Tuesday, September 28, 2004
The Holy Prophet Baruch
Kellia: Jeremiah 22:10-23 Epistle: Ephesians 5:20-26 Gospel: St. Luke 3:23-4:1
Jeremiah 22:10-23, especially vss. 15, 16: "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." In today's reading, the Prophet Jeremiah speaks of three different kings of Judah:
Josiah (639-609 BC) and two of his sons who reigned successively after him, Shallum-Jehoahaz
(609 BC) and Eliakim-Jehoiakim (609-597 BC). In his prophecies, Jeremiah reveals God's
standards for evaluating human rulers. As you will notice, he speaks according to the word of the
Lord, providing us in clear portraits three of the standards used by the Lord to measure kings.
The first of God's standards for leaders concerns faithfulness to the bond of love between ruler
and people. To be separated from his land and people is the worst of destinies for a king, as
Jeremiah says: "Weep not for him who is dead, or bemoan him; but weep bitterly for him who
goes away, for he shall return no more to see his native land" (vs. 10).
In speaking thus, the Prophet was referring specifically to two of Judah's kings and the manner in
which their reigns abruptly ended: first, of the godly King Josiah who was slain during the battle
of Meggido in 609 BC by the forces of the Egyptian Pharaoh Necco, and, second, of Josiah's son,
Shallum, who reigned after him for three months before being dethroned. The young prince
Shallum was elevated to the throne taking the royal name, Jehoahaz. Although chosen by the
people, yet, after only three months, he was removed as king by his overlord, Pharaoh Necco and
taken into exile in Egypt, ultimately to die there. Why? He violated the bond of love with his
people, doing what was "evil in the sight of the Lord" (2 Kngs. 23:32).
"Weep bitterly for him," says Jeremiah (Jer. 22:10); for, unlike his father, whose body was taken
from the battlefield "in a chariot from Megiddo...to Jerusalem, and buried...in his own tomb" (2
Kngs. 23:30), Jehoahaz was torn from throne, native land and people. While the body of King
Josiah remained in the land and care of his people, Jehoahaz went into oblivion.
God's second standard for a ruler evaluates a leader's policies and practices on a scale stretching
between justice and injustice, between care for the defenseless and its opposite - self indulgence.
Hence, the Prophet declares, "Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his
upper rooms by injustice; who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing, and does not give him
his wages" (Jer. 22:13) - this word applied to Jehoiakim, brother of Jehoahaz..
The entire second section of the passage (vss. 13-23) is a scathing condemnation of this other,
self-indulgent son of Josiah. Called Eliakim before becoming king, he was put on the throne by
Pharaoh Necco with the name Jehoiakim when the Egyptian monarch jailed and permanently
exiled his half-brother Jehoahaz (2 Kngs. 23:34). Concerning a king's efforts to render judgment
for the poor, the Lord asks, "Is not this to know Me?" (Jer. 22:16), after which He excoriates
Jehoiakim for his injustice, "But you have eyes and heart only for your dishonest gain, for
shedding innocent blood, and for practicing oppression and violence" (Jer. 22:17).
A ruler's breach of love for his people and his failure to "do justice and righteousness" have a
common link to the third of God's measures for rulers, for when the Lord speaks, does a ruler
listen? (vs. 21). Rulers attune to the voice of the Lord, to His righteous ways, readily follow the
Lord's dictates. Jehoiakim never did. Therefore, the Lord prophesied that, "with the burial of an
ass he [would] be buried, dragged and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem" (vs. 19).
O Lord our Governor, have mercy upon the leaders of every nation in which Thy People dwell;
may they rule with justice, love and mercy, and walk humbly with Thee in all their ways.
