III. The kinq infatuated by evil counsels. There is reason to believe that, left to himself, lie would have hearkened to the prophet. But those around him persuaded him to disregard all that the prophet said. Hence this opportunity of salvation for himself and for his people was put away. For had he obeyed, the threatening would not have been carried out (cf. ch. xviii. 8 — 12). But his heart was hardened by the deceit- fulness of sin. In face of that, no fidelity, no evidence, no earnestness of appeal, no pleading, no voice of conscience, could prevail. He was joined to his idols. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of man is set in him sfcadrastly to do evil. Pray that from all such hardness of heart and con- tempt of God's Word and commandment, the Lord would deliver us. — 0,
Ver. 2. — 3%e woe of weakness. " Zedekiah, King of Judah." The life of this unhappy monarch is a piteous but powerful illustration of the misery of instability of character, the sorrows that dog the footsteps of the infirm will. What men need, in order to be happier and better than they are, is not more knowledge of what is right — they are amply supplied with that; or the presence of plentiful good purpose and desire to do the right — hell itself is paved with good intentions; but what is needed is strength of will, firmness and stability of character. It is for lack of that that men go so wrong and make such a miserable confusion of their own life and that of others. The history of Zedekiah illustrates all this. Therefore note —
I. His character as shown by his history. He was son of the good King Josiah, and may have been one of the " princes " carried off to Babylon in the days of Jehoiakim. He appears to have attracted the favourable notice of Nebuchadnezzar, probably on the ground of the hope that Jeremiah the prophet cherished concerning him. That hope was expressed in the name given him — Zedekiah, "the Lord our Righteousness," a name fulfiUca only in One, hut telling of the hopes that gathered round this young king. At
OH, XXXIV. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAtt 01
twenty-one years of age he was placed on the throne of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar, sad then the extreme difficulties of his position became evident. In his own country and in those adjoining, a smouldering rebellion prevailed. This the great enemy of Babylon, Egypt, did not fail to fan and further to the utmost of her power. Only a leader was wanting, and the rebellion would at once break forth. The chief of Zedekiali's own people were eager for him to head the revolt. For a time he refused, and seems (cf. ch. IL 59) to have taken a solemn oath of allegiance to Kebuchadnezzar. But keeping this oath was Dot easy. It was a cruel position for him, and he had not the strength which so critical a time and emergency demanded. The influence of Jeremiah and his fear of the Baby- lonian power drew him one way ; the clamour of his princes, priests, and people, and the promised aid of Egypt drew him another. And so at length he yielded, and treated his oath as so many idle words. Loud and stern were the protests of the prophet of God against such shameless and senseless falseliood (cf. Ezek. xvii. 14; ch. xxviii.). But the princes of his court, as he himself pathetically admits (ch. xxxviii.), had him com- pletely under their influence : " Against them," he complains, " it is not the king that can do anything." He was thus driven to disregard the counsels of the prophet, which, as the event proved, were perfectly sound ; and "he who might have kept the fra<!:meDta of the kingdom together, and maintained for some generations longer the worship of Jehovah, brought its final ruin on his country, destruction on the temple, death to his family, and a cruel torment and a miserable captivity on himself." And there are other recorded instances of his lack of moral strength. His allowing the rich men and all those who, contrary to the Law, had held their brethren as bondslaves, to enslave them once more, notwithstanding that in the most solenm way they had covenanted with God not to do so; then his treatment of tbe Prophet Jeremiah, — all showed, not so much that he was wicked, as that he was weak. Cruelly imprisoned by his enemies, the king sent for the prophet and placed him in gentler captivity in the court of his own palace. But there assailed by the angry accusations of the prophet's foes, the king yielded, and let them cast him into m horrible pit, where, had he been long left, he must have miserably perished. Conscience, stiried up by the remonstrance of a faithful servant, led the king to interpose again for his relief, and to have him remitted to his prison in the king's court. There Zedekiah treated him kindly; when the famine was raging in the city, he procured bread for him ; he asked his prayers, and held long and frequent converse with him, but was all the while in abject fear lest the nobles should discover what their conversation had been about, and he prevailed upon the prophet to condescend to an evasion of the truth in order not to betray him, poor weak king that he was (ch. zxxviii.). Altogether wise was the counsel the prophet gave, but the king wuuld and he would not. He did not know his own mind. But events moved on. The city was captured. The king and his household endeavoured to escape, were caught, carried before Nebuchadnezzar ; his children were crucified in his presence ; then his eyes were put out ; and, loaded with fetters, he was dragged across the weary desert to B-ibvlon, where he lived in misery until the Lord visited him (ch. xxxii. 5) — that is, until the Lord mercifully sent death to put an end to all his woe. It is a pitiful story, but one that teaches much concerning this instability of character which was this poor monarch's ruin.