in those years God showed him so that he never would forget it that external religion and hypocrisy are hateful in God's holy eyes.

Therefore: Away with all the calves and steers! Away with your gifts meant to bribe the Holy One of Israel! What does it mean to God that you restored the Temple, only to turn it into a den of robbers ?

Sweep clean the altars! Bring no more sacrifices and burnt offerings! God is fed up with the endlessly and untiringly Jeremiah will repeat the words of Micah:

"HE HAS SHOWN YOU, 0 MAN, WHAT IS GOOD. WHAT DOES THE LORD REQUIRE OF YOU BUT TO DO JUSTICE, TO LOVE KINDNESS AND TO WALK HUMBLY WITH YOUR GOD". Micah 6: 6 - 8

That's what counted in Micah's day, that's what counted in Jeremiah s days, that's what counts in our days as well.

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