This Christmas season I want to impress on you the spiritual struggle that exists. God wants you to follow and believe in Jesus. Satan wants you to do anything but.

Before Jesus was born, God had said in Genesis that Eve’s offspring, a grandchild, would bruise the head of the serpent and that Satan would injure the heal of the man.

Satan does not believe God. Remember when Satan comes to God? God says, “Look at Job. He is a righteous, just man.” Satan disagrees with God. He says, “Only because you have protected him. Take away the protection and Job will curse you.” Satan does not believe God. Even when God says something will happen, Satan will argue with God and try to get you and I to agree with him.

We saw this with Eve and with Cain. King Herod was trying to kill the baby Jesus and thwart God’s plan.

And each of us are engaged in a spiritual battle as well. Ours is a little different. Now that Satan has been defeated, he wants to stop anyone from following Christ. He wants to stop those who believe in Christ from being effective. He will attack us through temptation, through our relationships, through our finances, through our marriages, through our circumstances. And he is smart enough that he will use good relationships, good finances, good marriages and good circumstances as well as bad to keep us from being who God wants us to be.

This week I want to show you one other person who Satan tried to use to destroy the line of Jesus. His name is Jehoiakim and we will pick up his story in Jeremiah chapter 36. That is page 789 in the pew Bible.

Jehoiakim is the son of Josiah. Josiah was a king of Judah. After Solomon, David’s son, the kingdom was split into two factions, the northern ten tribes which were called Israel, and the southern two tribes of Judah and Benjamin which were called Judah. Josiah, Jehoiakim’s father, was a king of Judah. Compared to many of the other kings, he was a good king. He was a winner in the spiritual battle. He used his influence to restore the temple and the priesthood, both of which had fallen far from what they had once been.

But Jehoiakim was different. Everything his father stood for, Jehoiakim stood against. Somehow in all the zeal of Josiah, he neglected the part that said, “Pass this on to your children.” Jehoiakim had little regard for God or for his word.

(Jer 36) 1 In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah and all the other nations from the time I began speaking to you in the reign of Josiah till now. 3 Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about every disaster I plan to inflict on them, each of them will turn from his wicked way; then I will forgive their wickedness and their sin.”

Jeremiah was a prophet. He is the author of this passage we are reading and of this book that holds his name.

God tells him to write down all he had told him. So how can we identify the quality of Jeremiah’s writing. We would have to say that what Jeremiah wrote was God’s word. God said, “Write what I told you.” So the result was that Jeremiah wrote God’s word.

A center point of the spiritual battle we all face is God’s word. It is written for us in the 66 books we have in our Bible. There are no additional books and no books that need to be subtracted. We hold in our hands God’s word.

4 So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and while Jeremiah dictated all the words the LORD had spoken to him, Baruch wrote them on the scroll.

Jeremiah obeyed God. God said, “Write.” Jeremiah wrote. The spiritual battle was won early because Jeremiah wanted to do what God wanted him to do. The greatest struggle is in the area of the “want to.” When we want to, the doing is easier.

Paul said in Philippians that this “want to” is also part of the spiritual battle. He said, “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. If God is working in you to will and to do, Satan is working on you to will and to do, Satan is working on you to “won’t and to wilt.” Jeremiah concentrated on remembering what God has said. Baruch, the son of Neriah, wrote down what Jeremiah said as he was talking.

Some might ask, “How could he remember all that God has said?” It doesn’t say it in this text, but the apostle Peter says, (2Pe 1:21) 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. That accounts for its accuracy.

The work of the Holy Spirit that stands behind the writing of the Bible is also one of the reasons that the Bible becomes a focal point in spiritual warfare.

If God wants us to know something, Satan does not want us to know it. If we know something from God, Satan wants to distort it.

Three quick examples will show this. First, “Money is the root of all evil.” Wrong. The Bible say that “the love of money is the root of all evil.” There is a big difference between the two statements.

Second, “Judge not that you be not judged.” This is a quote from the Bible but it is not complete. The rest of the quote is a warning. The same measure you use to judge others will be used against you. It does not forbid judging, it warns us to be careful that the fingers do not come back in our direction for the same things we accuse others of.

Third, and this I have heard often, “God helps those who help themselves.” This is not found in the Bible, this is a quote from Greek mythology. It was literally, “The gods help those who help themselves.”

Satan just wants to work confusion and wants to tear down the word of God. He does not want us to read it, to study it, to meditate on it, to memorize it, to listen to it being read, or for us to give it to anyone else.

Sometimes one of the hardest things for a person to do is to attend a preaching service or Sunday school. Daily reading of the Bible itself can be hard. Why? In part, because there is a spiritual battle involved.

5 Then Jeremiah told Baruch, “I am restricted; I cannot go to the LORD’s temple. 6 So you go to the house of the LORD on a day of fasting and read to the people from the scroll the words of the LORD that you wrote as I dictated. Read them to all the people of Judah who come in from their towns. 7 Perhaps they will bring their petition before the LORD, and each will turn from his wicked ways, for the anger and wrath pronounced against this people by the LORD are great.”

The Lord always wants change. No matter how wicked our past, God doesn’t give up on us. He wants us to change. Look at what he says. Maybe the people will pray and turn from their wicked ways.

8 Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to do; at the LORD’s temple he read the words of the LORD from the scroll.

So Baruch reads the scroll for Jeremiah.

Let’s move to verse 11. The scene shifts from Baruch and Jeremiah to the kings court.

11 When Micaiah son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the LORD from the scroll, 12 he went down to the secretary’s room in the royal palace, where all the officials were sitting: Elishama the secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Acbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials. 13 After Micaiah told them everything he had heard Baruch read to the people from the scroll, 14 all the officials sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to say to Baruch, “Bring the scroll from which you have read to the people and come.” So Baruch son of Neriah went to them with the scroll in his hand.

They are about ready to get an earful.

15 They said to him, “Sit down, please, and read it to us.” So Baruch read it to them. 16 When they heard all these words, they looked at each other in fear and said to Baruch, “We must report all these words to the king.” 17 Then they asked Baruch, “Tell us, how did you come to write all this? Did Jeremiah dictate it?” 18 “Yes,” Baruch replied, “he dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them in ink on the scroll.” 19 Then the officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah, go and hide. Don’t let anyone know where you are.”

Notice the officials are on Jeremiah’s side. They know how bad things are.

20 After they put the scroll in the room of Elishama the secretary, they went to the king in the courtyard and reported everything to him. 21 The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and Jehudi brought it from the room of Elishama the secretary and read it to the king and all the officials standing beside him.

So now the king hears the contents of the scroll. It speaks of judgment for wicked behavior. It speaks of the tearing down of the temple if there is no change.

In the reading of the word of God, a spiritual battle is now taking place in Jehoiakim’s heart. Will he follow God or not? His decision would influence the nation.

22 It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter apartment, with a fire burning in the brazier in front of him. 23 Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the brazier, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire. 24 The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes. 25 Even though Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. 26 Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son of the king, Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the LORD had hidden them.

What indifference. He heard a few pages, then cut them up and burned them. No fear, no concern, no visible response to the Bible as it was being read.

Instead, he decided to persecute God’s messengers.

God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows that shall he also reap. God has Jeremiah write the words again, except now there is an addition. This starts in verse 29.

29 Also tell Jehoiakim king of Judah, ‘This is what the LORD says: You burned that scroll and said, “Why did you write on it that the king of Babylon would certainly come and destroy this land and cut off both men and animals from it?” 30 Therefore, this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: He will have no-one to sit on the throne of David; his body will be thrown out and exposed to the heat by day and the frost by night.

Notice what happens here. Jehoiakim will have none of his children sit on the throne of David. I could elaborate on the rest of this, but catch this one thing. The kingly line ends with Jehoiakim. Now his son, Jehoiakin did become king at the age of 18. But he only lasted three months. And that was the end.

One problem. God had said that of David’s kingdom there would be no end. But, it ends here. Jehoiakim’s children would never sit on the throne. If Jesus was one of Jehoiakim’s grandchildren, he would be ineligible for the throne.

Satan wins. God loses. Or so it looked.

(Mt 1:11 -16) 11 and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon. 12 After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Eliud, 15 Eliud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

It’s interesting to note that the text skips Jehoikim and goes to his son, Jeconiah or Jehoikin. He would be in this line. But he did not reign. Those three months were pretty short.

But I want us to go to verse 16. Notice that this is the genealogy of Jesus through Joseph. Throughout the whole passage we have such and such “the father of…” But when it comes to Joseph it says, “the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus…” Why this strange wording?

The answer is clear. Because Joseph was Jesus’ legal father, according to earthly law, but he was not Jesus’ biological father. The virgin birth both retains the legal line of Jesus while keeping the prophecy that none of Jehoiakim’s children would sit on the throne.

Satan is defeated. The attempt to stop the birth of Christ fails.

When I think of this, the verse that comes to mind is from 1 John. “Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.” When we live in Christ, when we walk in Christ, when we move in Christ, when we follow Him, we are on the winning side.