2 Chronicles

36. Fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian Exile

Over the generations the sinfulness of the kings in Judah just got worse and worse until they were finally destroyed and taken into captivity

2 Chronicles 36:

9 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. 10 In the spring of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon, with the precious vessels of the house of the Lord, and made his brother Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.

11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 12 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the Lord. 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. 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.

You know your country is in bad shape when your rulers take commands from foreign emperors, they no longer obey God or his prophets, and the priests are all unfaithful and follow whatever abominations are popular at the time.

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. 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.

God has mercy on us constantly. He is always sending people warnings. People know they are doing wrong. But they don’t care — they scoff, and think they can get away with it forever. Eventually, God must act, and pour out his wrath.

Jerusalem Captured and Burned

17 Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all into his hand. 18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. 19 And they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels. 20 He 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, 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.

The book of Jeremiah adds that at this time King Zedekiah was blinded and taken to Babylon. (Jeremiah 39) After this no one descended from King David was on the throne in Jerusalem. It must have been hard to believe in God’s promises at that point. All of their religion was focused on the temple, and that was melted down and destroyed. Those who didn’t die were thrust into slavery.

However, even in the time of captivity, God raised up skillful young men of learning who could act shrewdly within the empire.