2 Chronicles 35-36 The End?

Josiah was doing everything God told him to do and things were going great.  But then Egypt’s King Neco marched along Judah’s western border on his way to help Assyria fight off Babylon.  Josiah didn’t like this and led his army out to Megiddo to fight Neco, who sent him a message that said, “There should not be war between us.  I did not come to fight you, but my enemies.  God told me to hurry, and He is on my side.  So don’t fight God or He will destroy you.”  Josiah didn’t listen, and there’s no record that he consulted God about this.  He went into the battle dressed like a commoner and was wounded and lost his life.

The people then chose Josiah’s second son to rule, but 3 months later, Neco had him replaced by his older brother and took him as a prisoner of war to Egypt.  This older brother ruled for 11 years, snubbing the Lord and when Babylon attacked, he was led in chains to Babylon, also as a prisoner of war.  His son became king and also ruled only three months as the nation spiraled into apostasy.  He too was taken to Babylon and his uncle, who was 21, became king.  He stubbornly refused to obey the Lord, as did the leaders at the time.  “The lord had made the Temple holy, but the leaders made it unholy.”

Eleven years of that were enough, and God intervened for the glory of His name.  Babylon burned the Temple, destroyed Jerusalem, and took the people of Judah as slaves to Babylon.  “The country was an empty wasteland for 70 years to make up for the years of Sabbath rest that the people had not kept.”  Yet God safe-kept a faithful remnant in Babylon to reseed the nation once they’d sworn off idolatry.

Father, our nation is quickly following down this path.  We need Your intervention, and we need godly leaders and godly people to obey You and bring us back from the precipice.  Help us to learn from history and not repeat it. 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford