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by Katie Erickson

Well, friends, we have made it – Zedekiah is the last king of Judah, the last king of the divided nation of Israel before Judah was carried off into exile in Babylon. You may recall from last week’s post that the previous king, King Jehoiachin, was taken prisoner by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar was the one who put King Zedekiah (who happened to be King Jehoiachin’s uncle) in charge of Judah.

The narrative of King Zedekiah’s reign and the fall of Jerusalem is found in 2 Kings 24:17-25:26 and 2 Chronicles 36:10-23. Clearly, Judah’s demise was imminent, and it was just a matter of time. It’s not a good sign when a foreign king chooses the next king of your land! King Zedekiah did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as many of the kings before him had done. In 2 Kings 24:20, the author reiterates the fact that what was about to happen was clearly because of the Lord’s anger at all of Judah’s disobedience.

So what brought about the actual fall of Judah? It’s in the second half of verse 20: “Now Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.” Babylon was a very strong nation, and they had already taken the previous king of Judah as a prisoner. This was a very foolish move by King Zedekiah!

Naturally, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon responded immediately and forcefully. King Zedekiah’s rebellion happened in the 10th month of the 9th year of Zedekiah’s reign, and Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem until the 11th year of Zedekiah’s reign! The city was completely cut off from outside resources for more than a year. The people of the city were in a time of famine with no food available.

Finally, the Babylonians broke through the walls of Jerusalem. The entire army that was in Jerusalem fled, but the Babylonian army pursued them and easily overtook them, capturing King Zedekiah. The Babylonians were exceedingly wicked people, and they killed King Zedekiah’s sons while he watched, and then they took out his eyes. The last thing he would remember seeing was the brutal execution of his children.

About a month later, the commander of the Babylonian army arrived in Jerusalem to oversee its total destruction. They set fire to the temple and all of the homes in Jerusalem. Every building was burned down. The army broke down the walls around the city. Any people who remained were carried into exile, except for some of the very poor people who were left behind to work the fields and vineyards. The poor were unlikely to cause any problems, and they could be useful by tending to the land.

Details are provided about what happened to all the specific furnishings of the temple. Generally speaking, it was all carried off as spoils of war back to Babylon. After that, we read a description of what happened to all of the religious, military, and government officials. In short, they were all taken to Babylon and executed.

“So Judah went into captivity, away from her land” (2 Kings 25:21). After that statement of finality, we read some historical notes about the people’s time in exile. A man named Gedaliah was appointed to be in charge of the few people left behind in Judah, and he encouraged the people to basically just give up and serve the king of Babylon. But, a rebel named Ishmael rose up and assassinated Gedaliah and a bunch of people who were with him. After that, all the people fled to Egypt to hide from the Babylonians.

This era in the history of God’s chosen people of Israel began in disobedience to God, and it was that disobedience that caused it to come to an end. The people wanted a king, so God gave them one, even though He knew that was not in their best interest. After the reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon, it was during the reign of Solomon’s son Rehoboam that the kingdom split. The 10 northern tribes kept the name Israel, and the 2 southern tribes of Benjamin and Judah took the name Judah.

Israel had all evil kings for their entire existence as the northern kingdom. They were conquered and carried off into exile under King Hoshea. Judah lasted longer, as the nation did have some good kings who honored God, but they, too, were destined for exile due to their continued disobedience to God.

The overarching sin in both kingdoms was idolatry. The people worshiped many gods other than the one true God, despite God’s clear command to worship Him and Him alone (Exodus 20:1-6). God continually gave them grace and took care of His people, and they constantly repaid Him by going against His commandments and worshiping other gods.

What can we learn today from this era in the history of Israel and Judah? The most important lesson is to do what they did not: worship God and God alone. We may feel like we’re doing a pretty good job at that because we don’t have Asherah, Baal, etc. that we worship, but we have so many other little gods in our lives; we have cell phones, social media, celebrities, etc. Anything that we focus on as a higher priority than God in our lives is an idol. Idolatry is the chief sin among people today as well; in fact, breaking every one of the Ten Commandments is based on idolatry. (Learn more in the blog post series beginning with this post by Charlie Wolcott.)

Today, we are just as guilty of idolatry as Israel and Judah. The form of idols we worship may be different, but the idea is the same: we worship so many things that are not of God. Does God forgive us? Yes – when we are truly repentant of those sins, we are covered by the blood of Jesus and His sacrifice for us. But if we continually, habitually, and willfully disobey God and worship these idols, God’s judgment may come for us, too, just as it did for both Israel and Judah.

Learn from the history of the nation of Israel that our focus, both as individuals and as a nation, needs to be on being obedient to God and worshiping Him and Him alone!

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