An Unrepentant King

by: Michael Wilcock

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, where wealth accumulates, and men decay.

So wrote the poet Oliver Goldsmith more than two centuries ago. His words apply equally well to Jeremiah’s society, or to ours. It was not so much about wealth in Israel’s case (though Jeremiah 22 does tell us of Jehoiakim’s extravagance in building himself a new palace when more serious matters required his attention). But when the most powerful man in the land has “decayed” to the point where he is prepared to burn publicly the message God is sending him, the end cannot be far off.

He was by no means alone in this cavalier attitude to his true Overlord. Along with most of his nation he was more concerned to keep on the right side of the kings of Babylon or Egypt. The power politics of the day seemed much more important than the words of that tiresome preacher Jeremiah.

People like Jehoiakim are bound to discover sooner or later that you cannot dismiss – or (worse) try to destroy – God’s messages and get away with it. He and his palaces have long since turned to dust, but Jeremiah and Baruch simply went back to the writing desk and produced a new and enlarged edition of their book, which has never since been out of print.