Okay. Well, good morning. If you would turn your Bibles to First Chronicles, Chapter 3. First Chronicles, Chapter 3. If you'll remember, we've been studying on the kings of Judah. And we just got done with our study of King Josiah. You'll recall he died in battle. And now we're looking at Josiah's son. So this has kind of become a mini series on a tale of four brothers. Josiah's four sons. 1 Chronicles 3, verse 15. I had you turn there just so we could do a little review. And remember, because they have them all listed here for us, and the sons of Josiah were the firstborn, Johanan, the second, Jehoiakim, and his name was changed to, excuse me, his name was Eliakim before it was changed to Jehoiakim. And the third, Zedekiah, also seen as Mataniah in other places of the scripture. And fourth, Shalom, also known as Jehoahat. So, as if it weren't confusing enough, we've got four to deal with. They all have more than one name for the most part. Now the first one was Johanan, it said the firstborn, but really there wasn't much to say about him last time because he's nowhere else mentioned in the scriptures. All the other sons of Josiah took their turns on the throne of Judah, but not Johanan. For whatever reason he may have died early as a child or something, but we passed by him pretty quickly because there wasn't much to study there. And though he is mentioned as fourth here in the list, this Shalem, or Jehoahaz, as he's known elsewhere, he was actually third by birth, but we looked at him first, and the reason was because he was the first one to rule, to reign in Judah as king. As soon as Josiah died, they took Jehoahaz, or Shalem, and they put him on the throne. But that didn't last too long, it only lasted three months. And he was removed. Scripture says he was wicked. And Judah, of course, was under the king of Egypt at that time. And the Pharaoh didn't like him either. And so he captures him. He captures Jehoahaz and takes him off to Egypt, where eventually Jehoahaz dies. And the Pharaoh sets up Eliakim. changes his name to Jehoiakim as king instead. And we spent the rest of our message last time talking about Jehoiakim and what a wicked scoundrel this man was. Now turn to Jeremiah chapter 22 because I want to review just a little bit of what we learned about Jehoiakim last time before we learn more about it today. Today our entire message and future message or two will all be devoted to Jehoiakim. The scripture has much to say about it. Kings, where we read last time in Kings, it says Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money. You see, since since the Egyptians were in control of Judah, they were stronger than they placed a meager tax on them. And instead of paying it out of the king's treasury or cutting government spending, Jehoiakim instead, he just raises taxes on all the people. And in fact, he boosts his standard of living and increases the government spending that's going to increase the luxury that he lives in. But he taxes the people even further. So he was a very selfish, greedy man. All the people lived in poverty so that he could live high on the hog. And there in Jeremiah, we went to, we saw that Jeremiah was a prophet during the time of King Josiah and all his sons and even into the captivity. Jeremiah's ministry lasted a great many years. And here in Jeremiah chapter 22, we saw what Jeremiah had to say about King Jehoiakim. Let's just review some of the highlights, or I guess I should say lowlights. of Jehoiakim's reign, according to Jeremiah. Chapter 22, verse 13, he's speaking of Jehoiakim, and he says, Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong, that uses his neighbor's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work. So you see, Jeremiah accused him, he said, not only are you taxing the people to pay off the Egyptians, but you're You're using forced manual labor to service your house and to build your house and you're not even paying them a wage and then you're exacting a tax after that on top of that. So it's a very oppressive king. Verse 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. Jeremiah said, you know, not only are you selfish, not only are you greedy and you want nice stuff, but you're bloodthirsty also. You're a violent man and you desire to see innocent blood and violence. So he's guilty of these things as well. Now turn to Jeremiah chapter 26 and if you have a Bible I really do want you to turn to Jeremiah chapter 26 because we're going to spend the rest of our time here It gives us a chapter of Jehoiachin's life that gives a good example shedding light on his character. We're going to see actually an episode in his life where he does indeed shed innocent blood and seeks after it. Now, we're going to read the entire chapter of Jeremiah chapter 26, but don't get worried. Jeremiah chapter 26 actually kind of reads like a novel. It's a good story. In fact, let me just put in a plug for the entire book of Jeremiah. If you like to read through the scriptures, maybe you challenge yourself every year. I'm going to read through the scriptures. Start in Genesis. You get through Genesis. Actually, it's pretty easy because the stories are good and fast-paced. Everything's moving along. Then you start to slow down in Leviticus. Unless you're Shannon. Shannon speeds up in Leviticus. But the rest of us, we slow down. It takes a little bit more work to get through it. Okay, and then we're rewarded with Joshua and Judges and Ruth, and of course we all love the Psalms and Proverbs, but pretty soon we hit Isaiah. And the first few chapters are okay because we're in familiar territory, but it's a long book and it gets really difficult. And sometimes we're tempted to skip over all of those prophets, except for Jonah. We like the story of Jonah. But we skip all the rest of the prophets and we go on to Matthew. Well, let me just give you a little bit of advice here. The book of Jeremiah is actually one of the easiest prophets to read. I think it's the longest book in the Bible as far as page-wise is, but the concepts are easy to understand. If you understand what's happening in the nation of Israel, that they're doing bad things and God's giving them a chance to repent and they're going into captivity, it's actually a pretty easy read. And the concepts are good, and he's straightforward, and it's really easy to understand, and there's a lot of stories in there as well, like the one we're going to see here in Chapter 26. So that's just my little commercial there for the book of Jeremiah. And in fact, since we did a commercial, we might as well just run a special on it right now. If you call today, you can read the whole book for free. How about that? And in fact, if you read the whole book through, I'll even knock off the first payment. We'll cut it in half. But regardless of whether you want to keep the book, if you don't like the book, you can return it free of charge and you get to keep chapter 26 from today. That's your free gift with no obligation if you don't want the book. So there's my little commercial for Jeremiah. So let's read chapter 26 today. Beginning in verse 1 and all the way to the end. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiachin, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word from the Lord. Now, of course, this is coming to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, verse 2, Thus saith the Lord, Stand in the court of the Lord's house and speak unto all the cities of Judah which come to worship in the Lord's house all the words which I command thee to speak unto them and diminish not a word. Verse 3, If so be, they will hearken and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings. And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord, If ye will not hearken to me to walk in my law, which I have set before you, to hearken to the words of my servants, the prophets whom I sent unto you, both rising up early and sending them, but ye have not hearkened. Then will I make this house like Shiloh and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth. So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. Now it came to pass when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking, all that the Lord had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him saying, Thou shalt surely die! Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king's house into the house of the Lord, and sat down in the entry of the new gate in the Lord's house. 11 Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes, to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die, for he has prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears. Then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes and all the people, saying, The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that ye have heard. Therefore now amend your ways and your doings and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you. As for me, behold, I am in your hand. Do with me as seemeth good and meet unto you. But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof. For of a truth the Lord hath sent me unto you to speak all the words in your ears. Then said the princes and all the people unto the priest and the prophet, This man is not worthy to die, for he hath spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God. Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spake to all the assembly of the people, saying, Micah the Moresphite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountains of the house as high places of a forest. Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? Did he not fear the Lord, and besought the Lord, and the Lord repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus might we procure great evil against our souls. And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah, the son of Shemiah of Kirjath-Jerub, who prophesied against the city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah. And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah heard it, he was afraid and he fled and went to Egypt. And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely El Nathan the son of Achor, and certain men with him into Egypt. And they fetched forth Uriah out of Egypt, and brought him unto Jehoiakim the king, who slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people. Nevertheless, the hand of Ahicham, the son of Shaphan, was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death. Now why did Jehoiakim hate Jeremiah so much? What fueled his hatred? Perhaps it was Jeremiah's clarity and simplicity that made him so hated. Like we said, it's really a pretty easy prophecy to understand. You don't have to wonder who he's talking about. He didn't really preach with any ambiguity. King Jehoiakim wasn't wondering Who's he talking about? Are you talking to me? You know, he didn't have to worry about those kinds of things. It wasn't like the Ethiopian eunuch who needed Philip's help when he was reading the book of Isaiah. He says, you know, how can I understand what I'm reading unless somebody shows me? Who is the prophet talking about? Is he talking about himself or does he speak of someone else? It wasn't that kind of a prophecy. This one was pretty easy to understand who it was directed at. Unlike the prophet Nathan, when he came and he tried to tell David of his sin, and David just wasn't getting it, he had to say, Thou art the man. Well, he didn't have to say that. It was very clear in this prophecy to Jehoiakim, Thou art the man. And at the end of verse 2, God says, in giving these words to Jeremiah and preparing him to go and preach them to the people, He says, I want you to diminish, not a word. And I want to talk about that for just a moment this morning. What would it mean to diminish the word of God? The Hebrew word here for diminish, the first time it's used in scripture is when Pharaoh has all the Israelites working for him as slaves. And he tells them, when he gets upset, he says, I want you to go out and I want you to make bricks, but We're going to quit giving you the straw to make the bricks, and the tally of bricks shall not be diminished. He says, you can't have any less. Now, this is a pretty impossible task. How can they make just as many bricks if they have to take the time to gather the straw themselves? Or how can the bricks be just as good if they don't use straw? Something's going to suffer. Either the quality or the quantity is going to suffer. and both are affected. Literally, this word diminish means to scrape or to shave something. We are often tempted to do this with the word of God when we want to be liked by society. It's a good thing Jeremiah didn't care about his popularity. He said in verse 14, he says, do what you want with me. It doesn't really matter. But he did not diminish God's word. We want to be light, so we hold back. We may be tempted to shave off the difficult parts of the word of God, leave off the difficult truths, or maybe at least just kind of sand down those rough, sharp edges. So it lessens the impact when we share the word of God. God does not want us doing this anymore than he wanted Jeremiah to do it. He told Jeremiah, do not diminish my word. And I think he would say the same to us. Don't diminish my word. But there's another danger, because there's an extreme on the opposite end, isn't there? You see, in Deuteronomy 4, chapter 2, we're told, He shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish it, or diminish ought from it. So you see, one weakness we have is to want to be light, and so maybe that'll cause us to diminish God's word. But sometimes we want to be right. We want to be superior. We want to be holier than thou. We want to be above. And so that might cause us to want to add to the word of God. The Pharisees did this. They added all kinds of regulations to the scriptures to further define God's laws. God said, for instance, don't work on the Sabbath day. Well, the Pharisees came up with all kinds of rules that defined what work was. We can get caught doing the same thing. The scripture teaches us a principle. For instance, modesty would be a principle. But it only gives a couple of examples, so it leaves us to ourselves to really figure out how to be modest in our hearts. And so we start defining our own regulations. We tell you what style has to be your swimwear. We start measuring skirts. Well, that's not what the scripture... The scripture doesn't give regulations in those areas. Those are things that we add. to God's word. And really the problem is, the reason we do this is because we want to enforce those additional things upon others. But the real root of the problem is that our heart isn't right. God's trying to tell us, get your heart right, because he knows our heart is wicked. The Pharisees didn't honor God on the Sabbath day because they refused to build a fire. And they didn't honor God on the Sabbath day and lift his name up because they didn't walk a certain distance to one place or another. They weren't honoring God. Their hearts weren't changed, but they had fooled themselves into believing that they were following God's law because they had followed their own rules that they had set up to define God's law. And we want to do the same thing. We want to say, well, we're modest because we made these rules to say what modesty is. And so we are. And God says, no, your heart is wrong. You haven't fixed the real problem. And so we try anyway to follow these rules because it's easier than changing our hearts. It's easier to follow the little rules that we make up. And so we're tempted to add to or to take away the word of God. But God says don't diminish a word of it. In verse three, we see that it says, if so be They will hearken, God says, if the people will hearken and turn every man from his evil way that I may repent me of the evil which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings. Sometimes we see God repenting in scripture and changing his mind and we start to get the impression because it happens so often that, you know, God really can't make up his mind, can he? Well, no, it's not that way at all. God is very decisive. He's not indecisive. But we have to remember when we're reading scripture to distinguish between two types of promises that the scripture gives. First of all, there's a conditional promise. God will do this if his people will do this. But then there's also some unconditional promises. And I'm glad for those. God will do this no matter what you do. And regardless of what you do, this promise It's still intact, it's still strong, and you can't do anything so bad to make this promise go away. Those are the unconditional ones, those are the ones that we stand on, those are the ones we build our faith on. But this was a conditional promise, that he was going to bring destruction to these people if they didn't keep up their act. And so we're actually seeing one of his conditional promises at play. And the people did deserve to be punished. But God said, you know, I'm going to cancel that or I'm going to I'm going to maybe stall that if you repent for a while. God here is displaying not indecisiveness, but rather his long suffering. Now, I don't recommend this type of parenting, but I think you'll recognize it. God's long suffering reminds me of the parent that says, you need to get back here. Don't make me count to three. One, two, two and a half, two and three quarters, 89, 93rds. You do everything you can to not have to give out that punishment that you just threatened to the child. And God reminds me of that as we look into this, because how many times have we been through these kings and this unconditional promise has been the same. Repent or else. This is coming and he keeps counting longer and longer and he keeps giving them longer and longer and I'm like, by now it's gotta come. But he keeps waiting. He keeps pushing it back further and further. Now kids, you need to cover your ears here because this is a secret us parents don't want you to know about. Thank you. But the truth is when we start counting to one, two, three, two and a half, two and three, what we're really doing is we don't want to spank you. We don't want to put you in time. Now we don't want to follow through with the threats that we have made because we really don't want to do it. Now, maybe it's because we're lazy. Maybe it's, you know, whatever. Maybe we made the punishment too harsh and we realize we don't really want to do that. You know, for whatever reason, we're holding off. But God in his perfection, he is holding off because he just doesn't want to do it because he loves his people. God is Not the kind of God we sometimes make him out to be. We picture God as the almighty umpire of the universe in heaven. And he's just waiting for us to make an infringement or an infraction so he can throw the flag and give us a big penalty and send us back a whole bunch of yards. But that's not what he's doing. He's long suffering. And he doesn't want to throw the flag. In fact, I'll steal another The thing that us parents do, we'll steal this common phrase from parents, you know, God, it's like He's holding the spanking paddle of His judgment, of His wrath, up in the air, and it's ready to come down. But He knows what all of us parents say, that the kids don't believe, this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you. And God's wrath is being held back here, and He knows deep within His heart that this is going to hurt Him more than it hurts them. You see, that's the kind of God that he is. He loves us. He's looking for every opportunity and every excuse to hold off on this wrath that is so deserved by these people. That's the kind of God he is. Sometimes our problem is not only do we forget what kind of a God he is, we forget how bad we as children can have the tendency to be. But he is a God of great love and he's held back his wrath for so long, but It's coming. Not too long, it's coming. Verse 6, Jeremiah warns that if you do not repent, it's only fair that the punishment that you get is the same as those that did like unto the things that you're doing. In other words, like Shiloh. Now, Shiloh was the place where the tabernacle was placed in the days of Joshua. Early when they came into the promised land, they set up in Shiloh. That's the place where God was going to put his name. It served as the central place of worship during the time of the judges. So in other words, before there was a temple, before there was Solomon's temple as the central place of worship, there was a tabernacle in Shiloh. That's what Shiloh is. And when Samuel was a youngster, the Philistines, if you remember, they captured the ark from Shiloh. And remember, the presence of the ark plagued the Philistines so much that they didn't keep it for very long. They sent it back rather quickly. But when they sent it back in a short while, it did not return to Shiloh. Perhaps this was because Shiloh was at the time a spiritual wasteland. So Jeremiah may be referring to that day of days in first Samuel, chapter four. And you may recall the story if you're familiar with your Bible, that the ark was captured and it says there was a great slaughter among the children of Israel. And both of Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died in that battle. And Eli, the high priest, was sitting there at the door. And the messenger came and told him, both of your sons have been killed and the ark of God has been taken. And he fell backwards. And hearing the news, he fell over and keeled over dead. And then one of the son's wives, which would be one of Eli's daughters-in-law, one of his son's wife, went into premature labor due to the stress of all these events. And remember, she had a child that day. And what did she name the child? Ichabod. She said, for the glory has departed from Israel. It was this kind of a day that Jeremiah is warning about. Now, of course, you know, this is a speculation as to Apparently, at some point Shiloh fell. We know this is spiritually when it fell, when the glory departed. There may have been a physical destruction later on that Jeremiah is also referring to. But I think greater more upon his mind would be the glory of the Lord departing, the spiritual wasteland that is left, as well as the physical destruction and the captivity and all that goes with it. So he's warning them about Shiloh. Now, in verse 9, after Jeremiah is done giving his warning to the people, the people are not too happy. And so this false accusation comes up. They twist his words, you know, and they leave stuff out. And they said, well, why do you say this? And you said this, you know, Jesus was treated the same way at his trial, wasn't he? They kind of twisted the word that kind of left them out. They took things out of context and they do the same thing to Jeremiah here. We shouldn't be surprised. And they offer the death penalty. They say you should die. Jeremiah should die for speaking these things against our land. But Jeremiah stands firm. Jeremiah was like Jesus. He does not defend himself. You know, I always have the tendency, I want to defend myself when I get into a difficult situation. When I say something and somebody gets upset at what I said, well I start backing down from what I said, because I didn't really want to make you upset. I say, well no, that's not really what I said. You're taking it wrong, I didn't mean it like that. And I start backing down from those things that I said, but Jeremiah had been told, do not diminish a word from what God has said. So Jeremiah stands firm and he doesn't defend himself. He just reiterates what the warning was. And in verse 12, Jeremiah uses a pretty good tactic that I think we ought to try and remember when we get into conversations with others and they get offended by our faith. This is a good tactic that Jeremiah uses. He reminds them that these are the Lord's words. Because what are they doing? They're trying to say that, you know, if someone gets upset and they're saying, are you trying to tell me? Are you trying to say that my alternative lifestyle is wrong? Are you telling me that Jesus Christ is the only way to get to heaven? Are you trying to say? Jeremiah says no. I haven't said that. God says that. You see, it would be so brazen and high minded and prideful for us to say those things. So we say, no, I'm not saying that at all. But this is what God says. This is what the Bible says, you know, and all you know, we're not going to apologize for believing the Bible, but I believe the Bible. And this is what the Bible says. It's not we're not trying to tell anyone that their lifestyle is wrong. We're not trying to tell anyone, you know, it would be so so brash for us to say that Jesus Christ is the only way to get to heaven. We didn't say that. The Bible says that. And we need to remember that. In verse 13, Jeremiah reminds them, don't forget about the good part of the prophecy. He says, you still have a chance to repent, to avoid this punishment. This punishment is a long time in coming, you deserve it very much, but wait, there's still time. You can still make that phone call and call 1-800-REPENT. There's still a chance if you will take us up on this offer. Matthew Henry, he shows the irony of this situation and he asks the question, he says, Shall I take it ill of a man that tells me of my danger, while I still have an opportunity of avoiding it, and not rather return him thanks for it, as the greatest kindness that he could do for me?" Here they're wanting to kill Jeremiah for doing them the greatest kindness he could, and warn them while there was still a chance to repent. Matthew Henry goes on to make it applicable to us, he says, Those are very unjust who complain of the ministers for preaching hell and damnation when it is only to keep them from that place of torment and to bring them to heaven and salvation. We don't preach hell and damnation because we hate people. We don't warn of what the scripture says because we don't like someone or because we want to be mean. It's the exact opposite. It's because we want to warn of the wrath is to come. We want to warn of what the scripture says. And so we teach these things, but it is to save, not to condemn that we tell of the grace of God and of the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as usual, when we get to verse 16, we see that not everyone in Judah is so corrupt and so blinded at this time, because we're actually going to see kind of a split audience here. The religious leaders and the false prophets and the king, they all still want to put Jeremiah to death. But the princes and the elders and the people side with Jeremiah after hearing of his defense. And they begin to form a defense for him. And their argument in verse 18, think of this as kind of a court of law that's taking place here, only on a massive scale. In verse 18, we see, that an argument is put forth that prophets in the past have spoke similar words to what Jeremiah is telling us right now. And the kings like Hezekiah in the past didn't kill those prophets but rather they hearkened and they were blessed for repenting. So it would be really dangerous for us to kill a true prophet. We would only add to our guilt. And the precedent has been set in the past that when a prophet brings a message from the Lord, you ought to hearken to it, and the Lord will bless for obedience. Now in verses 21, we get into a difficult section. It's actually pretty easy to understand the story, but it's kind of difficult to figure out who's telling the story or who the speaker is of this verse. And the commentators are divided here. Because the verse relays the story of a prophet named Uriah, who prophesied a similar message to Jeremiah's, but he was killed by King Jehoiakim, who was the current reigning king, the king we're talking about today. He was killed by Jehoiakim for preaching such a message. Now, the difficulty is knowing who's telling this. The defense has already spoken, so now maybe the prosecution has now gotten up at this point. And they say, well, yeah, you're stating case law from way back in Hezekiah's day. And let's tell you of a more recent case that has occurred, and that is the case of Uriah, who spoke similar things to Jeremiah, and the king had him killed. So maybe this is the prosecution's rebuttal here, saying that Jeremiah indeed should die. for the words that he is speaking because the last guy that talked like that, he got killed. Or maybe the defense is still defending Jeremiah by asserting that Hezekiah who listened to the prophets, he was prosperous, remember? Remember how good it was in Hezekiah's day? But Jehoiakim, he's killed the prophets and look where it's gotten us. Look at the poverty that we live in. because of the current king. So we don't know if this was actually defense given in Jeremiah's favor or additional prosecution given against Jeremiah or it may just be Jeremiah himself as the author of the book kind of pulling back and going back into a phase where he's giving us the narrative. He's just kind of pulling back and giving us a little parenthetical narrative of, you know, this is something else that also happened at that time. I'm not sure exactly how this fits, but I'm glad this is there because it gives us a great insight into who Jehoiakim really is. Because Jehoiakim has Uriah hunted down and and brought back and kills him with the sword and disposes of his body in a disrespectful way, it says. And once again, I'm going to quote Matthew Henry here because he's so eloquent in his evaluation of Jehoiakim. He said of Jehoiakim, it would not sufficiently gratify him to just have him slain in Egypt. Because what happened is this prophet Uriah, he got scared, he ran off to Egypt. He sent his, the King Jehoiakim didn't just send people to go kill him. No, he said, bring him back alive. And so they bring him back alive. And, and so what Matthew Henry's is here saying, he says, it wouldn't sufficiently gratify Jehoiakim to have slain him in Egypt, but he must feast his eyes with the bloody spectacle. They brought him to Jehoiakim alive and slew him with the sword. And for all I know, it was with his very own hands. Yet neither did this satisfy his insatiable malice, but he loathed the dead body of the good man with infamy." Jehoiakim was a very wicked man. He was bloodthirsty and he loved violence and he hated people. He loved his flesh and he hated God. I wish I could tell you that that is the end of the story of Jehoiakim's wickedness, but actually this is just the beginning. You go back and look at verse 1 again, it says, at the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign. So, this is just how we started. We'll have to wait, stay tuned, next time we will find out more about Jehoiakim, because he's just warming up. This isn't the last run-in that he's going to have with the prophet Jeremiah. There's going to be more and it's going to get it's going to get pretty intense. And, you know, if you take me up on my offer to read through the book of Jeremiah, you'll find it for yourself. Otherwise, stay tuned and wait for next time. Let's pray. God and Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the warnings that it gives us to tell us how to live. We know that you do not give rules to us and principles to us. so that we can be miserable in following rules. But you give us rules and principles to guide us through life because it's the best way to live. And we'll be happier when we are obedient to you. We know that you give us rules and guidelines to live our lives because it's the happiest way to be and because you love us. And so we thank you for the guidance that you give us as a good parent. We thank you for your long suffering that is so patient with us, though we deserve so much more turmoil and punishment than what we suffer for our own wrongdoings. We all suffer the consequences for the wrongs that we do. And we're so grateful that you actually hold those back. You actually do not deal with us according to our works, but you deal with us according to your grace. And we see it every day as we do not get punished as much as we ought and we do not suffer as much as we ought for the lives that we live. We know that our hearts are evil and we pray that you would help us to follow you better. And finally, we pray that we would just clearly see the long suffering of you. and that we would respond appropriately to it, and that we would serve you better, and that we would make you pleased that you have sent your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die for us and to redeem us unto yourself. We want to make you happy. We want to bring joy to your heart. And so we thank you for all your many blessings upon us. In the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.