Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, despised the Word of God and destroyed it in the presence of the officials of the palace (Jer 36:22-27). As a result, the Word of the Lord concerning Jehoiakim was, “He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost” (vs 30). “He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem” (Jer 22:19).
Dear reader, you may not throw the Bible into the fire like Jehoiakim. However, you may be neglecting reading it and meditating on it, thereby despising it. If we delight in God, as David did (Psa 37:4), we will delight in His Word too.
It appears as if the Lord gave Jehoiakim three years’ time to bring forth fruit unto God. History records that in the third year of Jehoiakim’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon besieged Jerusalem (Dan 1:1,2). But it was only later that the Lord gave Jehoiakim into the hands of his enemies. He had not yielded fruit as expected of him by God. If we do not remain in God’s hand, we will fall into the hands of our enemies. May the Lord grant us the grace to meditate on the Word of God and not despise it or neglect it.
In contrast to Jehoiakim, Joshua was blessed because he meditated on the Word of God and observed to do all that is written therein (Josh 1:8). Indeed, we know how prosperous Joshua was. “Blessed is the man… his delight is in the law of the Lord and in His law doth he meditate day and night, whatsoever he doeth shall prosper” (Psa 1:2,4).
Dear reader, would you be a Joshua or a Jehoiakim?
– Taken from Morning Manna – Thoughts for Daily Devotion
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