The Prophets Weren’t Joking (Part B)

As I live, says Yahweh, though Kaniyia, Jeremiah added, you're not going to name him Jehoiakim or Yahkoniah, he just cut him off. Though Kaniyia the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet on my right hand, yet I would pluck you off. Oh man, God is saying if you were a pretty ring on my finger, I'd throw you away.

That's how bad you are. That's like saying your house is so bad they had to fix it before they condemned it. The prophets weren't joking is the title of Pastor Rick's message, and today he'll be teaching in 2 Kings chapter 24. Later, Jehoiakim, this present king, and they tried to kill Baruch and Jeremiah too, and they couldn't get them, but they killed others. Their continuous evil made it impossible for God to bypass the judgment.

God pardoned the sins of Manasseh who repented, but not the sins of those who imitated him and upheld the evil that he brought in and repented not. And so if the people did not truly catch Josiah's vision for righteousness, then they would not escape the judgment. If they wouldn't catch the vision of Josiah's righteousness, then they would catch the wrath of God. Verse 5, and that's true.

Now, I mean, if you don't receive the gospel, what is the alternative? Now, the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah, and you could add, and also in Jeremiah, because Jeremiah has a lot of interaction with this monster. Among the recorded atrocities of this Jehoiakim, just three I'll name, of course his execution of Uriah the prophet, who said the same things that Jeremiah was saying.

The nation's going to fall. God's going to judge us. And he escaped to Egypt. To Egypt they sent their hit men, they brought him back, and they killed him. And the Bible tells us that God hid Jeremiah and Baruch from Jehoiakim and his henchmen. This king Jehoiakim destroyed the copy of Jeremiah's prophecy in a fit of anger. He took out his knife and threw it in the fire, and Jeremiah says, that's where I got a copy. It's like he's such an knucklehead.

You think I came in here, you think I sent this letter in here without a copy? And of course there were repeated attempts to kill Jeremiah and Baruch. That's in Jeremiah 26 and Jeremiah 36. Verse 6 now of 2 Kings 24. So Jehoiakim rested with his father, then Jehoiakim, his son, reigned in his place.

Well if you're trying to find some association so you can remember the difference, there's not. You just have to remember one is Kim, the other is Chin. The Chin comes after the Kim. And just think, Jehoiakim's not his given name.

So you get into more problems. And same with Jehoiakim, who has three names. And that's going to be exciting. We'll get to that in just a moment. So it says he rested from life on earth. But we know he didn't rest from life after earth. And there is life after earth.

There's eternal life and there's the lost life that continues nonetheless. So brief review of the comments from verse 1. He died and changed this Jehoiakim with no lamentation. Body treated like a donkey. It's more graphic when you use the old King James language because they don't use the word donkey. They have a shorter word. Anyway, they cast him beyond the gates of Jerusalem, Jeremiah 36.

This is what I said I was going to read about it later in a little more detail. God speaking through the prophet Jeremiah. His dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night.

This bloated carcass. This is the commentary God has on this man. And you want to say to the unbeliever, listen, God is not joking around. He didn't die on the cross so you could, you know, thumb your nose at him. Isaiah 48 2. There is no peace, says Yahweh, for the wicked. So it says he rested with his fathers.

It's not the rest from trouble. That means he's not here anymore. Then Jehoiachin, his son reigned in his place, still in verse 6. Now he reigns for three months and 10 days.

It couldn't take him anymore. This king is known by three names, as I mentioned. Jehoiachin, Yahweh establishes. Yahkoniah, a variant of that.

And then the satire from Jeremiah. Jeremiah, the prophet, calls him Kaniyah. He refuses to attach Yah, Yahweh, Yahkoniah to his name. So he just calls him Kaniyah. He blots him out. Jeremiah, you got to love that man.

Because was he tough until the stuff he had to put up with. But he had the insight to disassociate the wicked from any connection with righteousness. He wouldn't say, yeah, well, but the good thing is, and he said, there's no good thing. This guy's a creep through and through. It's the same way with bad doctrine.

Don't give them a courtesy. Yeah, well, you don't have a good point. That's why it's bad doctrine. This man, Kaniyah, Jehoiachin, he insisted on being of no use to God. Well, are you surprised by that?

Maybe you were that way at one point. As Paul said to the Corinthians, and such were some of you, but God saved you. And this Kaniyah, again, his name originally meant Yahweh establishes, and Jeremiah cut the Yahweh part off and just said, yeah, he's established, but not by Yahweh. Jeremiah 22 verse 28, is this man, Kaniyah, a despised broken idol? This was God speaking through Jeremiah.

A vessel in which is no pleasure. He's useless to God. Why are they cast out? He and his descendants and cast into a land which they do not know. Yeah, because he was carted off to Babylon and stayed in jail there until he was 55.

37 years of jail time. The prophet continues, O earth, O earth, O earth, hear the word of Yahweh. Thus says Yahweh, write this man down as childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days, for none of his descendants shall prosper, sitting on the throne of David and ruling anymore in Judah. I'm done with him. That's what God says. And ultimately, he and his mama are carried off captives to Babylon. God is not joking.

He's not playing around. And we come to a Bible study and we say, well, we want to hear what the Bible has to say to men, to me. Well, there it is. The prophets are very serious.

And when we preach the gospel, we better be very serious about it. It's no joke. Talk about, you know, what does it mean to be cool? Well, one definition, in its colloquial form, is that you are appealing, but the other one is that you are acceptable. So you say, no, no, no, he's cool. Or, man, I want to be cool like that. Well, that second one, though, you know, he's cool.

Acceptable. We don't want to be cool to the world. We're not trying to appeal to them on their terms.

We want to be appealing through truth, on our terms, because they're God's terms. But we do not want to gravitate. Have you met someone, maybe they come from a nice family and they gravitate?

They date people that are bums? It's like, what are you doing? You weren't raised that way. My mom used to say to me a lot, I didn't raise you that way. I mean, it would hurt. I mean, it was like, yeah, you're right.

I mean, and she'd know better. I really wasn't a bad boy. I was a good boy. At least they didn't catch me.

So I retained my good boy status. Verse 7, and the king of Egypt did not come out of his land anymore, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates. And so the Babylonians and Nebuchadnezzar, they were a juggernaut, man. Nothing could stop them. Judah had based her hope in Egypt, but God prohibited Judah from being helped.

And this was another warning. They didn't get it. You say, well, was it wasted on them?

Well, it was wasted on some of them, not all of them, and not future generations of individuals. Verse 8, Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. And it doesn't say here 10 days, but it does elsewhere. His mother's name was Nahushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. Oh, that's a cute name, Nahushta. Hello, little Nahushta, when she was a little baby. Verse 9, it means brazen, but not, you know, like brass.

It may have been skin tone or something with birth or who knows. Verse 9, and he did evil in the sight of Yahweh according to all that his father had done. So in that little bit of time, three months, he let his colors be seen. And again, Kings 25 and Jeremiah 52 tell us that he was 37 years a prisoner, and he's released not by Nebuchadnezzar's son, Evel Modak, and he's released when he's 55, but he never sees Jerusalem again. So to Jeremiah, Jehoiachin, the father of this three-month king, he was not entitled to be treated as a human at death, just a carcass, a commentary. This one, his son, no association with God. He was blotted out. He shall not have a descendant on the throne.

He has children, but he's going to be, mark him down as childless. They don't count, because they were just as wicked. The satire of the scripture is meant to jar the conscience.

It's not just picking at people. Incidentally, as I may have mentioned, Zerubbabel, his grandson, and he will lead the captives back to Jerusalem, some of them, and then it's the mercy of God. It's the mercy of God. Yeah, I know your grandfather was a creep.

I blotted him out. Now, how about you? Would you like to serve?

Yeah, and that is just wonderful, is it not? And verse 10, at that time, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged, verse 11, and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, and his servants were besieging it. Now, this is the second siege. Jehoiachim was the first one when he rebelled.

Now his son rebels, and this is the second siege. No Assyria or Egypt to help. Babylon has conquered Assyria completely and assimilated into the Babylonian kingdom, and Egypt is just powerless. If Nebuchadnezzar wanted to, he could just take all of Egypt.

He took enough of it. Isaiah, he writes this in his first chapter, how the faithful city has become a harlot. He's speaking about Jerusalem. 116 years about, 115 like to round it off, 115 years before these events, he writes, how the faithful city has become a harlot. It was full of justice, righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers.

This is what God is dealing with. So as you read the words, there is a history between the lines, and the history is this. The people have become rotten. We're seeing it in our culture compared to previous cultures.

Is there one like this one? Here's a timeline of Israel and Jerusalem's destruction. 722 years before Christ, thereabout, the Assyrians conquer the northern kingdom. They come down to try to take the southern kingdom.

They can't do it. The Davidic line is preserved. The 115 years later, the Babylonians conquer Assyria at the Battle of Carchemish, and then at that time, King Josiah is killed in action, interfering in world politics without the leading of the Lord. He's still a good king, but that's just one of two things we know about him that were sub-par for righteous kings. He multiplied wives.

They all did. They're not picking on Josiah. He's a great king. Then, about three or four years later, 605, thereabout, the Babylonians come against Jerusalem when Jehoiachim, the son of Josiah, is king, and that's when they take Daniel as a youth, and then about eight years later, they come again. They besiege Jerusalem because Jehoiachin is now the king. Ezekiel at 25 is led away captive, and Jehoiachin is taken captive also, and then Zedekiah will be put on the throne. Then 593, Ezekiel is about 30 years old and five years a captive. He becomes a public prophet. In 586, Babylon again besieges Jerusalem because Zedekiah gets up, but he was bad. You don't mess with Nebuchadnezzar. You would think he would look out the window and say, let's see what's happened to Egypt, what's happened to Assyria, what happened to my dad, what happened to my grandfather. You would think he doesn't do any of that, and he was the weakest of the three sons of Josiah. He wanted to help Jeremiah, but then he, well, throw him in jail.

He's just a nut. So again, Babylon again comes, besieges Jerusalem, and destroys it completely, the temple and everything. 538 BC, about 70 years later, Zerubbabel returns with the repatriates. So that's a brief timeline.

We have still some more here in chapter 24 though. Verse 12, then Jehoiachin, king of Judah, his mother, his servants, his princes, and his officers went out to the king of Babylon, and the king of Babylon, in the eighth year of his reign, took him prisoner. So he went out there, you know, he says, I want to have a parlay. And they come out and they say, you know what?

You're not going back into the city. Cuff him. And that's what happened. Jeremiah, of course, prophesied of this moment, and he lived to see it happen.

And as I mentioned in the beginning, he may have seen more of his prophecies fulfilled than any of the Old Testament prophets. Now that's a clinical observation. I have not documented it yet. I've started, but it's so hard. It's really hard. So, anyway, I'll take this Jeremiah 22.

It's a little long. As I live, says Yahweh, though Canaiah, and see there's Jeremiah at it. He's not going to name him Jehoiakim or Jachaniah. He's just cut him off. Though Canaiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet on my right hand, yet I would pluck you off.

Oh, man. God is saying if you were a pretty ring on my finger, I'd throw you away. That's how bad you are.

That's like saying your house is so bad they had to fix it before they condemned it. And I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life and into the hand of those whose face you fear. The hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and the hand of the Chaldeans. So there's Jeremiah. Before Jehoiachin, before he is taken away, Jeremiah is calling it. And then he lives to see it happen or finish it. So I will cast you out, you and your mother, who bore you into another country where you were not born, and there you shall die. So you and your mama.

I mean, this is entertaining for us, not then. Thorough is God. He says, verse 27 of Jeremiah 22, but to the land to which they desire to return, they shall not return, is this man, Kaniyia, a despised broken idol? Okay, I read this part earlier. A vessel in which is no pleasure. So that's God's view.

I don't want to ask God what you think of me if I'm not right with him. But as we get to 2 Chronicles 5, we know that the righteousness of Christ is on those who belong to Christ, and it washes away whatever wickedness, all of it, that is there. Anyway, we move on to verse 13, 2 Kings 24, verse 13. And he carried out from there all the treasures of the house of Yahweh and the treasures of the king's house, and he cut in pieces all the articles of gold which Solomon, king of Israel, had made in the temple of Yahweh.

Of course, this is terrible. You know, this is their beautiful temple that they trashed. But the removal of temple treasures always emphasized that the sins of Judah's kings brought harm to God's house. Today, the pastors who depart from the Scripture and stay in the pulpit bring harm to God's house. The treasures have been taken away. And those who sit there and support it, you would like to think they would think twice about it, but some people go to church for wine and circus to just have their carnality pampered.

I would not want to be a Christian looking for a church today. I just would rather not go through that. Imagine the stuff you've got, what are they going to do next? What's the next thing going to come out of that guy's mouth?

Or what is not going to come out of their mouth? It says here in verse 13, as the Lord had said. Well, he's talking about Isaiah's prophecy. Remember when King Hezekiah was sick, he was going to die, and then he was healed, and emissaries from Babylon come down, and it's a little country at the time, and we just want to see how you're doing, and he brought you some fruit basket. So he shows him everything. And Isaiah comes in and says, What did you show him?

Everything. And I say, he says, And behold, the days are coming, said Isaiah, 2 Kings 20, verse 17, when all that is in your house and what your fathers have accumulated until this day shall be carried to Babylon, nothing shall be left, says Yahweh. And we're seeing it in verse 13, that prophecy now fulfilled. So as many prophecies as there are that are not fulfilled yet, there are many in the Bible that have already been fulfilled. Not talking about messianic prophecies, just other prophecies concerning God's people and God's enemies. Verse 14, Also he carried into captivity all Jerusalem, all the captains and all the mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives and all the craftsmen and smiths.

None remained except the poorest people of the land. And so he's breaking their ability to rebel. Ezekiel is in this number, incidentally. Verse 15, And he carried Jehoiachin captive to Babylon, the king's mother, the king's wives, his officers, and the mighty of the land he carried into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. And, you know, we look at Daniel, what they did, we have no reason to believe that all of this was harsh, though they, when Zedekiah gets taken away, it's harsh. They will kill his sons in front of him and they will blind him. So let's not think that, oh, you know, this isn't so bad.

Three meals, you know, no room, board to pay. No, it's still not good. When he is released from jail 37 years later, there is no Jerusalem to go back to. Verse 16 now, All the valiant men, seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths, one thousand, all who were strong and fit for war, these the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon. Verse 17, Then the king of Babylon made Matheniah, Jehoiachin's uncle, king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah.

I mean, it's kind of rude. I don't like that name. You're going to be Zedekiah from now on. Zedekiah, very unlikable, not as violent as Jehoiachin and Kim, although Chin didn't get enough time to do his dirt. Three months didn't work out well. This is a display of ownership by changing his name and instead of the gift from the Lord, now the Lord is my righteousness.

And they say, are you kidding me? There's nothing righteous about this guy. Very sad story because when you're reading the prophecies of Jeremiah, Jeremiah is that close several times to escaping persecution and Zedekiah is the one that can make him safe and he doesn't because he's more afraid of his counselors and Jeremiah suffers for it. Verse 18, Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamuthal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah, certainly not Jeremiah the prophet. So he has an 11 year reign.

I don't think there's really much more to comment about him. 11 years he has interaction with Babylon until finally he messes it. He's going to seek help from Egypt too and that's what's going to get him in trouble. Verse 19, he also did evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that Jehoiakim had done. Jehoiakim's his brother.

Jehoiakim and Shin, those are his brothers. Verse 20, for because of the anger of Yahweh, this happened in Jerusalem and Judah that he finally cast them out from his presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. His rebellion was a great offense because he swore to Nebuchadnezzar by Yahweh.

I am going to be playing by the rules and he does not. And it was a big mistake and he will die for it. 2 Chronicles 36, as Yahweh, God of their fathers, sent warnings to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending them because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. You can say to someone you're sharing the gospel with, listen, my sharing the gospel with you is God having compassion on you.

And what are you going to do with it? The prophets weren't joking. Neither were the apostles. And all that they wrote, it's not a joke. The judgments, the prophecies to come, they're very serious. Let the earth be warned. That's the gospel message. Thanks for joining us for today's edition on Cross-Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston in Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.

We trust that what you've heard today in the book of 2 Kings has been something to remember. If you'd like to listen to more teachings from this series, go to crossreferenceradio.com. Once more, that's crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. Our time is about up, but we hope you'll tune in again next time as we continue on in the book of 2 Kings. We look forward to that time with you, so make a note in your calendar to join Pastor Rick as he teaches from the Bible right here on Cross-Reference Radio.