Most Christians know about how Judah's king Josiah was ridding the land of idolatry....and of how the Book of the Law was found. Many believers today name their sons Josiah. One of the idolatries that Josiah ended was the sacrificing of the children to Molech. The king knew through prophesy that Judah was going to be judged....but he also knew that he would not see it. Jeremiah was in his late twenties at the time.
He knew that ridding the land of idolatry was not changing the heart of the people....as the false prophets at the time were prophesying peace. It is mystifying....the Assyrian empire was fading....Nineveh had fallen....Egypt marched out to help the Assyrians against this new power of Babylon. Israel was essentially being left alone during this....but Josiah....that faithful king....took his army to the Valley of Megiddo....to stop Egypt? King Josiah died in that battle....and then the collapse of Judah began.
Egypt turned its focus temporarily on Judah. Josiah's son Jehoahaz was named the new king....but Pharaoh for some reason didn't like that.....took the new king of three months away....and chose his own king of Judah....another son of Josiah....Jehoiakim....and he was king for eleven years. This is a very tangled web. Jehoahaz....who Pharaoh had taken to Egypt and died there....had a young son named Jehoiachin....who was king after Jehoiakim....also for only three months....and next came Zedekiah....also for eleven years.
Jeremiah had now been prophesying against rebellious Judah for a long time....persecuted by those who did not want to hear of the judgment coming to them. Ezekiel and Daniel had been taken away to Babylon....along with Jehoiachin....after Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem. Zedekiah paid tribute to Nebuchadnezzar.....but after three years was talked into rebelling by the false prophets. Jeremiah was warning them to no avail. Nebuchadnezzar came back....captured the city and burned the temple. Zedekiah was taken and punished severely.
Along the way God had told Jeremiah not even to pray for the people....for He would not listen to them...."But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah." (Jeremiah 2:28)
We in America have had times of reform....but our hearts were never reformed. We had and have our own gods....and God is as if telling us also....'let them save us!' We have our own false prophets....and listened to them over men like Billy Graham. God will not listen to national prayers....from a people who have designed their own solutions....through their own sovereignty. Consider if you would....it's easy to Google....the proclamation for a National Fast Day from 1863....adopted on March 3 and signed by President Lincoln on March 30....and see if anything we do today even remotely compares to the mortification and repentance from that earlier day of trouble in America?
