Introduction
A couple of weeks ago, when we were studying the reign of Manasseh, I said that — while humans have progressed in so many ways over the generations and we’ve made great advances in science and medicine and technology, so that life now is so much better than it was in the past — the fact remains that each person who is born is born with the exact same fallen human nature as Adam had after he disobeyed the Lord in the beginning.
So, while we have advanced in many ways, and one generation builds on what the previous generation has achieved, nevertheless human nature doesn’t advance. Whereas lots of things change for the better, our human nature doesn’t. When we’re born, we’re just like Adam, because we share his guilt and we share his corrupt nature so that we’re naturally inclined to do evil. And it takes God the Holy Spirit either to restrain our wickedness or else to change us and to make us inclined to do what’s right.
And I said that’s why a godly king like Hezekiah can give birth to a wicked king like Manasseh. Hezekiah was a godly king who did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. And he trusted God. He trusted God when his enemies attacked him; and he trusted God when he was sick. But his son, Manasseh, was a wicked king who did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord and he set up all kinds of idols in the temple and throughout Judah.
And we can say the same thing again as we move from the reign of Josiah, which we studied last week, to the reigns of the last kings of Judah. Josiah was a godly king and he cleansed the land of its idolatry. But then, Josiah was succeeded by Jehoahaz, who did evil in the eyes of the Lord. And he was succeeded by Jehoiakim and he did evil the eyes of the Lord. And he was succeeded by Jehoiachin and he did evil in the eyes of the Lord. And he was succeeded by Zedekiah and he did evil in the eyes of the Lord. And in the end, the Lord did as he said he would do and he sent the people of Judah into exile just as he sent the people of Israel into exile.
And yet, as we’ll see, it’s not all doom and gloom, because the God we worship is a God who gives his people hope for better things to come.
23:31–24:20
Let’s turn to our text. I’m not going to say too much about these last kings, because there’s not a great deal to say about them. What more do we need to know once we know that they did evil in the eyes of the Lord? They’re just like all the other wicked kings who preceded them.
Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he began to reign and his reign lasted just three months. Pharaoh Neco, who killed Josiah his father, put him in chains. He then imposed a large levy on Judah and made Eliakim, who was another of Josiah’s son, king in his place. And he changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim.
And what happened to Jehoahaz? According to verse 34, Neco took him to Egypt, where he died. Taking the king from the Promised Land to Egypt is a reversal of the Exodus, isn’t it? At the time of the Exodus, God rescued his people from Egypt and brought them to the Promised Land. But now the king of God’s people has been taken from the Promised Land back to Egypt. God once set his people free; but now he’s sending the king back to bondage. And the people who were left behind in Judah were not much better off, because Jehoiakim their king had to tax them in order to pay the levy to Neco.
According to verse 36, Jehoiakim became king when he was 25 years old and he reigned for 11 years. During his reign, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the land and Judah became its vassal. That is, Judah came under its authority. So, at the beginning of his reign, Jehoiakim had to do what Egypt wanted; now he has to do what Babylon wanted. After three years he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. The historians tell us that Nebuchadnezzar was too busy elsewhere to take action against Jehoiakim himself, but he sent other nations to raid Judah. These are the nations mentioned in verse 2 of chapter 24. But as our narrator tells us, it was really the Lord who sent these nations against Judah, because he was beginning to punish them for all the sins of Manasseh.
And take a look at verse 4 which is really staggering, because it says there in verse 4 that the Lord was not willing to forgive. In the past, the Lord had been very patient with his sinful people. Though they deserved to be destroyed, he relented and he did not bring on them the punishment they deserved. But finally the time had come for him to punish and not to forgive. Instead of relenting, he was going to bring on them the disaster they deserved.
After Jehoiakim died, he was succeeded by his son, Jehoiachin. He was 18 years old when he began to reign and he reigned for only three months. During his brief reign, King Nebuchadnezzar and his army laid siege to Jerusalem. And, according to verse 12 of chapter 24, Jehoiachin surrendered to him and was taken prisoner.
Nebuchadnezzar then removed all the treasures from the temple and from the royal palace and he took away all the gold articles that Solomon had made for the temple and for the worship of the Lord. And as well as taking these treasures and articles, he also took away the people: all the officers and fighting men; and all the craftsmen and artisans. Only the poorest people were left. In other words, he took away the best of them: all those with valuable skills and talents who could use their skills and talents for the good of Babylon. And according to verse 15, Nebuchadnezzar took away the king and the king’s mother and his wives and officials and leading men. They were taken from Jerusalem to Babylon. And the narrator repeats that the fighting men and the craftsmen and artisans were taken away. Judah was stripped of its best people. And then, Nebuchadnezzar made Jehoiachin’s uncle — another son of Josiah — king in his place and named him Zedekiah.
He became king when he was 21 years old and he reigned for 11 years. And right at the end of chapter 24, we’re told that he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar.
25:1–26
Since Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar once again marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. And once again he laid siege to the city. Soon there was a famine in the city, because there was nothing for the people to eat. And finally the city wall was broken through. Zedekiah and his army fled, but the Babylonians caught up with them. Zedekiah was taken to Nebuchadnezzar and his sons were killed before his eyes. And then his eyes were put out. They bound him with shackles and took him to Babylon.
Then the commander of Nebuchadnezzar’s army went to Jerusalem and set fire to the temple and to the royal palace and to all the houses in the city. 1 Kings began with the reign of Solomon and the narrator told us how he built the temple and his palace and they were magnificent buildings. The walls of the temple were lined with gold so that the temple reflected the glory of heaven above. But now the temple and the palace and all the houses were burned to the ground. The commander also broke down the walls of the city, which once kept the city safe from their enemies. And he took most of whatever people were left into exile, although the very poorest people were left behind to work the vineyards and fields.
And that’s not all. He broke up the bronze pillars which stood at the entrance to the temple. These were 27 feet high. But the commander broke them up. And he broke up the bronze stands and the bronze sea which were used in the worship of the Lord and he carried the bronze to Babylon. He also took away the various gold and silver utensils which were used in the worship of the Lord. And he took captive the chief priest and another priest and various officials. And these were all executed.
According to verse 22 of chapter 25, Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah to oversee those who were left behind. This man is known for being a wise and upright man. And the army officiers — who had escaped from Nebuchadnezzar and remained on the land — came to him; and he reassured them that if they settled down, and did not try anything, it would go well with them. According to what we read in Jeremiah 40, it did go well for them and the people left on the land soon harvested an abundance of wine and fruit. But not long afterwards, one of the army officers gathered ten men and they assassinated Gedaliah. And fearing the worst, those who were left fled to Egypt just in case Nebuchadnezzar decided to retaliate once again.
25:27–30
So, the best of the people had been taken away to Babylon. Others had fled to Egypt for safety. Jerusalem was in ruins: the temple had been destroyed; the palace had been destroyed; the houses had been destroyed; the walls of the city had been destroyed. The gold and silver and bronze had been taken away.
At the beginning of 1 Kings, Solomon was king. God had given him wisdom and wealth and God had enabled him to build a magnificent temple and palace. The temple was like heaven on earth. And the people lived in peace and prosperity. And people from faraway nations came, not to attack Solomon, but to honour him and to pay tribute to him. But now, it was all in ruins.
And we know why it happened. We know why it happened because our narrator has made it clear. It happened because of the sins of the people.
Bible scholars talk about deuteronomistic history. They’re referring to history which is shaped by what we read in the book of Deuteronomy, where the Lord and his people renewed the covenant they made with each other when the Lord rescued them from Egypt. And under the terms of that covenant, the Lord promised to bless his people if they obeyed him; and to curse his people if they disobeyed him. And so, deuteronomistic history is history that is shaped by God’s covenant promise to bless or curse his people according to what they have done. And since the people of Israel and Judah disobeyed the Lord again and again and again, the Lord sent them into exile as his curse on them for their many sins. God did to them what he said he would do to them in his covenant.
But the steadfast love of the love never ceases and his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; and his faithfulness is very great. And so, take a look at the final verses of 2 Kings. In the 37th year of the exile, when a new king began to reign in Babylon, that new king released Jehoiachin, who was still alive and who was living in Babylon in exile. The Babylonian king released him from prison and he spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a seat of honour above the other kings who had been brought to Babylon.
And so, Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life, he ate at the king’s table. Though he was still in exile, he sat at the king’s table as a guest. And the king of Babylon gave him a regular allowance for as long as he lived.
He was still in exile. But he lived freely. And so, the Lord, who had once turned the heart of Nebuchadnezzar to attack Judah’s king, now turned the heart of Evil-Merodach to look with favour on Judah’s king.
Application 1
As we think about the significance of this passage, I want to return to the idea of the covenant which I mentioned a moment ago to explain why the Lord sent the people into exile.
So, God sent the people into exile as his covenant curse on them for their many sins. Under the terms of the covenant he made with them in the days of Moses, he promised to bless them for their obedience and to curse them for their disobedience. And since they disobeyed him persistently over many generations, the Lord poured out his covenant curses on them,
But in those days, when everything was going wrong for the people and they were being taken into exile, God spoke to his people through the prophet Jeremiah about a new covenant which he would make with his people.
He said it would not be like the old covenant which he made with them in the days of Moses. They, in a sense, broke that covenant, because they did not do what God commanded them to do in that covenant.
But instead of destroying them completely for their breaking that old covenant, the Lord announced through Jeremiah that he was going to make a new covenant with them. And this new covenant would be better than the old one.
This new covenant would be better because it was written, not on stone tablets — at it was in the days of Moses — but it would be written on their hearts so that they would know his will.
And this new covenant would be better because the Lord not only promised to write the law on their hearts, but he promised to give them a new heart so that they would love him and would want to obey him. So, instead of being sinfully inclined to disobey the Lord, they would now want to obey him.
And he also promised to give them the Holy Spirit to help them. The Holy Spirit living inside them would remind them of God’s will and he would help them to do God’s will in their daily lives.
And this new covenant would be better because, as well as writing the law on their hearts, and as well as giving them a new heart to obey him, and as well as giving them the Holy Spirit to help them, the Lord also promised to forgive them when they disobeyed his law. Remember what we read back in verse 4 of chapter 24? The Lord said he would not forgive. That seemed remarkable to us, because we are people of the new covenant and not of the old. And as part of the new covenant, God said: ‘I will remember their sin no more.’ Instead of refusing to forgive, he promised his people that he will always forgive them. And he will forgive them in such a way that he will not even remember their sins. He won’t bring them to mind. He won’t hold them against them. He will remember them no more.
I’ve often told the fictional story which my own minister once told to illustrate this. There was a woman in a small village who heard a terrible rumour about a fellow believer. Everyone was talking about this terrible thing which this person had apparently done before moving to the village. And the woman couldn’t believe it was true, because it was so terrible. One night she was praying and in her prayer she asked the Lord if it true. Had this person really done this terrible thing which everyone was talking about? Is the rumour true? And the Lord answered the woman. And do you know what he said? He said: ‘I don’t remember.’
That’s what God’s forgiveness is. When we confess our sin to the Lord, he’s willing to remove our sins from us; and he’s willing to cover our sins; and he’s willing erase our sins from his record book so that he remembers them no more. And since he remembers them no more, he doesn’t hold them against us.
And the new covenant is for us. The old covenant was made with the people of Israel, but this new covenant is made with us. Whenever we take part in the Lord’s Supper, we read from 1 Corinthians 11 where the Apostle Paul recites the words of the Lord Jesus, who said about the cup which we drink: ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood….’ By giving up his life when he died on the cross, and by shedding his blood for our forgiveness, the Lord inaugurated this new covenant. He put it into operation. He started it. And the cup we take at communion signifies his shed blood and how, under the terms of this new covenant, God promises to remember our sins no more.
If Jesus Christ is your Saviour, if you’re trusting in him, then the new covenant is for you and the promise is for you. God promises to remember your sins no more. No matter what you have done wrong, God promises not to hold it against you. Think of the very worst thing you have done: the thing that makes you ashamed whenever you think of it. And think of all the little sins which you hardly even notice, but which you commit every day. God promises to remember no more your big sins and all of your little sins. He remembers them no more, because Christ has paid for them in full.
The people of Judah were sent into exile, because they broke the covenant and God would not forgive. But God has made a new and better covenant with us. Though we deserve to be exiled to hell, he promises never to exile his believing people to hell. Instead of promises to bring us into his presence in the new heavens and earth so that we can be with him and with Christ our Saviour for ever and for ever.
Application 2
And speaking of Christ our Saviour, God promised not only a new and better covenant, but a new and better king as well. And that new and better king is Jesus Christ.
Jehoiachin was released from prison and exalted above the other kings who were with him in Babylon. And the royal line, which began with David, did not end with Jehoiachin, but it continued through the generations — albeit in obscurity — until the day when the angel appeared to Mary to announce to her that she would give birth to a son who will sit on David’s throne and he will reign for ever. And so, the Lord Jesus was born from the line of David. And he is a new and better king, because he was released, not from a prison, but from death and the grave. He suffered death, because the only way to save us from our sin and misery in this life was for Christ our King to give up his life on the cross to pay for all that we have done wrong. He took the blame for us and suffered the punishment we deserve which is death as the penalty for sin. And after he died, he was buried. But he did not remain under the power of death, because God the Father raised him from the dead. He released Christ our King from death and the grave.
And so, Jesus Christ is the new and better king because he was released from death. And he’s the new and better king because, whereas Jehoiachin was exalted above the other kings in Babylon, Christ our King has been exalted above all rule and authority, and power and dominion, not only in this age, but in the age to come. He has been exalted over all and he rules over all. He possesses all authority in heaven and on earth and he’s extending his kingdom throughout the world through the reading and preaching of his word and by his Spirit who enables people everywhere to repent and believe. And whoever repents and believes is added to his kingdom.
And he will continue to extend his kingdom throughout the world until the day comes when he returns in glory and with power. When that happens, every other kingdom and nation will be destroyed and his kingdom will fill the earth and his people — all who believed in him in this life — will live with him for ever in the new and better world to come. And no one will be able to overthrow him or overpower him, because God has exalted him over all.
And until that day when he comes again, he calls on us to believe in him and to live our lives for him. And since he’s our great king, we can trust in him to help us and to give us the comfort and strength we need to endure all the troubles and trials of this life and to persevere. We can count on him to keep us in his kingdom and to bring us at last into his presence, where we will see God in the face of Christ our King and where we’ll be happy for ever.
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