“I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.” (Jeremiah 15:3–4, ESV)
I have succeeded in doing many things but one thing I have never mastered is how to have a nice-looking lawn. I can take a home with a great looking lawn and in three years have one of the ugliest weed ridden plot of land that you can imagine. I just cannot figure this thing out. I can fertilize, water, mow, and in a relatively short time end up with a weed patch. Frustrating! The only thing I can think is that the weed seeds get implanted some how and they propagate faster than the grass.
Spiritual weeds can have the same effect on a group of people. The seeds of the weeds can be sown in one season and then sprout in a different season. Moreover, if some drastic action is not taken then the seeds can take over a group of people to the point that the entire field is corrupted. This is what happened to Israel’ s Southern Kingdom, Judah.
Let us look back at the history of the kings of Judah. You will remember that Israel had divided into two kingdoms when Solomon’s son Rehoboam became the nation’s king. The Northern Kingdom was Israel, and the Southern was Judah. Judah had a succession of kings. Some were good kings that followed Israel’s God, while others were bad that brought idolatry and apostasy into the kingdom.
The worst king was named Manasseh. The Scriptures tell us that his father was Hezekiah, a good king. Yet despite being the son of a relatively good king, Manasseh went off the rails. He rebuilt the high places that his father had torn down and set up altars to false gods. He even brought this idolatry into the house of the Lord. Moreover, he followed the detestable practices of worship that the pagan nations did, including burning his own sons as an offering to false gods.
The interesting things is that after Manasseh, his son Ammon became king, who was also practiced idolatry in the land. His reign was very brief, just two years. Then His son, Josiah came to power at the age of 8 years.
At the age of 25 years, Josiah decided to rebuild the Temple and the workers discovered the scrolls that contained the Scriptures. After receiving and understanding these Josiah moved to bring about a sweeping revival in Judah. He destroyed the places of idol worship and returned the kingdom to the worship of Israel’s true God.
St Josiah’s sweeping reforms did not last. You see the seeds of the spiritual weeds that had previously been sown during the time of Manasseh were already planted in the hearts of the people years before. These seeds under a succession of bad kings following Josiah began to sprout up and propagate until the time of Jeremiah.
The result of this spiritual degradation became so bad that the kingdom would not repent. The spiritual weeds of idolatry and apostasy had taken over the nation. The only thing that could stop it was weed killer. To this God pronounced His judgment. Four aspects of the judgment were to come at the hands of the Babylonian conquest from the north. In the previous verse we see this.
“Thus says the Lord: ‘Those who are for pestilence, to pestilence, and those who are for the sword, to the sword; those who are for famine, to famine, and those who are for captivity, to captivity.’” (Jeremiah 15:2, ESV)
The judgment would come in that some would die by pestilence, some by the sword, some by famine, and others, a small remnant, 4,600 (probably women and children and women were excluded from the count), would be taken captive and deported to Babylon.
So, what is the point of this. In the world today there are some bad seeds that can get planted in our lives, the lives of our families, and the live of our congregations. It takes a great revival of weed killer to keep purity in our lives, our families, and our churches. This is the work of the Lord. Only He can bring the revival. However, we as individuals, family leaders, and church leaders have a huge responsibility to yield to the Lord’s prompting for spiritual purity. The seeds of evil are seeking to plant themselves in every area. The Lord is there to deal with these seeds but we must hear from Him and seek to follow His ways, not allowing the weeds to destroy the field of our lives, our families and our churches.
Renewing the Heart 