The Spirit of Jehoiakim

Robert Wurtz II

Therefore I am full of the wrath of the LORD; I am weary of holding it in. “Pour it out upon the children in the street, and upon the gatherings of young men, also; both husband and wife shall be taken, the elderly and the very aged.

Their houses shall be turned over to others, their fields and wives together, for I will stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land,” declares the LORD. For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.

They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore, they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the LORD. (Jeremiah 6:11-15)

 

Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by injustice, who uses his neighbor’s service without wages and gives him nothing for his work. (Jeremiah 22:13 NKJV)

 

The Cause of Judgment

Jesus made it clear in Matthew 6:24 and Luke 16:13 when He told the world, “You cannot serve God and Mammon,” but this has not deterred multitudes from attempting to do so. Not only does greed function as a god, such as Baal, in a person’s life, but unjust gain also steals from people. So it’s an affront on BOTH of the great commandments. No matter how many times God has made these facts clear, beginning with Moses, continuing with John the Baptist and Jesus, we have to keep coming back to it due to another generation under the delusion of Satan. 

In this article, I wish to discuss specifically God’s attitude towards unjust gain and what I’m calling “the spirit of Jehoiakim.” Acquiring wealth and resources must be just by God’s standards and not the world’s or some criminal organization’s. Unjustly acquired possessions will eat your flesh as if it were fire on the day of judgment (James 5:3), so it’s worth taking time to make sure what you may be calling stewardship or legitimate business may not, in fact, be jeopardizing your soul.

Jeremiah 6 denounces in the strongest possible terms the behavior of religious leaders who have forsaken the old paths and walked the streets of unjust gain instead. From the prophet to the priest, they all practiced fraud and were greedy for “unjust gain.” Their conscience was seared about the vile deeds they committed. They felt no shame, nor did they know how to blush. If you ask them, they would say, “It’s just business!” Paul commanded Timothy and us to turn away from people who believe and teach that gain is godliness (1 Timothy 6:5). 

Unjust Gain

In Biblical Hebrew, the concept of “unjust gain” is often associated with the term “בצע” (betsa), which translates to “gain” or “profit,” particularly in a context that is dishonest or unethical. It can refer to ill-gotten, violent gain, lucre, and any wealth or benefits obtained through deceitful means. Deceitful implies that the person was misled in the transfer of their goods or property. The idea is emphasized in various passages that warn against dishonesty in trade and the exploitation of others for personal gain.

The term betsa is often linked to broader themes in the Hebrew Bible regarding justice, fairness, and the moral obligations of individuals within society. Unjust gain is condemned in the strongest terms in texts that command ethical conduct and integrity, particularly in business dealings and interpersonal relationships. 

Woe Oracle

The woe oracle from Jeremiah 22:13 is a specific genre of Old and New Testament writing intended to convey God’s estimate of abominable behaviors in strong terms. 

In the Old Testament, we have familiar passages such as Isaiah 5:20, “Woe (comes upon) those who call the evil good and the good evil, who turn darkness into light and light into darkness.” or in Jeremiah, “Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.” (Jeremiah 23:1 KJV)

 

We also find the woe oracle in the New Testament, where Jesus denounced the religious leaders with seven woes in Matthew 23, followed by John, who described the terrible judgments coming upon the earth in Revelation 8:13, 9:12, 11:14, and 12:12. These verses help us understand the strength of a woe oracle.

 

Oppressive Policies and Practices

 

In our text in Jeremiah 22:13, we have a “woe” to the oppressive Jehoiakim, “(…) Who builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by injustice, uses his neighbor’s service without wages, and gives him nothing for his work.” The oppression consisted of him building a magnificent palace with the sweat and blood of his subjects, whom he compelled to do forced labor without giving them wages. He did these things with the cover of the law (TWOT). 

 

God said, “Woe to him that builds,” etc., cf. Hab. 2:12, Mic. 3:10. “That maketh his fellow labor,” lit., through his neighbor he works, i.e., he causes the work to be done by his neighbor (fellow-man) for nothing in return, without giving him wages, forces him to unpaid statute labor. (Keil and Delitzsch) 

 

Built by Unrighteous Methods

 

After the righteous king Josiah died, his son sat on the throne in Judah for three months. Pharaoh deposed him and installed his brother Jehoiakim in his place. We note that Jehoiakim built his projects by unrighteousness. In simple terms, his dealings were crooked, but he was crafty and hid behind the law. Moreover, he financed his projects with money obtained unjustly. Part of the reason he had money to buy extra materials was that he defrauded his workers of their wages. Jehoiakim’s means of prosperity and quest for vain glory were a mockery to the kings of Judah.

 

Matthew Henry once said, “God notices the wrong done by the greatest to poor servants and laborers, and will repay those in justice, who will not, in justice, pay those whom they employ.” It is cruel to have money in the bank to pay wages and then expect them to do it for free or at a price the employer would not accept if they were seeking employment. 

 

Sadly, although Jehoiakim has long been dead and gone, his spirit (attitude) is alive and well. People with this attitude jest (joke) that “a fool and his money are soon parted.” As if defrauding people under the cover of the law was a sport. This kind of con artistry lands the perpetrators on God’s hit list if our texts in Jeremiah have any meaning at all. 

 

Fairness Among the Saints

 

God is angry with people who greedily take advantage of others, use others, or any other saying that expresses the concept, regardless of who they are or what capacity they are laboring in (preaching, teaching, construction, etc.). Therefore, we must never enrich ourselves at the expense of other people’s free labor, or defraud them in any way of their property, especially in the kingdom of God and in an environment where people tend to trust Christians, especially leaders. 

 

Jehoiakim did this type of thing. I wonder, why did he expect people to work for free? I recall, as a teenager, thanking a coworker for helping me work on my car. He replied, “Robert, ‘thanks’ is good, but ‘thanks’ doesn’t put bread on the table.” It doesn’t mean people can’t volunteer their time to help others, but the person receiving the services should never take advantage of someone’s generosity. 

 

It is highly arrogant and unjust to expect people to work for free when you have the means to pay them (Proverbs 3:27). If they volunteer freely (and not because of some guilt trip imposed on them), that is different. It is within our rights to volunteer for anything, but it is up to the individual to decide, not by coercion. 

 

Fair and Equitable Dealings

 

Moreover, we need to be consistent in how and to whom we pay. If two people do the same job, they should be paid. No excuses. The servant of mammon who operates in the spirit of Jehoiakim will devise a thousand schemes to justify holding back wages by fraud, but James tells us that those wages will cry into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth (James 5:4). It does not please God, and the people who do it will not prosper in the long run. It’s only a temporary win for them. 

Sadly, the most common excuse I have personally heard among professing Christians is that “it’s just business.” Little do they know that this is the exact type of compartmentalization that Jesus condemned when He said “you cannot serve God and Mammon.” You are either a Christian over 100% of your actions at all times and in all places or you risk being both a hypocrite and an idolator. There is no such thing as a “business” category where you get to set aside Christian love and values to justify defrauding, stealing, cheating, conniving, hold back wages, misappropriate funds, or any other unjust behavior that is contrary to sound doctrine and Christian love.

Paul angrily and in the most sarcastic terms warned the Corinthians not to defraud one another and then sue each other (1 Corinthians 6:1-11). It shames the Church and brings a reproach on God. He asked in the first verse in effect, “HOW DARE YOU!” Indeed, the whole passage is punctuated by a series of “Do you not know?” questions that indicate something as to the high level of pure frustration with them he is experiencing over this matter in particular. Thus he alternates between statements of horror (vv. 1Co 5:1 and 1Co 5:6), rhetorical questions (vv. 1Co 5:2-4, 1Co 5:5-6, 1Co 5:7 b), sarcasm (v. 1Co 5:5), and finally threat (vv. 1Co 5:8-11). (Gordon Fee, NICNT)

 

Con Artistry in Ministry

“For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.” (Jeremiah 6:13)

Imagine a parable in which someone uses their influence as a respected Christian leader to scare and convince some poor widow to sign her farm over to him to protect her from the “crooks” in the world who might want to take advantage of her and steal her property. Once he receives the deed, he claims the land in his own financial portfolio and in time starts making demands and bossing the poor woman around regarding “his” property. Later, he trumps up an excuse to kick her out of the house and it becomes an income stream for him. All the while, he claims to be a steward doing God’s business and through much charm and deceit appears to be a hero in the eyes of the public. How would he escape the damnation of Hell? (Matthew 23:25-33 KJV)

This parable expresses how a “fool and his money is soon parted.” It is a sanitized version of the extortion rackets businesses suffered in early twentieth century Italian communities known as “the black hand.” The respected leader posits themselves as the savior and then sadly makes themselves the very crook they are pretending to save the lady from. Such wickedness has gone on for decades if not centuries and is more common than we think. I know of one such story from the community where I live.

People who engage in these behaviors often fail to realize that they are destroying their own credibility in the eyes of others. The conscience of the defrauded rises up and condemns them as thieves. Moreover, God doesn’t bless the behavior; He curses it (Isaiah 10:1-2). Is there any wonder He declared, “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by injustice, who uses his neighbor’s service without wages and gives him nothing for his work?” God doesn’t tolerate it, and neither should we (2 Corinthians 11:20).

 

A Higher Standard

Malachi 3 asks, “Will a man rob God?” in the tithe and offerings formerly required under the Old Covenant. Jesus confronted in the strongest way people who made the house of God a “den of thieves” and of leaders devouring widows’” houses (Matthew 23:1, Mark 12:40, Luke 20:47), and Paul confronting those liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons, who taught error for filthy lucre (Titus 1:11-12), but Peter was very bold when he wrote, “By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.” 

This article just scratches the surface of this exhaustive subject. A person would have to miss it when reading the Bible deliberately. Yet Jeremiah laid the guilt at the feet of the prophets and the priests—the very men who were expected to be the example. If the story of the rich man and Lazarus has any meaning at all, God only knows where everyone who “is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely” is now spending eternity. Do you think they regret it? It would behoove us to repent of such evil while we still can.

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