2 Kings 25: 1-10 (NIV)

25 So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. He encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it. 2 The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.3 By the ninth day of the fourth[a] month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat. 4 Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Babylonians[b] were surrounding the city. They fled toward the Arabah,[c] 5 but the Babylonian[d] army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered, 6 and he was captured. He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where sentence was pronounced on him. 7 They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon. 8 On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, an official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 9 He set fire to the temple of the Lord, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building, he burned down. 10 The whole Babylonian army under the commander of the imperial guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem.

The 25th chapter of 2 Kings is one of the Old Testament chapters which is challenging to read. The king of Babylon’s armies laid siege to the royal city of Jerusalem for approximately 17 months. They built a “fort” around the walls. Famine ensued and in Ezekiel we read that during this time they practiced cannibalism, eating their children. The temple built by King Solomon burnt to the ground and the sacred adornments and vessels, made according to God’s specifications of precious metals, taken. The prophet Jeremiah attempted to persuade the king to surrender, but he stubbornly refused. King Zedekiah attempted to escape but the Babylonian army captured him and his sons. A council of war tried him and forcibly made him witness the slaying of his sons. Zedekiah eyes were put out, leaving him with the vision of his sons’ deaths as his last visual memory. The Babylonian army destroyed the city walls and took the inhabitants captive. (An interesting note, the Romans burnt the second temple the same day and same month as the first temple. The estimated date being August 10th.)

Judah’s “sin problems” were of their own doing from the time of Moses. Jehovah’s chosen people’s disobedience resulted in wandering in the desert 40 years instead of the 11-day direct route journey. They ate manna and complained. God sent them quail to eat for a month because God’s anger burned against them. The account of this disobedience is quite graphic in Numbers 11. After the quail came a plague which scholars believe was due to a disease quails carry. When they reached the Promised Land, they failed to destroy the inhabitants and intermarried contrary to His command, and problems continued to plague them. They rejected God and demanded kings as their rulers against Samuel’s warnings, most of whom have the notoriety as “bad” kings. The victories they gained were not due to their own strength or military prowess, but to the covenantal protection and divine intervention of Jehovah on their behalf. In 2 Kings, the kings and the people were corrupt, godless, and once again offended Jehovah.

When God rises up in anger against our sin, it is so that we learn to trust and obey Him. The Israelites failed to learn contentment and understand God knew what was best for them. Judah paid an extremely high price for utterly forsaking Jehovah’s Word and the warnings sent to them by His prophets- more than once. In Proverbs 1: 24-28  God tells us, “But since you refuse to listen when I call and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand, since you disregard all my advice and do not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you; I will mock when calamity overtakes you -when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you. Then they will call to me, but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me.”  First Corinthians 10:11 says, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.” The Amplified Bible text of 2 Timothy 3:16 teaches us, “All Scripture is God-breathed [given by divine inspiration] and is profitable for instruction, for conviction [of sin], for correction [of error and restoration to obedience], for training in righteousness [learning to live in conformity to God’s will, both publicly and privately behaving honorably with personal integrity and moral courage].” God holds us to an even stricter accountability since we now have the written Word teaching us of His wrath and judgment upon human rebellion. In the he last verse of Proverbs chapter one God says, “…but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.”

It is easy to think because they had Moses, Joshua, David, and the prophets, without the distractions of “the world” as we know it, that the Israelites faith journey would be easier. I certainly used to think that way. Conversely, we have the written Word in its entirety available in many forms. We have Jesus’ blood atonement and the infilling of the Holy Spirit. We have permanent housing, electricity, transportation and do not have to wander in a desert picking our food off the ground every morning. We have climate-controlled buildings with comfortable seating, not hot scorching sand and extraordinarily little shade. We would do well to heed the teachings of God’s Holy Scripture and walk with Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit, lest we, too, become like the people of Judah!

Prayer:  St. Teresa of Avila

Lord, grant that I may always allow myself to be guided by You,
always follow Your plans,
and perfectly accomplish Your Holy Will.
Grant that in all things, great and small,
today and all the days of my life,
I may do whatever You require of me.
Help me respond to the slightest prompting of Your Grace,
so that I may be Your trustworthy instrument for Your honour.
May Your Will be done in time and in eternity by me,
in me, and through me.
Amen

Becky Jordan