“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice.”
– Jeremiah 22:13
This picture here in Jeremiah 22:13 is of Jehoiakim, who was basically building up his own palace, and ignoring the needs of the poor around him. He was living in evil and idolatry and immorality. And God says, through the prophet Jeremiah, “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness.”
Jeremiah 22:13 Leads Us to Ask “How Are We Living Our Lives?”
How are you building your house? Pray that God will help your life to reflect God’s compassion for the poor and needy.
I read Jeremiah 22:13 and I think, how am I building my house? When I think about my life, my marriage, my family. How am I building my house, my life? Am I building it on righteousness? And specifically, righteousness here, when he talks about, “builds his upper rooms by injustice,” he’s talking about a lack of concern for the poor and the needy.
You look a few verses later, in Jeremiah 22:16, he says, the Bible says, “He judged the cause of the poor and needy. Then it was well. Is not this to know me? declares the Lord.” So, to know God is to judge the cause of the poor and the needy, to defend the poor and the needy.
So, I would just encourage you to ask yourself today, how are you building your house? One, are you building it on righteousness, on holiness? Is your life reflecting the righteousness and the holiness and the justice of God, the compassion of God, for those in need around you? Is that what you’re building your life, your marriage, your family on? And is that what the church you are part of is built on, justice for the poor and the needy?
This Verse Leads Us Ask God For Help
This is the Word of God, so God help us. Help us to build our lives and our homes on righteousness and justice, specifically when it comes to those who are in urgent need around us. God, we pray for Your eyes, to see those physical and spiritual needs around us, God. Not to be indifferent to them, not to be so focused on building our lives and the busyness of our lives and all we want to get done in order to be comfortable, and make money, and be successful in the world, or just even get by.
God help us to live and to build our homes and our churches, our lives, on righteousness and holiness and justice, care for those in need around us. We pray that You would use us as conduits of Your justice, You would help us to be a reflection of Your compassion for the poor and the needy, for this is what it means to know You. God help us to build our homes, our lives, our families, our churches on righteousness and justice like this. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
