2 Kings 25 -- Finally, It's Over

As the Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem for almost two years, the hunger became terrible.  Once the walls were breached, the king and his army fled under cover of darkness, only to be captured a short distance away.  Jeremiah had prophesied that Zedekiah would be taken prisoner and see the king of Babylon, but he would never see the place of his imprisonment.  That happened when he was sentenced at Riblah to watch as his sons were killed and then had his eyes gouged out.  His sons’ deaths would remain his last vision.

 

Jerusalem was burned to the ground, the Temple treasures taken to Babylon, and the walls of the city destroyed.  All but the very poorest inhabitants were taken as prisoners of war to Babylon.  But the chief priest, second-ranking priest, and royal officers never made it there, for they were killed at Riblah.

 

The Babylonian king made Gedaliah governor over the region, but Jews who’d returned to the area from other surrounding countries rallied and killed him for collaborating with the enemy.  Jeremiah warned the rebels not to flee to Egypt, that God would protect them in Judah.  But instead they fled there anyway, even forcing Jeremiah to go with them.  None of them ever returned.

 

My commentary listed several valuable lessons to be learned from this tragic story:

1)       No nation rises any higher than its worship of God

2)      We become like the god we worship

3)      God doesn’t want conformers – weak people who follow the crowd and please people.  He wants men and women who are distinctively different and who seek to please Him.  He doesn’t want cookie-cutter, carbon-copy Christians. 

4)      Friendship with the world is enmity with God, and to love the world and trust it is to lose the love of God.

5)      Faith is living without scheming

 

Father, several things at work have been going on about as long as this siege did.  I’m so ready to close those chapters just as I was ready to close this book.  I’ve done my best to have faith by living without scheming, trusting solely in You and doing Your will.  Please bring resolution there as well.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford