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This chapter- the 36th of 2 Chronicles- is going to have a familiarity to you if you were with me for a previous study I did on the last kings of Judah. Since even I don't exactly remember when or where that was, let me bring you up to speed with the historics of this chapter before I hit the "what to learns".
The last good king of Judah, Josiah, has just failed to heed a prophecy given him by Necho, king of Egypt, and got himself killed for it. This brings on the first of the four last kings, Jehoahaz, whom "the people made king" (in verse one of our chapter). However, his popularity with the people didn't follow the line of succession (he was a younger son of Josiah)- and he wasn't popular with Necho, who replaced him on the way back from... well, let's just simplify and say, on the way back from where he was going when Josiah tried to interrupt him. So Necho carted him off to Egypt (more on the fates of the kings later), and replaced him with the proper successor, older brother Jehoiakim, three months later. Jehoiakim lasted 11 years, playing off the two great powers of the era- Egypt, which had been an ally to fallen Assyria, and Babylon, which had destroyed Assyria with her allies, and was now looking to pay Egypt back for its opposition. Jehoiakim bet on Egypt and lost, and Nebuchadnezzar came to Jerusalem with a proposition- hand over your king or die. Again, the shorter version of the story is that he got Jehoiakim's dead body in return, and Nebby put Jehoiakim's son Jehoiachin in charge. That was at the end of what was known then as "campaigning season", and the army of Babylon returned home. But three months later, Nebby came back, deposed Jehoiachin (our second three month king), and elevated another half-brother of Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim, Zedekiah (who would be our second 11 year king), to the throne. And it was Zedekiah's foolish back and forth between Babylon and Egypt that led to the final destruction of Jerusalem.
Now, I saw in my reading three important points in the story, and I'm going to go from least to most important. First point will be, God judges character.
Jehoahaz, as we saw in v1, was popular, more so than the 'legitimate' king, Jehoiakim. The Jews say this was because POLITICALLY he was similar to his father Josiah. Perhaps spiritually too, but the popularity, I think, must have turned his head. Why I say that is, though his final fate like that of the others is left MOSTLY blank in the Bible, UNLIKE the others, the Jews have no idea what happened to him after he was taken to Egypt, either. He was not heard from again- from popularity to totally being wiped out of the reach of history. When God puts something in the story- or leaves it out- it's for a reason. To be totally erased seems a fitting punishment for someone who let popularity go to his head.
Now Jehoiakim we've studied through the Jews before. He, according to them, did everything he could to not only be evil, but to top the evil of his grandfather Ammon and his great grandfather Manasseh. And part of that evil was leaning on Egypt, despite the previous warnings of the prophet Isaiah that Egypt was a 'broken reed'. As a result, Nebuchadnezzar came demanding the king, and according to the Jews, they had him killed and thrown over the walls- some stories even say his body was wrapped in the hide of an ass. Point being, his contempt for God led him to the most miserable of ends.
Now I want to pause here and remind you of what we learned in Proverbs about the simple, the fool, and the scoffer. Which Jehoahaz was, we don't get to learn. Jehoiakim was the fool; he said in his heart, 'there is no God'. While he had a chance to repent (an 11-year long chance), he did not take advantage of it.
So next up was sonny-boy Jehoiachin; he was said to have "done evil in the sight of the Lord", but no elucidation in the Bible itself. He got three months on the throne; during those three months, someone told Nebuchadnezzar, "A dog brings forth no good progeny," - meaning that the son would be no better than the father. Nebby took this advice and deported young Jehoiachin to Babylon, where the Jews say he repented in prison, as his great-great grandfather Manasseh had, and was thereafter treated well. He represents the simple- the one who did evil because he knew no better, and later repented.
And finally that brings us to Zedekiah, Jehoiachin's uncle, Josiah's son by a different mother. I'm not sure how they figured he'd be any less of a 'doggie', but on the throne he goes. And Zedekiah was an intriguer- despite 'swearing an oath by his God' to Nebby, Zedekiah played with both Babylon and Egypt. The one thing he was dead set against, though was listening to God, and thus Jeremiah plead with him and the people from a cistern (Jeremiah 38). But, as the chronicler said:
2Ch 36:13 He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel.
2Ch 36:14 All the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations. And they polluted the house of the LORD that he had made holy in Jerusalem.
2Ch 36:15 The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place.
2Ch 36:16 But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD rose against his people, until there was no
remedy.
No remedy. Because the scoffer, remember, knows there's a God; he simply doesn't care. I find it interesting that this made Zedekiah a 'flip-flopper' between Egypt and Babylon- and his final fate was actually explained hundreds of years later in Revelation...
Rev 3:14 "And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: 'The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.
Rev 3:15 "'I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!
Rev 3:16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
Rev 3:17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
And so goes Zedekiah to the most horrible fate of all; he had his whole family killed before his eyes, then was blinded so that that sight would be the last he'd see, and then lived to a ripe old age in a Babylonian dungeon- a virtual living death. Each king, thus, was judged according to his character.
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My second capture is a bit more tenuous, but bear with me. Observe verses 20-21:
2Ch 36:20 He (Nebuchadnezzar) took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia,
2Ch 36:21 to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
To fulfill the Sabbaths they hadn't kept. So as I woke up this morning, I did some quick calculating, and 70 years worth of Sabbaths would equal about 492 years worth of Sabbaths ignored. If you figure in that SOME Sabbaths were kept, maybe during the reigns of David, Solomon, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah, you COULD make a case that God had kept a meticulous count of every Sabbath messed up by the people SINCE THE DEATH OF JOSHUA. So WHY on earth was keeping these sabbaths so important? Again, observe:
Exo 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Keeping the Sabbath is the VERY FIRST example God gave us to follow; in not keeping it, the people were in effect refusing to follow ANY of God's example.
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To get the final, most important lesson, we have to take a step back to Josiah. See, Necho was heading north to help the Assyrians when Josiah, for some ill-understood reason, stood against his passage through the valley of Meggido ('Armageddon'). And God warned him against this, through Necho:
2Ch 35:20 After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to meet him.
2Ch 35:21 But he sent envoys to him, saying, "What have we to do with each other, king of Judah? I am not coming against you this day, but against the house with which I am at war. And God has commanded me to hurry. Cease opposing God, who is with me, lest he destroy you."
But Josiah didn't listen; he did what HE wanted, he tried to take control of the situation FROM God, and failed. And look what happened:
Each following king was either elevated illegitimately ( in the case of Jehoahaz) or put there by a foreign power.
Each following king was deposed by a foreign power.
Each king (with the exception of the later-repentant Jehoiachin) got his name CHANGED by the foreign power- Shallum became Jehoahaz, Eliakim became Jehoiakim, and Mattaniah became Zedekiah. Each was a name more intimately connected in translation to the God they were growing increasingly farther from- in a way, they were being mocked for their actions BY the names they were given.
The main point of the chapter is the sorry end of things when we try to keep the control in our lives that we should be surrendering to God. Think about it. in 22 years and six months they went from
2Ch 35:18 No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet.
to
2Ch 36:16 But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD rose against his people, until there was no remedy.
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