2 Kings 24:11-12
Taken into Exile to Babylon
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city while his servants were besieging it, and Jehoiachin the king of Judah gave himself up to the king of Babylon, himself and his mother and his servants and his officials and his palace officials. The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of his reign.
2 Kings 25:26
Voluntary Exile to Egypt
Then [following the assassination of Gedaliah] all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces arose and went to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
2 Kings 25:27
The Last Word
And in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, graciously freed Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison…
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In closing, the two books of Kings have come full circle. It all began back in the first chapter of the first book with King Solomon and the building of the Temple. God said “if” you are faithful, Solomon, and walk in my ways of righteousness, then you will always have a son on the throne, and your kingdom will endure through eternity. Alas, he and his successors failed at faithfulness, and righteousness was rare. Therefore, we close Kings with the Temple reduced to rubble, the city burned, and a large portion of the population exiled to Babylon.
In Judaism, the day Jerusalem fell in 586 B.C. is known as the Hurban – which means “Destruction.” Jeremiah— whose likeness is impressed upon the burning city in the art accompanying this blog entry— was the prophetic witness of those dark days. His lament over Jerusalem and its kings was poetically memorialized in the book of Lamentations (1:1-2): “How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave. She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks…” Jeremiah recounts the fall of Jerusalem from two painful angles: Jeremiah 39 and the capture of King Zedekiah, and the last gasp of the city at length in chapter 52. His voice was ignored by king and the king’s people, reflected in his cry: “Do not trust in these deceptive words: 'This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.'” (Jer. 7:4). Surely, they reason, God won’t let His Temple be destroyed! God surely did.
I have culled three passages from the closing of this theologically charged, historically flavored prophetic book of Kings. In the Hebrew Bible, 1&2 Kings is referred to as one of the “Former Prophets.” It is a Divine footnote, of sorts. Let’s call these three passages referenced at the top of this blog entry, “footnotes.”
The first note (2 Kings 24:11-12) references a people exiled to Babylon. The irony with this is thick. Way back in Genesis 12, Abram, the man who gave birth to Israel, was called out from “Ur of the Chaldeans.” Now recognize, that “Babylonians” and “Chaldeans” are synonymous. It is not coincidental that the term “Chaldeans” has not appeared in Scripture since Genesis 15, for Abrahamic hope began in the Land of the Chaldeans; and now that Story appears to be ending there, as well. There will have to be a major “do-over” for the people of God.
The second note (2 Kings 25:26) comes in the chaotic aftermath of the Babylonian “Hurban.” Nebuchadnezzar appoints Gedaliah governor over the people remaining in the Land. This man advises the people to get on with their lives, and be good citizens to Babylon, and if they do, all will be well. However, all was not well, and he got dead assassinated. Civil unrest erupts on top of Exile, and at that, the lion’s share of people fearfully anticipating retribution from the Chaldeans, flee in voluntary exile to Egypt. Isarel has gone back to Egypt!
This is rock bottom. A Promise that looked so bright for the generation crossing Jordan with Joshua. The faithfulness and patience of God with a stiff-necked and rebellious people. The raising of prophets to reprimand and exhort. Altogether, a sad tale. Abraham’s journey is now completely reversed and undone. This has to be the sourest of notes.
And yet, the Story doesn’t end there. Way back to when the Temple was dedicated by King Solomon, he prayed thus: (1 Kings 8:46-51) “If they [Israel and Judah] sin against you— for there is no one who does not sin— and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near, yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, 'We have sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly,' if they repent with all their mind and with all their heart in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name, then hear in heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions that they have committed against you, and grant them compassion in the sight of those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them (for they are your people, and your heritage, which you brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace).”
The John 3:16 of the OT, which is repeated many times over throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exod. 34:6-7), is always and ever true. He didn’t “clear the guilty,” and he did “visit the iniquity of the fathers,” and yet His love and forgiveness are still available through repentance.
Amazingly, the last note in 2 Kings is not negative. It is curiously, open-endedly delicious (2 Kings 25:27). One of the last kings of Judah, Jehoiachin, a Son of David, is brought out of the Babylonian dungeon, and given a place at the king’s table. Jehoiachin’s elevation is the last word. The last word is a bookmark to the promise God made to King David— that his kingdom would endure, that he would always have a son on the throne— is still alive and viable. There is a flicker of hope. The promise of repentance, and the messianic spark survives.
In hindsight, we see 1&2 Kings through the lens of Calvary. Isaiah 40, which begins a long and beautiful prophecy of restoration from Babylonian Exile, proclaims, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins. A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.’”
Those words, placed on the lips of John the Baptist, speak to that promise of return, using language of an Interstate Highway being constructed by God to bring the captives home! In Jesus Christ, that ember of Jehoiachin was God’s calling card that His promise would never fail.
Thus ends the blogging Journey through 1&2 Kings.
