Jeremiah preached his message to Judah from 626 until about 589-587 B.C. He spent his lifetime criticizing the rulers who were slowly selling out his country and his people to the powers of the Babylonian Empire. Jeremiah himself experienced a period of forced exile at the hands of some of his own panicked neighbors.

It's no wonder that Jeremiah had little regard for the monarchs under whom Judah had suffered for the last 50 years. Immediately preceding this week's Old Testament text, in Jeremiah 22:11-23, the prophet itemizes his grievances against specific rulers and the particular wrongs each of them had committed. Jehoiakim's sins merited Jeremiah's special attention, leading the prophet to conclude in 22:24-30 that the despicable monarch had received his just reward from Yahweh in hi…