MOTIVATE

Recently my son lost his two front teeth, one after another within a week’s time. The jokes are the same with each kid

• Each tooth that wiggles: “Are you going to tie a string around it and attach to doorknob pull it out?
• All I want for Christmas is my…

But really the trick for a parent to pull a loose tooth from a child is a long distraction with quick extraction. Afterwards, my son said, “I didn’t expect that to happen!”

Since June, we have studied 1-2 Kings with today a total of 15 messages. And the list of kings with Israel’s idolatry has been a long distraction. But the last chapters are a quick extraction. Israel falls and is exiled by Assyria in 722BC, and now Judah falls in exile to Babylon by 586BC.

EXAMINE    2 Kings 24-25   A People Exiled

Final 5 kings of Judah

1. Josiah (22:1) reigned 31yrs
2. Jehoahaz (23:31) reigned 3 mo.
3. Jehoiakim (23:36) reigned 11 yrs
   1. Battle of Carchemish (24:7) 605BC
   1. Deportation #1 (cf Daniel 1)
4. Jehoiachin (24:8) reigned 3 mo.
   1. Deportation #2 (24:10-16; cf Ez 1)
5. Zedekiah (24:18) reigned 11yrs
   1. Zed rebelled against Babylon and they besieged Judah 589BC.
   1. Jerusalem falls 586BC with deportation #3 (25:3-12, cf Jer21ff)

Final lessons from Kings…

A godly heritage must be maintained.

2Kings 23 After Josiah dies, his son
³¹ Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ³² And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.

Josiah was a rare godly king in Israel/Judah’s downfall as a nation. Josiah’s reforms kept back God’s judgment upon the land. But Josiah’s son Jehoahaz led the people to return adulterating after false gods. He had erased everything his father Josiah had accomplished, disgracing his family and his nation – and he did so in only 3-months; his entire reign before he’s deposed.
 

• Parenting does not guarantee an outcome. A child can overcome bad parenting; good parenting doesn’t always equate to compliant children;  nor does godly parenting automatically create a Christian.
  From the beginning, Adam & Eve had parental challenges – have you had any of your children literally kill each other (don’t answer!)? And the Heavenly Father has wayward children He is still correcting and training.
  *So, parent’s do all you can to provide your child opportunities to grow in faith, hope, and love – even as adult children. But the best act a parent can do is to entrust them in prayer to the LORD, and thus realize you are not entirely responsible for their outcome.  

An ungodly heritage must be disciplined.

³³ And Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and laid on the land a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. ³⁴ And Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt and died there. ³⁵ And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money according to the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco. ³⁶ Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. ³⁷ And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.

The next king is Eliakim whose name will change Jehoiakim because he’s a conquered-puppet king. The renaming of someone indicates erasure of identity, domination, and institution of a new culture. God sent Jeremiah to say to this king and the leaders of the day, “Both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in my house I have found their evil, declares the LORD… Because you have not obeyed my words, behold I will send all the tribes of the north, and for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole land shall become a ruin and waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70-years. Then after 70-years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon for their iniquity” (Jer 23:11; 25:8-13). Jeremiah’s life would be threatened by the king; he would also be banned from going to the temple bc he would preach God’s word and they didn’t want to hear that (Jer 36); in fact Jeremiah sent a scroll of God’s words to Jehoiakim, and he threw it in the fire. So, God cursed this king that his offspring shall be cut off from the throne (Jer 36:30) – how can this be since God has promised the line of David? Zedekiah will be the last king from Jehoiakim’s offspring. Yet, the Messiah king will have David’s blood line through a virgin birth with the mother’s lineage to David (Lk3).

2 Kings 24 ¹In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. ² And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldeans and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by his servants the prophets. ³ Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the Lord, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, ⁴ and also for the innocent blood that he had shed. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord would not pardon.

*God’s judgment is corrective. His aim is not to pay us back but to bring us back. Ro 2:3-5 “We know the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice sin. Do you suppose – you who practice sin – that you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you presume on the riches of God’s kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”

*The most practical trait in the Christian life is the ability to listen in love. Listening maintains a humble posture, and invites others to hold you accountable before God. That does not mean every person will be correct in their assessment of your behavior & decisions. But a listening posture means you’re open to hearing the Spirit’s voice through fellow believers. Jehoiakim silenced critics and burned Scriptures that held him accountable. If we follow this same pattern we will face his same fate.

The most practical trait in the Christian life is the ability to listen in love.

After Jehoiakim is Jehoiachin, who continues an ungodly heritage (2Ki 24:8-9). Then…

¹⁰ At that time the officers of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon advanced on Jerusalem and laid siege to it, ¹¹ and Nebuchadnezzar himself came up to the city while his officers were besieging it. ¹² Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his attendants, his nobles and his officials all surrendered to him. In the eighth year of the reign of the king of Babylon, he took Jehoiachin prisoner. ¹³ As the Lord had declared, Nebuchadnezzar removed all the treasures from the temple of the Lord and from the royal palace, and took away all the gold articles that Solomon king of Israel had made for the temple of the Lord. ¹⁴ He carried into exile all Jerusalem: all the officers and fighting men, and all the craftsmen and artisans—a total of ten thousand. Only the poorest people of the land were left. ¹⁵ Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin captive to Babylon. He also took from Jerusalem to Babylon the king’s mother, his wives, his officials and the leading men of the land. ¹⁶ The king of Babylon also deported to Babylon the entire force of seven thousand fighting men, strong and fit for war, and a thousand craftsmen and artisans. ¹⁷ He made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah.

The Jewish nation comes full circle: from Egyptian slavery to wilderness wandering, to victorious possession of the Promised land, and finally return to captivity in a place that was not their home.

This nation’s history reflects many stories today repeated through unwise dependencies, sin patterns, and obsessive addictions. When we allow idols and sin to take root in our life, we defile God’s temple. And not only are precious possessions often lost like homes, cars, jewelry, and more: marriages wrecked, child custody complicated, and families broken. Even more, God’s presence is suffocated from our life choices.

2 Kings 25 is the funeral for a nation.

¹ And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem and laid siege to it. And they built siegeworks all around it. ² So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ³ On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. ⁴ Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by the king’s garden, and the Chaldeans were around the city. And they went in the direction of the Arabah. ⁵ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him. ⁶ Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him. ⁷ They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains and took him to Babylon.

⁸ King Nebuchadnezzar… ⁹ burned the house of the Lord and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. ¹⁰ And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem. ¹¹ And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile. ¹² But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.

Israel has fallen. Judah has fallen. Solomon’s glorious temple is ravaged and ruined. The nation’s kings and leaders are unseated and humiliated with the last king’s sons assassinated   deposed. The prophets are removed and murdered. BUT, the poorest of the land remain as workers in the field harvest.

Centuries later, Israel’s Messiah would be born to a peasant carpenter and his wife.

“God’s mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. God has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the humble estate; God has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty… And in a shepherd’s field, angels appeared with the glory of the LORD revealed, bringing good news of great joy for all the people: For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the LORD. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” (Lk 1:48-53; 2:8-12)

Overall, the Bible is not a fairy tale. It doesn’t hide the realities that we experience in this world. In 1-2 Kings, we read about all types of problems: natural disasters like drought and famine, human depravity like cannibalism and child sacrifice, misrepresented religion, conspiracy alliances, corrupt governments, injustice, oppression, violence, and war. This is not how life was designed by God. And yet, God enters our world to be involved in our affairs and anguish. Jesus has experienced everything we have faced; He’s relived Israel’s history from Egypt to exile from Jerusalem in death. Yet, Jesus overcomes, returning from His exile with resurrection life. And He reigns on a throne never up for competition or election, and offers all of us to be citizens in a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

APPLY/TAKEAWAY

We can operate life as an interior designer or photographer.

1. Interior designers are constantly evaluating rooms to move furniture around, hang up art, changing lighting, and maybe even remodeling entire rooms and structures.
2. Photographers are taking hundreds of pictures of the same thing at dozens of angles. They realize the attraction and value of what is before them, and they never want the essence to leave their presence. In fact, they look for other items and persons to join in, realizing the subject enhances and adds value to whatever it is joined.

When we approach Christianity we come to a throne.

• If we try to rearrange the throne from being center stage, or even attempting to remove the One sitting on the throne so that we can sit, then we become interior designers attempting to judge and dictate to God what goes where.
• Instead, we are to approach Christ as a photographer captivated by His beauty, believing all is set exactly as it should with Christ on the throne and all centered around Him. Further, we should work with all our power and resources while we have time to bring others into the photograph… For there will come a moment in time when Christ will stand up from His throne and all the picture taking will cease. Photograph books will come out for those who have been present with Jesus on the throne of their life, but all those who missed their picture taken because they were rearranging furniture, and it will be too late.   

Let us worship the king of glory: Jesus, you alone.