"I speak unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not
hear."--_Jer. 22:21._
JOSIAH was the last good king. In his time God called Jeremiah, when he
was only a young boy about twelve years old, to be His prophet; and all
the time Josiah reigned Jeremiah was teaching the people God's will,
while Josiah was doing all he could to help them to do right and serve
the Lord.
But the Jews did not heed either the king or the prophet--they only
longed after their idols. Even Josiah's own sons would not be good,
after they had been brought up by such a holy father; but no sooner was
he killed in battle, than they went back to all the bad ways that he
had put an end to.
The eldest son, Jehoahaz, only reigned three months. Then God let the
king of Egypt take him away; and the Prophet Jeremiah says that it was
far sadder for him to go away a captive, and never see his home again,
than for good Josiah to be in his grave, loved and wept for by all. For
though God had let Josiah die so early, it was in mercy. The people had
grown so wicked that they must be punished, and so he was taken away
from the evil to come. His next son was king after his brother Jehoahaz.
The next brother was king instead. His name was Jehoiakim. One would
have hoped he would have taken warning by his brother's troubles, and
served God better. But no! He did not care to attend to poor people. He
thought he should be safe in a fine house. He sent for large stones,
and had great beams of cedar tree for the roofs, and painted the walls
of his great rooms with scarlet. But he paid no wages to his workmen,
and was cruel to everybody, and had innocent people killed if they made
him angry with them.
[Illustration: JERUSALEM BESIEGED AND PEOPLE TAKEN CAPTIVE.--2 Kings
25:11.]
Only there was one man who was not afraid of this King Jehoiakim. It
was God's prophet Jeremiah. He told the king how little good his fine
house would do; and what was more, he said that when he died nobody
would be sorry for him. They had wept for his father with a great
weeping and many tears; but when the cruel Jehoiakim died nobody would
lament. Nobody would say, "Ah, lord!" or, "Ah, his glory!" but they
would care for him no more than if he was an ass who was being buried.