Jeremiah 26:1-6
1 Early in the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came from the Lord:
2 “This is what the Lord says: Stand in the courtyard of the Lord’s house and speak to all the people of the towns of Judah who come to worship in the house of the Lord. Tell them everything I command you; do not omit a word. 3 Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from their evil ways. Then I will relent and not inflict on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done. 4 Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: If you do not listen to me and follow my law, which I have set before you, 5 and if you do not listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you again and again (though you have not listened), 6 then I will make this house like Shiloh and this city a curse among all the nations of the earth.’”
If Only I Had Listened…
The year was 605B.C. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, coming off a successful invasion of Egypt, returned home through the tiny nation state of Judah. Jehoiakim was in the third year of his reign as king of Judah and now faced a blood-thirsty king, swollen with self-confidence after his recent victory, knocking on the door. Compared to Egypt, Judah was a nothing-nation. If not even mighty Pharaoh Necho could withstand Nebuchadnezzar’s forces, then Judah would bend the knee without Nebuchadnezzar breaking a sweat.
Problem was, Jehoiakim was proud. He may not have been on the throne for long – only three years – but Judah was all that was left of God’s “Chosen People.” Their ancestors had been promised by God that this land was theirs. 18 kings before Jehoiakim survived all kinds of adversity, and they were still there. Jehoiakim couldn’t imagine a world in which Judah no longer existed. So, he resisted.
The siege didn’t last very long and by the end, the Babylonians had forced one more nation to pay them tribute. Jehoiakim broke. His pride shattered. His nation defeated. Now he, and the people under his care, were under the thumb of a foreign oppressor, obligated, under pain of death, to submit.
It was a devastating blow and the end of an era. But the true tragedy is that it all could have been avoided.
3 years earlier, when Jehoiakim first took the throne, the son of a priest, and a prophet during his father’s reign, had warned him, “This is what the Lord says: If you do not listen to me and follow my law, which I have set before you, and if you do not listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you again and again (though you have not listened), then I will make this house like Shiloh and this city a curse among all the nations of the earth.”[1]
Do you think that Jehoiakim thought of Jeremiah’s warning after Nebuchadnezzar marched his troops victoriously through Jerusalem? It was too late then, but what if he had listened three years earlier? He could have avoided the deaths of his soldiers and the debt of his nation. He could have kept faith with his God and not become a slave to Nebuchadnezzar. It was too late, but if only he had listened…
Those may be the last five words any of us will want to say on the Last Day: “If only I had listened…” Babylon isn’t knocking on the door. Canada does not consist of God’s “Chosen People.” There are no prophets like Jeremiah anymore. But his warning still rings true, and his promise still applies to you.
If you do not listen… then I will make this house like Shiloh.[2]
Have you ever visited an ancient ruin? Have you seen the remnants of a formerly magnificent structure now barely recognizable as anything intentional? That’s what Shiloh was and what Jerusalem would become.
Shiloh was where the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel worshiped. After North and South divided, Jerusalem wasn’t accessible to the people of Israel anymore. They worshipped God in Shiloh. But by the time that Jehoiakim took the throne of Judah, Shiloh had already been reduced to rubble for 100 years. The abandoned and empty worship place of his neighbors to the North was God’s recent and visible warning to Jehoiakim that no one was above judgment.
The people of the Northern Kingdom worshiped God in Shiloh, and yet that didn’t prevent God’s judgment against them. Jeremiah proclaimed this message in the courtyard of the Temple in Jerusalem but that didn’t keep them from being judged either. They were both found wanting, and they were both destroyed.
God issues the same warning to you: “If you do not listen…” you too will be judged. Do you listen when God forbids your Friday night behavior? Do you listen when God makes demands on your words and thoughts, when he condemns your sinful attitudes? Do you listen, not just to the love of God, but to his law that commands obedience and condemns disobedience? Or do you dismiss and downplay? Do you neglect and reject the parts of the Bible you don’t understand or would rather not agree with?
If you do not listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you again and again (though you have not listened)…[3]
And make no mistake about it. This message is for you. I’m sure we can each think of people or kinds of people whom we think deserve God’s punishments. But God destroyed Shiloh and Jerusalem. He sent Jeremiah to the Temple and proclaims his law at St. Peter’s. Just because you worship here doesn’t mean you are exempt. You are precisely the people to whom God issues this warning. We fail to listen when we let the Word we hear here go in one ear and out the other. We do it when we nod in agreement but never follow through. We do it when we let the urgency of God sit on our back burner, leaving our allegiance to him come second, third or fourth to our careers, families, hobbies, etc…
This warning is for you, and the condemnation is real. God is love, but God is also just. He does not leave the guilty unpunished.[4] He doesn’t wink at your sin. Like the king in the Parable of the Minas, he condemns, and he kills. Hell is real, and if we don’t listen, then Hell will be our home forever.
Our Judge doesn’t joke about the “hot place.” Paul described it as “blazing fire” and “everlasting destruction,” being “shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.”[5] It’s eternal separation from the love and favor of our God. Hell is real and so is this warning, but so is the gracious patience of this warning.
Jehoiakim presided over the downfall of Judah. He had the power to save his nation, but instead of listening to God, he listened to the wisdom of this world. He tried political alliances. He tried bribes and cunning. He tried everything but listening to God. And yet God still spoke to him. He sent prophets to him again and again even though he did not listen. God was persistent in his warning because God is consistent in his promise.
What we cannot afford to lose sight of in this example of God’s justice and in this warning of Hell, is God’s gracious desire: “Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from their evil ways. Then I will relent and not inflict on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done.”[6]
God wants you to listen and live! It’s as simple as that! Repent, and God will relent! Leave your life of sin. Listen when God tells you what he expects of you and forbids you from. Listen to him and follow his law. Give up your grudges, transform you heart, purify your thoughts and your desires, and once you become a good enough person – when your obedience meets God’s standard – then he will relent! Then you’ll be safe from the blazing fire and everlasting destruction! Then you’ll live with God forever and ever!
If only it were that easy. You know, there’s a reason we have worship every week. There’s a reason each member of this congregation has their name on stone in that font by the door. There’s a reason that we make a distinction between confirmation and graduation. You can’t “test out” of Christianity. You don’t grow out of it or master it. We keep failing and falling. We keep slipping into sin and falling short of the glory of God.
On our own, we’d be no better off than Jehoiakim staring down the armies of Babylon. We might be able to hold our own for a while. We might stave off God’s judgment for a time, but we can’t avoid it forever, and the Last Day will come when you stand before the Judge and he asks you if you listened when he sent his prophets to you. What will you say on that day?
“I did the best that I could”? Your best isn’t enough. Nothing short of perfection is.
Before you say anything, listen to what Paul says in 2 Thessalonians:
“This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven… He will punish those who do not know God… on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.”[7]
The same God who sent his prophets with warnings, sent messengers of peace. There’s a reason Jeremiah spoke from the courtyard of the Temple, and why we consider this warning here. Because it’s in the context of God’s desire for your salvation that he warns you of the alternative. The God who wants you to live, sent his Son to die for you, and then sent messengers to remind you of that fact again and again.
I just spent two hard days in a hospital surrounded by people who were about to go into surgery and those who were recovering from it, i.e. people who were scared for their lives and had no earthly reason for hope. But God sends his messengers and reminds us of this testimony – that on the Last Day our Savior will come in might and glory to be marveled at by those who believe. God tells us about the saving work of his Son so that we listen and live.
Be still and listen to the gospel of Jesus: whatever your past, whatever your present struggle, whatever the future holds for you, God loves you and wants to live with you forever. But more than just a desire, his will has made it possible. He sacrificed his Son to save you. He sends his prophets to proclaim this good news to you again and again for a first, second, third or thousandth time. He is persistent with you because he is consistent in his promise: Listen and you will live. God is gracious. He forgives your sin. He does not want you to perish. But he does want you to listen.
Judgement is coming. Don’t be like Jehoiakim and wait until it’s too late, so that you’re left wondering what would have happened if you had listened and learned earlier. Don’t treat your faith like a driver’s exam. Cherish the saving message of Christ crucified for you now. Be in his Word daily. Live as if today is the Last Day and know that even if it is, you have peace with God because of his love for you in Jesus. May he be your hope and confidence until the day he returns to take us home with him forever. Amen.
[1] Jeremiah 26:4-6
[2] Jeremiah 26:4,6
[3] Jeremiah 26:5
[4] Exodus 34:7
[5] 2 Thessalonians 1:7,9
[6] Jeremiah 26:3
[7] 2 Thessalonians 1:7,8,10