Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture Reading

Today’s is the final piece of the sermon series on the Kings of Judah.

We’ve taken a deep dive through each of the kings, the events that happened during their reigns, and their handing down of the throne from father to son, father to son.

And when they let go of God, God held on tighter than before.

And in this manner the 464 years of the Kings period saw a clumsy tumbling down of God’s covenant through the generations.

But now the kingdom is about to be destroyed, and the axe is already swinging for the last two surviving branches of Davidic lineage.

Jehoiachin & Zedekiah

The axe is the nation of Babylon, and the two branches are Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah his uncle.

And what we have here are two kings who are faced with an impossible choice.

It’s like one of those situations where plan A is bad, but so is plan B. And you’re on a timer.

The enemy at the gates, and your people are looking to you for leadership.

And they live or die upon your word.

Jehoiachin reigns for a mere 3 months and 10 days before deciding to surrender to Babylon, while Zedekiah holds on tight, refuses to surrender, calls for Egyptian aid, and defends the city with everything he’s got, and in so doing plunges the nation into dire straits for 30 months as they fight battles both military and agricultural.

From the boiling of children to the extraction and consumption of placentas, it was truly ‘Old Testament.’

Thanks to the last kings of Judah, the once holy nation of Israel now found itself vandalized beyond recognition.

So as we conclude this series, let us reflect on the decisions of these two kings, and what we can take away from their stories.

But before that, let’s have a quick look at the timeline of this period.

Timeline

1st deportation: 605 BC (Jehoiakim)

2nd deportation: 597 BC (Jehoiachin)

3rd deportation: 586 BC (Zedekiah)

Let’s have a closer look at what happens in the 2nd deportation.

Now what should jump out at us whenever we read the historical books, such as Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, is the author’s comment.

The author usually just tells the story, so you know it's important when there’s an extra comment.

So the key phrase here in this passage is the last bit that says that the Lord had foretold of the decimation of the golden vessels in the temple.

And where did the Lord foretell of this?

Right after Hezekiah showed off all his riches to the Babylonian envoys.

One OT scholar commented, ‘The generally godly Hezekiah’s stupidity has now come home to roost.’

Jehoiachin waves the white flag and surrenders to Babylon, and ends up imprisoned.

Nebuchadnezzar then appoints Zedekiah his uncle to be the next king of Judah, and enters into covenant with him.

The Bible says that Nebuchadnezzar made him ‘swear by God.’

How does Zedekiah break the covenant with Nebuchadnezzar?

He rebels against Nebuchadnezzar, stiffens his neck and hardens his heart against the Lord.

And in his stiff-necked obstinacy, he sends messengers to Egypt asking for their help against Babylon.

The Egyptian army arrives, the Babylonian army leaves, the Egyptian army leaves, the Babylonian army arrives.

I think that’s what many of us do when we try to deal with spiritual problems using physical solutions.

When we feel like life isn’t meaningful, or when we feel unsatisfied and discontent, we must turn to God.

We don’t want to drink saltwater just to quench our thirst for a moment.

But that is exactly what Zedekiah does.

And why does he do it?

We saw last week that there were false prophets contradicting the prophet Jeremiah’s Word from the Lord.

Jeremiah promised life to whoever surrendered to Babylon, but these false prophets promised that the city of Jerusalem would prevail.

Now, who do you think was right?

That’s too easy because we’re talking in retrospect.

But put yourself in Zedekiah’s shoes for a moment.

As the king, you are entirely responsible for the lives of your people.

And if you open the city gates with a white flag in your hand, who knows what might happen?

You can’t risk it.

And besides, there are so many prophets in your royal court who tell you that you will succeed.

You’ve heard the stories of how God delivered your predecessor King Hezekiah from the Assyrian army, of how the angel of the Lord struck down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night.

So why not have a little faith?

But Jeremiah, this thorn in your side, says that the city will fall.

Why should you give regard for the words of a pessimist?

Spiritual discernment

The issue here is one of spiritual discernment, and it’s a real issue for the church today.

Many people like to quote Jeremiah’s words during this period, and the most popular verse is undoubtedly Jer.

29:11

Most prosperity preachers and overly triumphalistic Christians shout this from the mountain tops.

They memorize the verse, but not what comes before.

Let’s read both verses together.

So what are these plans for welfare and not evil?

It’s to send them to Babylonian exile for 70 years before restoring them back to Jerusalem.

God’s plan wasn’t for Zedekiah to successfully defend the city, and God’s plan is not for us to live as the kings and queens of this earth.

But Zedekiah was human, and as a fellow human being he too preferred prophecies that ticked his fancy.

He was ill equipped to discern the true Word of God from the words of the false prophets.

What distinguished Jeremiah from the other false prophets?

Jeremiah prophesied according to the covenant of God.

Jeremiah’s prophecy stated two things:

That the inhabitants of Judah would be in exile.

That they would be in exile for 70 years.

And both these conditions matched the covenantal stipulations or conditions which God gave to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai.

If you commit idolatry, if you intermarry with the foreigners, if you don’t keep the sabbath year, so on and on, then the land’s going to spit you out.

And further on God gives the command of the sabbath year, whereby the Israelites must let the land rest after every six years.

On the sabbath year, the seventh year, you had to leave the land alone.

Do you think the Israelites kept this command?

We could speculate that 70 x 7 = 490 years since the last Sabbath year they kept, which, if we add it to the year which Jerusalem fell in 586 BC, would be around prophet Samuel’s time in 1076 BC.

But we need to focus on the fact that King Zedekiah should have seen this coming.

When Jeremiah prophesied the 70-year exile to King Zedekiah, he should have taken out his abacus and done the math, because, unlike the false prophets, Jeremiah’s prophecy ran parallel with God’s covenant.

If he was even familiar with the book of Leviticus, which was discovered along with the other first five books of the Pentateuch during his father’s time, he would have seen this coming.

But Zedekiah either doesn’t recognize or doesn’t acknowledge God’s covenant.

Either way, the key point is that spiritual discernment starts with knowing God’s covenant.

In order to know what God says, we need to know what God has said, because God doesn’t contradict Himself, nor can He lie.

So after 30 months of seige and famine, there was no deliverance.

The city of Jerusalem falls.

Zedekiah is captured, his sons slain before his eyes, his own eyes are put out, and he is dragged off to Babylon where he dies.

Jerusalem lies desolate and in ruins, the temple is destroyed.

And what about Jehoiachin?

He surrendered about 11 years prior to the fall of Jerusalem, and he’s still in prison when the city falls.

But he outlives Zedekiah.

Let’s have a read.

There’s something that the author here is trying to emphasize via repetition: that Jehoiachin is the king of Judah, that line of kings has been preserved, and that the covenant between God and David has still got a pulse, no matter how faint it may be.

Jehoiachin’s 37 years in Babylonian prison has now come to an end, and he puts off his prison garments, and now dines at the king’s table, at a seat above the seats of the other kings.

He even gets allowance for spending!

That’s the last passage in the book of kings.

And what all this tells us is that God is in control, He is faithful to the covenant, and He knows what He’s doing, even when we can’t understand.

It’s all about the covenant and covenant faithfulness, and God demands us this morning to do the same.

Some of us might feel like Jehoiachin right now.

We might feel the chains of this world, of sin, weighing us down.

We might feel helpless or even hopeless, wondering if God will really stick to the promise.

But as God moved the heart of the new Babylonian king to free Jehoiachin, God can and will make impossible things happen to restore us.

His promise is our hope.