O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.
O earth! earth! earth! ... Write ye this man childless. Jeconiah was not actually without offspring (cf. Jeremiah 22:28, "his seed;" 1 Chronicles 3:17-18; Matthew 1:12, "Jeconias begat Salathiel"), but he was to be written "childless," as a warning to posterity - i:e., without a lineal heir to his throne. It is with a reference to the three kings, Shallum, Jehoiachim, and Jeconiah, that the earth is thrice invoked (Bengel). Or the triple invocation is to give intensity to the call for attention to the announcement of the end of the royal line, so far as Jehoiachim's seed is concerned. Though Messiah (Matthew 1:1-25), the heir of David's throne, was lineally descended from Jeconiah, it was only through Joseph, who, though his legal, was not His real father. Matthew gives the legal pedigree, through Solomon, down to Joseph; Luke the real pedigree, from Mary, the real parent, through Nathan, brother of Solomon, upwards (Luke 3:31).
No man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David. This explains the sense in which "childless" is used. Though the succession to the throne failed in his line, still the promise to David (Psalms 89:30-37) was revived in Zorobabel, and consummated in Christ.
Remarks:
(1) However highly exalted as to privileges men may be, as were the Jews of old, God will cast them from Him if they neglect His law of justice, righteousness, mercy, and truth (Jeremiah 22:3; Jeremiah 22:6). Sin can turn regions fertile as Gilead or Lebanon into a wilderness (Jeremiah 22:6). God has His instruments of judgment "prepared" for executing His holy will upon transgressors (Jeremiah 22:7), and in due time the stroke shall fall.
(2) Even in this world His retributive justice has often been so plainly marked in his dealings with highly-favoured nations which have forsaken His laws, that the most thoughtless have been constrained to see and acknowledge God's hand. But the full manifestation of God's righteousness in the government of the world is reserved for the general judgment.
(3) Dying saints are not objects of pity-their lot is earnestly to be desired; whereas the lot of living sinners, like Shallum, can only be mourned. It is a gracious boon from God, not a mark of displeasure, when by an early death He removes His faithful servants, such as Josiah was, from the evil to come (Jeremiah 22:10-11).
(4) God takes strict cognizance of acts of oppression done by the rich and great to their poor servants and labourers; wages kept back by fraud bring no gain in the end, but fearful retribution to the short-sighted perpetrator of the wrong. The great God who is above us all will give justice without mercy to him who not only showed no mercy, but even withheld common justice from those beneath him (Jeremiah 22:13).
(5) It much aggravates guilt when men have had, as Jehoiakim had in Josiah, the example of a godly parent or relative before them, and yet have turned aside from the path of righteousness (Jeremiah 22:15). How blind to their true interests such men are! Josiah in his pious course enjoyed all the temporal blessings which a man needs here below for happiness. He did not need to build gorgeous palaces by wrong, and at the cost of misery to thousands, in order to enjoy life; "it was well with him" in the practical knowledge of the Lord (Jeremiah 22:16). The way of duty was found by him to be the way of pleasantness, whereas the way of injustice proved to Jehoiakim the way to a dishonoured life and violent and ignominious death. Josiah died amidst a nation's lamentations; Jehoiakim died hated by all and lamented by none. Let us so live that we may be hereafter remembered by those who survive us as benefactors to our fellow-men, and faithful to our God.
(6) How sad, and yet how common it is, that prosperity, which comes from God, seldom draws men to God; nay, it is in prosperity especially that men are apt to turn a deaf ear to God's loving voice (Jeremiah 22:21). Judah was as haughty in prosperity as she was subsequently abject and fearful in adversity (Jeremiah 22:23; Jeremiah 22:25). God grant us grace to be humble and thankful when all is outwardly well with us, and cheerful, trusting, and hopeful in calamity.
(7) Coniah was once idolized by the people, but God brake their idol because of sin, and changed him from being an honoured vessel into "a vessel wherein is no pleasure" (Jeremiah 22:28). Such will be the fate of all our earthly confidences which we rest on, rather than upon the all-satisfying God. If the hollow professor were as near to God in spiritual privileges as "the signet" is to him upon whose "right hand" it rests (Jeremiah 22:24), yet would God "pluck" him away. But the sincere believer is "set as a seal upon the heart" of his Lord (Song of Solomon 8:6); "neither shall any pluck him out of Christ's and the Father's hand" (John 10:28-29). Though Coniah be written without lineal heir to the throne of David (Jeremiah 22:30), still the promise of God to King Messiah, the son and heir of David, shall not fail, and His spiritual "seed, too, shall endure forever" (Psalms 89:36).