Jeremiah 22:15-17

I’ve lately been doing some personal reading in the book of Jeremiah. In the book, God sends Jeremiah to warn Judah of a nation from the north, namely Babylon, who will come and take them away into exile, because they have repeatedly failed to listen to and obey him. While there are a few glimmers of hope in the book (i.e., the promise of restoration with repentance, the promise of a new covenant and a new people with new hearts in chs. 30-33, etc.), the book mainly chastises Judah for her sin and warns repeatedly of the danger of forgetting God. In chapter 22, it is the kings of Judah that are chastised for their sin, specifically for their failure to do justice and righteousness. They were poor leaders of the nation. They did not care for the helpless, the widow and orphan, but instead promoted violence and shed innocent blood. In  22:15-17 some choice words are given to King Shallum (a.k.a. Jehoiakim) for building his house upon injustice, unlike his father Josiah. The text says: “Did not your father (Josiah) eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor and the needy; then it was well. Is this not to know me? declares the Lord. But you (Shallum) have eyes and heart only for dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for practicing oppression and violence.”

A phrase worth noting is: “Is this not to know me?” In this text, doing justice, by caring for the poor and needy, is equated with knowing God. Since God is a God of justice, we cannot claim to know him is we do not do justice ourselves. When we act justly, we act like God himself. Shallum, to the contrary, was concerned with his own personal gain, regardless if it meant a disregard for the needy, or the use of violence and oppression, or the shedding of innocent blood. He did not know God.

I think that at the heart of justice is a refusal to view human beings in economic terms. In other words, when the basis for how we treat others is how they will affect our pocket book, then injustice naturally follows. In Jeremiah 22, Shallum was concerned with his own personal gain, which meant that he was willing to do whatever he wanted to other people, especially those less-powerful, in order to achieve his own ends. If it meant violence and killing, so be it. This is injustice. Justice, on the other hand, does not seek for personal gain, but relinquishes power for the sake of others. Jesus gave us the ultimate example of this in letting go of divine glory to become a human and go to the cross. This is true justice.

A specific modern example of viewing others in economic terms is abortion. In the vast majority of cases, an unborn child is aborted because he or she is viewed as a financial or psychological burden. The child is viewed as “getting in the way” of ones pursuits or is viewed as “unaffordable.” What then do we do when something (or someone!) gets in the way of personal gain? Much like Shallum, we resort to violence and shed innocent blood. This is injustice. However, if we want to act justly, and thus show that we “know God,” we must refuse to view others in economic terms. We must rather care for the poor and the needy and the widow and the orphan and the unborn, regardless of what is might do to our pocketbook. This is to know God and to do justice.