Lux Lucet

Jehoiakim Burns the Scroll, Caspar Luiken 1672-1708.

What to write?  That’s the question all bloggers must face.  Sometimes the answer comes quickly.  Sometimes it doesn’t. 

With campaign season hitting its big crescendo last week, my mind’s been focused on the election. But now that it has passed, where do I go from here? There’s the series on immigration I’ve been writing. I haven’t forgotten about it. Lord willing, I plan to finish it sometime later this month. But today didn’t strike me as a day to write about immigration.

So back to the question of what to write about. Perhaps due in part to the recently concluded election, the specter of national and civilizational decline is often at the forefront of my thoughts.

Perhaps another reason for this is my Scripture reading. Recently, I’ve been focused on the prophets, Jeremiah in particular. And I never get very far in the prophets before I find myself saying “This could have been written yesterday about America!”

And it’s true, too. Edward Gibbons’ masterpiece of history The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is often cited by writers who want to advance some reason or another for the obvious, ongoing collapse of Western Civilization in our own time.

But there is a far better text to use if we want to gain insight on the problems we face in 21st century America. Of course, I’m referring to the Bible. And in particular the historical books of I and II Samuel,
I and II Kings,
I and II Chronicles and the prophets. Taken together, they could almost be subtitled The Decline and Fall of the Hebrew Republic.

Samuel was the last of the judges and the anointer of the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David. It was during Samuel’s judgeship that Israel made the critical error in asking for a king (big government) in place of the limited, constitutional republic set up by God in the law of Moses.

If we were to summarize the history of Israel under the kings, we could say that the kingdom rapidly grew in power under the rule of David, hit its peak under his son Solomon, then split in two – the northern and southern kingdoms – under Solomon’s son Rehoboam. From there, the two kingdoms followed a centuries long trajectory of decline with the northern kingdom falling to Assyrian in 722 BC, and the southern kingdom to Babylon in 586 BC.

What makes the history of this decline and fall so relevant today is that the reader is not, as he is with secular history, left to decide for himself the reasons behind the disasters that befell Israel and Judah. The Word of God tells him explicitly: the people of Israel refused to heed the Lord and suffered the covenant curses pronounced in Deuteronomy 28.

Jeremiah, the Madness of King Jehoiakim, and the Judgment of God

Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry spanned the years immediately before and immediately after the fall of Jerusalem. He was present in the city at the time it was taken by Nebuchadnezzar’s army.

In the years leading up to the sack of Jerusalem, Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry managed to earn him a reputation as one of the most unpopular men ever. Hated by the rulers of Judah, he was threatened with death for his words and imprisoned on the false charge that he was defecting to the Babylonians.

Through it all, the Lord preserved Jeremiah, allowing him to continue write even while shut up in prison.

On one notable occasion, the Lord spoke to Jeremiah, saying, “Take a scroll of a book and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah even to this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the adversities which I purpose to bring upon them, that everyone may turn from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin” (Jeremiah 36:2).

When Baruch, Jeremiah’s scribe, read from the completed scroll in public, some of the leaders of Judah were alarmed at the message of judgment he brought to their hearing. So alarmed were they, that they told Jeremiah and Baruch to go into hiding while they read the scroll to Jehoiakim, then king of Judah.

Although some of the religious leaders were greatly affected by Jeremiah’s message, the king was of another spirit altogether.

Scripture records his reaction when the scroll was read to him.

And it happened, when Jehudi had read three of four columns [of the scroll] that the king cut it with the scribe’s knife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. Yet they were not afraid, nor did they tear their garments, the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words. Nevertheless Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah implored the king not to burn the scroll/ but he would not listen to them. And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son, Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but the LORD hid them (Jeremiah 36:23-26).

Now Jehoiakim was not an ignorant man. His father was king Josiah, among the godliest men ever to sit on the throne of Judah. Jehoiakim must have been aware of his father’s zeal for the Lord. On one memorable occasion, Josiah, perceiving the great sin of the nation, tore his cloths when the law of God was read to him.

But in his madness Jehoiakim was not of a mind to listen to rebuke. Calvin describes Jehoiakim’s reaction thus,

Now as to the king, we see in him as in a glass how monstrous is their blindness who are the slaves of Satan. Surely the king, when God so thundered in his ears, ought to have been terrified. He could not indeed treat the word with ridicule, but he became enraged, and acted violently like a rabid wild beast, and vented his rage against the roll itself!

Many in Jehoiakim’s day thought that freedom was to be found in rejecting the old paths and doing what was pleasing in their own eyes. But their freedom was a mirage. They were, as Calvin tells us, slaves of Satan.

But rejecting God’s Word, even burning it, does nothing to remove God’s judgment. God responded to Jehoiakim’s rebellion through Jeremiah, saying,

You have burned this scroll saying, ‘Why have yu written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and cause man and beast to cease from here?’ Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. I will punish him, his family, and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring on them, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah all the doom that I have pronounced against them; but they did not heed (Jeremiah 36:29-31).

The Scripture goes on to report that the scroll that was destroyed by Jehoiakim was re-written and make even more emphatic with the addition of many similar words which were added to the original document.

Application

So just what lessons does the account of Jehoiakim’s refusal to hear the Word of God have for 21st century American?

First, the ultimate cause of national decline is not economics or politics. National decline and fall is primarily a spiritual matter. When God commanded Jeremiah to write the scroll, he did so as a call to repentance, “It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the adversities which I purpose to bring upon them, that everyone may turn from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

Now, it is true that a nation that turns its back on God will ultimately find its economic and political system in ruins. But economic collapse and tyrannical government are the results of a prior rejection of God.

Second, however much we try to ignore the law of God and cause it to cease from before us, it will not go away. Just as Jehoiakim could not destroy the Word of God by knife and by fire, so too we cannot nullify one jot or tittle of the law. Although backers of the LGBT agenda have, at least for now, managed to impose their will on the nation, in the end they will face judgment, perhaps in this life, and certainly in the next.

Third, God is patient. The nation of Israel had been on a glidepath of decline for over three hundred years when Jehoiakim burned Jeremiah’s scroll. During that period, God could have pulled the plug any time he wanted, and he would have been just in doing so. But he was patient, sending his prophets to call the people to repentance.

Fourth, God always has his remnant. Even though the head of state was ungodly king Jehoiakim, even though the nation was in an advanced state of decay, still there were those who feared God in positions of authority in Judah. Faithful men who were willing to risk all to tell the king what he didn’t want to hear. When the king took it upon himself to destroy the Word of God, the Scripture tells, “Nevertheless Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah implored the king not to burn the scroll; but he would not listen to them.”

The principle that God works in remnants is especially important for Christians in the West to remember. It’s easy for us to despair and make the mistake of supposing, as Elijah once did, that all is lost and everyone and everything is against us.

But of all people, Christians ought to take heart. The right man is on our side, even Jesus Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father, who will return to judge the world in righteousness. And even in this degenerate day, he still has his 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. He alone will make us sufficient for our task.

Fifth, God is in charge. The rise and fall of nations is in his hand and he is sovereign over the affairs of all men everywhere. Had God so wished, Jehoiakim would have to repented and Judah would have been saved. But it was in God’s eternal decree to harden the king’s heart.

Sixth, God is just to do this. Someone may say, “Why does his still find fault?” But as Isaiah and Paul both noted, God is the potter and we are the clay. Whatever God does is, by virtue of his doing it, just.

Seventh, the madness of king Jehoiakim was for the good of his elect. We cannot say for certain in every way how Jehoiakim’s rejection of the Word of God is a blessing to God’s chosen people, but we know that it is. If nothing else, Jehoiakim’s words and actions can serve as an example of what Christians ought not do. As the saying goes, nothing is completely useless, it can always serve as a bad example.

Conclusion

As American Christians face the prospect of the incoming Trump administration, it is tempting either to fall into despair or, to borrow a turn of phrase from Alan Greenspan, indulge in irrational exuberance.

As the people of God, we must remain sober minded and faithful to him who called us. Our job is to be salt and light in what has become a very dark world. Remember to pray for Donald Trump and for all those in authority and to seek the peace of the city. Pray that the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news of justification by faith alone, would convert the hearts of many.

I do not know what to expect from a Trump administration. Perhaps he will be a Josiah. Perhaps a Jehoiakim. Perhaps something in between. But in any case, let the people of God trust fully in him. For whatever happens, we know it is part of God’s eternal decree, which will be for his own glory and for the good of his people.