He had Big Plans

Jeremiah 22:18-30

Can you recall the age 23, I can for it was the year I married my bride, and not only did she get a husband she got a man who had no vision, no goals, no plans.  How different I was from Jehoiakim the young king of Judah, he had big plans to make a name for himself by taking, by stealing, and even by killing.  His life parallels the one Jesus refers to as the thief in John 10:10a, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.”

What a blessing the book by Max Lucado, “In the Manger” and in the first chapter it is about the Author of Life, and as He sits at His great desk, the Author opens the large book.  “It has no words because no words exist.  No words exist because no words are needed.  There are no ears to hear them, no eyes to read them.”  Max goes on to tell us the first word is time, for there was no need of time.  Then He wrote the name Adam, and Max shares how the Author saw the first Adam, and then all the others that would ever be.  And Max gives us this insight; “The Author makes a promise to these unborn: In my image, I will make you.  You will be like me.  You will laugh.  You will create.  You will never die.  And you will write.  They must.  For each life are a book, not to be read but rather a story to be written.  The Author starts each life story, but each life will write his or her ending.”

You and I will write our ending, and each day is full of choices, the young king also wrote his ending by the decisions that he made, and this was his result.  “Therefore thus says 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 majesty!’  With the burial of a donkey, he shall be buried, dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem.”  His father King Josiah was returned home from his death in battle, and the people lament for him, but not the son he would be like a dead donkey, dragged and dumped outside the gates.

This foolish young king, looked to Egypt for help against Babylon, even from a small child he had been rebelling against the ways of God.  All kings had a signet ring that was the king’s official seal, and because of his sin, God was going to rip that privilege from him.  The thing he feared the most was Nebuchadnezzar, and that was whom God used to carry him into captivity to Babylon.  Not only did he lose his king title and become Nebuchadnezzar’s slave, none of his seven sons, ever ruled in his place. 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice