Jer 22:1-16  Was Not This to Know Me?

[Study Aired October 24, 2021]

Jer 22:1  Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
Jer 22:2  And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:
Jer 22:3  Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.
Jer 22:4  For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.
Jer 22:5  But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.
Jer 22:6  For thus saith the LORD unto the king’s house of Judah; Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited.
Jer 22:7  And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.
Jer 22:8  And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this great city?
Jer 22:9  Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.
Jer 22:10  Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.
Jer 22:11  For thus saith the LORD touching Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more:
Jer 22:12  But he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.
Jer 22:13  Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;
Jer 22:14  That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.
Jer 22:15  Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?
Jer 22:16  He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the LORD.

These first two verses reveal to whom the Lord is addressing these words:

Jer 22:1  Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
Jer 22:2  And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:

Keep in mind who and what the Lord, through the pen of Isaiah, means by the words “the king of Judah and thy people who enter in by these gates [of Jerusalem].” Jeremiah and Isaiah are sent by the Lord to the exact same people. Here is who and what the Lord means by the words, “the king of Judah and thy people who enter in by these gates.”

Isa 1:1  The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Isaiah was also sent to “Judah and Jerusalem” and to kings “Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah”, and this is who the Lord says the king of Judah and his people are:

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

It is the Lord Himself who equates His own people as a murdering harlot. It is the Lord Himself who considers those who claim His name and reject His doctrine to be “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth”:

Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

It was the “great whore” of Revelation 17-18 who “murdered” our Lord. This “great whore”, this “harlot” is revealed to be those who think of themselves as the Lord’s own chosen people. This “harlot” is any and all men who claim to know God but refuse to be obedient to Him.

Isa 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
Isa 1:3  The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
Isa 1:4  Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

That “sinful nation” includes each of us, while we are first a part of this great whore before we are dragged out of her:

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [G1670: ‘helkuō’, drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

It is the Lord’s own people who have rebelled against Him and His ways. Jeremiah is also inspired to reveal that the Lord considers those who claim his name and hate his doctrine as “the harlot”:

Jer 3:6  The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

Jer 3:8  And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

Israel and Judah are not two different people. ‘Israel’ is just the early part of our apostasy, and ‘Judah’ signifies the latter part of our apostasy, leading to our being dragged out of Babylon and beginning to be judged in this present age. Far from avoiding the fiery judgments of God, His elect are simply the first to experience them:

Luk 12:49  I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Our “fiery trials” are the Lord’s judgments which He is at this very moment pouring out on His own house because “He first loved us” and therefore we are the first to be judged and chastened.

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

1Jn 4:19  We love him, because he first loved us.

Those who comprise “the house of God” are all first in “Babylon… the mother of harlots” before they are dragged out of that great whore to “begin” the purging work of grace and judgment in their lives.

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

When Peter speaks of “Judgment… first… beginning… at the house of God” he is referring to the pouring out of the seven last plagues of His wrath upon ‘the throne of the beast’ within each of us in “this present time”:

Rev 16:10  And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat [G2362: ‘thronos’, throne] of the beast;  and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
Rev 16:11  And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

This is the fruit of the rebellious house of the carnal mind in each of the Lord’s elect. This is the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the end this fruit produces death regardless of how much knowledge of good is in it. The Lord’s standards are so much higher than simply coming to know about good and evil. The knowledge of Christ is not dead knowledge. The knowledge of Christ is life and liberty:

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

The great harlot is spiritually murdering all her adherents. So, the Lord tells us the benefits of coming out of the house of this murderous harlot:

Jer 22:3  Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.

Why is the Lord telling us to “Execute… judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place?” He is telling us to do these things because we do not just naturally execute judgment… or deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor. He is telling us that we just naturally do what is wrong and are just naturally violent to strangers, the fatherless and the widow, and we are just natural murderers in the eyes of a God whose standard of what constitutes murder is:

1Jn 3:15  Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

We all self-righteously deny that we are guilty of any of those sins. I tell myself that I have never once done violence to any stranger, fatherless or widow, and I certainly have never murdered anyone. However, by the Lord’s standards I am lying to myself and to God, but He sees right through that lie and, if I am His, He cannot deny Himself. What that means is that He must pour out the seven plagues of the seven angels upon the kingdom of my old man so I can enter His temple, become His bride (2Co 11:1: Rev 21:9) and become a part of the family of God (Eph 3:15):

Rev 15:7  And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

2Ti 2:11  It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:
2Ti 2:12  If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:
2Ti 2:13  If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

If we are “dead with Him” then we will believe Him. It is our flesh and our old man in that flesh who is capable of not believing Him. But Christ has overcome my flesh and will not “deny Himself” because He knows those who are His:

2Ti 2:19  Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

If we “are His” then He has us bound to the altar with cords, and we are being sacrificed daily in His service, not of our will or our works but because “we are His workmanship”:

Psa 118:27  God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.

No sacrifice binds itself to the horns of the altar. That would be “His workmanship”, the work of His chastening grace and not of our own works:

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of [our own] works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

It requires a miracle of God to blind us to the Truth of those words, and we have all been blinded to those words in our own time.

Therefore, when we do the “good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them”, we are simply fulfilling our next verse:

Jer 22:4  For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.

In words which are not intended to be understood by “the natural man”, the scriptures teach that the Lord spiritually has two wives. The first one is a harlot, and the last one is “a chaste virgin”. The scriptures are very clear on this matter, but the Lord has blinded the eyes and stopped the ears of our “first man Adam… until the time… appointed of the Father”:

Psa 105:19  Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him.

It is the fiery words of God (Jer 5:14) which try us all, and those fiery words teach us that we are all spiritual infants, “carnal babes in Christ”, before we begin to be judged and mature into spiritual adulthood:

Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child [G3516: ‘nepios’, an infant], differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2  But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children [G3516: ‘nepios’, infants], were in bondage under the elements [G4747: ‘stoichion’, elements, principles] of the world:
Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son [G5207: ‘uihos’ adult Son], made of a woman, made under the law,
Gal 4:5  To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons [G5206: ‘uihothesia’, an adult son].
Gal 4:6  And because ye are sons [G5207: ‘uihos’, spiritual adults], God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son [G5207: ‘uihos’, adult] into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Gal 4:7  Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son [‘uihos’]; and if a son [‘uihos’], then an heir of God through Christ.

Only the spiritual adults can receive this same message in these words concerning Christ’s two wives. Here in this same fourth chapter, this process of passing from being spiritual infants to the beginning of spiritual adulthood is repeated in another form with these words:

Gal 4:21  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Gal 4:22  For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid [spiritual infant, ‘nepios’], the other by a freewoman [spiritual adult, ‘uihos’].
Gal 4:23  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh [naturally]; but he of the freewoman was by promise [super-naturally].
Gal 4:24  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 

This is where the mind of the natural man “cannot receive the things of the spirit because they are foolishness unto him” (1Co 2:14). The only people at Mount Sinai were the physical descendants of Sarah, the physical ‘freewoman’. Yet the holy spirit equates the physical descendants of Sarah at Mount Sinai with the descendants of Hagar, the physical bondwoman:

Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

The Lord has blinded the entire orthodox Christian world to the Truth of these words of Galatians 4:

Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all [“all” who are in Christ].
Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28  Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise [super natural birth].
Gal 4:29  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

We are all spiritual infants before we can become and grow into spiritual adulthood. It is in this ‘nepios’ infantile stage that we are simply incapable of seeing with our spiritual eyes and hearing with our spiritual ears these words:

Jer 22:5  But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.
Jer 22:6  For thus saith the LORD unto the king’s house of Judah; Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited.
Jer 22:7  And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.

“This house” is the ‘house’ and ‘kingdom’ of our old man.  In this chapter of Jeremiah, King Josiah typifies both the father of his evil sons and the father of our new man, just as Christ Himself is “the beginning… first man Adam… and the end… the last Adam”. Christ was “made of a woman, made under the law (Gal 4:4), and made sin (2Co 5:21). It was through His death to His physical flesh that He became the savior of all men of all time and the ‘Everlasting Father’ of our new man.

King Josiah was the best king Judah ever had, and yet, as a type of us (1Co 10:6), Judah is still judged and must suffer with “the whole creation… in this present time”:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

Therefore, Lord’s elect are part of “this city” who must endure the humiliation of having denied their own Lord and Savior:

Jer 22:8  And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this great city?
Jer 22:9  Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.

It serves no good purpose to fail to acknowledge that each of us have denied our Lord and have been party to His crucifixion and death.

Jer 22:10  Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.

This is just one more verse which confirms The Truth that the day we begin to die to our old man is much better than the day we were born into our old man:

Ecc 7:1  A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

The remainder of this chapter is addressed to the sons of Josiah, Shallum and Jehoiakim, who typify our old man. Our Lord Himself had to accept the fact that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God”, and even He endured the pain of His heavenly Father’s rejection of His corruptible flesh.

This is an experience which is common to all men:

Psa 22:1  To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me,  and from the words of my roaring?

Isa 54:7  For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
Isa 54:8  In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

Mar 15:34  And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Josiah’s sons typify how our own corruptible old man is indeed unworthy of being accepted by our Lord:

Jer 22:11  For thus saith the LORD touching Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He [Shallum] shall not return thither any more:
Jer 22:12  But he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.
Jer 22:13  Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;
Jer 22:14  That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.

These verses are a perfect description of what we do when we fleece the Lord’s flock or participate in being fleeced. The one is as evil as the other, because the one supports the other. A house built by unrighteousness is a house built upon false, lying doctrines which are taught to the Lord’s flock by men who are “corrupting [and are] peddling the Word of God”:

Here is that message in the King James Version of the scriptures:

2Co 2:17  For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

Look at what Strong’s, Brown, Driver, and Briggs, and Thayer reveal is the meaning of the Greek word translated as ‘corrupt’ in the KJV:

G2585
καπηλεύω
kapēleuō
kap-ale-yoo’-o
From κάπηλος kapēlos (a huckster); to retail, that is, (by implication) to adulterate (figuratively): – corrupt.

– Transliteration: Kapeleuo
– Phonetic: kap-ale-yoo’-o
– Definition:

1. to be a retailer, to peddle
2. to make money by selling anything
3. to get sordid gain by dealing in anything, to do a thing for base gain
4. to trade in the word of God
5. to try to get base gain by teaching divine truth
6. to corrupt, to adulterate
7. peddlers were in the habit of adulterating their commodities for the sake of gain

– Origin: from kapelos (a huckster)

The CLV does a better job of giving us the sense of this word:

2Co 2:17 For we are not as the majority, who are peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God in Christ, are we speaking.

Christ instructs all who follow Him and tremble at His words:

Mat 10:7  And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Mat 10:8  Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

It is a dead giveaway that there is no “stay of bread [nor any] stay of water” if so much as a penny is requested by those who claim to be preaching the kingdom of heaven. There is obviously little regard for these words of Christ and absolutely no one is “trembling at [His] Words” (Isa 66:2).

The holy spirit poses this question in contrast to the example of Josiah typifying Christ:

Jer 22:15  Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?
Jer 22:16  He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the LORD.

It is natural for us to be choked out of the kingdom of God by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. As Christ grows within us, more and more, day by day, we begin to think outwardly of the physical and spiritual needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we are blessed to be given to minister to those needs as the Lord provides.

“Was not this to know me? Saith the Lord” is another way of saying ‘Is not this life eternal?’

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

That is our study for today, and here is the rest of this chapter for our next study which will demonstrate that “while we were yet in our sins” Christ died for us. Thus, the words “O earth, earth, earth, hear the words of the Lord”:

Jer 22:17  But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.
Jer 22:18  Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!
Jer 22:19  He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
Jer 22:20  Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all thy lovers are destroyed.
Jer 22:21  I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice.
Jer 22:22  The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness.
Jer 22:23  O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!
Jer 22:24  As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence;
Jer 22:25  And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
Jer 22:26  And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die.
Jer 22:27  But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return.
Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?
Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.
Jer 22:30  Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.