2 Kings 24:1-20

And the LORD sent the bands of the Babylonians, and of the Syrians, and of the Moabites (2 Kings 24:2),

And again now, the same kind of thing that happened to Israel; when the weakness of the nation was displayed, then all of the nations began to attack. It's dangerous for a nation to display weakness, because it gives courage to all of the other nations to attack. So Jehoiakim died and his son Jehoiachin... and of course, this is difficult: you have Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and it gets a little difficult to follow.
Jehoiachin reigned in his stead, and during his reign, Nebuchadnezzar came, conquered Jerusalem, and took ten thousand captives back to Babylon. And this is where you might read the book of Daniel. For Daniel was one of the ten thousand that was taken in this first captivity back to Babylon, and Daniel was one of the princes. He was actually related to David. He was of the family of David, the royal family of David. He was taken as a captive to Babylon and was groomed in the Babylonian schools in order that he might serve in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. He became a great statesman in the Babylonian kingdom. He became a great statesman and leader in the subsequent Medo-Persian Empire.
And so, this brings us now into Daniel. So we're beginning to work the prophets into this particular period of history. The Babylonians made Zedekiah the king, and he was twenty-one years old when he began to reign. He reigned for eleven years. And he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. And so Nebuchadnezzar made his second invasion in which he besieged Jerusalem, and he then broke down the walls of the city. He broke down and set on fire the temple of God and all of the houses within Jerusalem, the king's palace.
The king, of course, himself just before the Babylonians had encircled Jerusalem, and the king and a company of men sought to escape during the night. And they went out one of the gates, and they fled towards the wilderness, but the Babylonians pursued after them, caught them near Jericho, and there Zedekiah's sons were killed before him. And as soon as they, he watched them kill his sons, then they poked out his eyes and they carried him captive to Babylon. And Zedekiah died in Babylon. And it was, there was an interesting prophecy in Jeremiah, chapter thirty-two concerning Zedekiah, how that he would be led, indicating blindness, unto. It said he would see his sons die and he would be led captive to Babylon. And so that prophecy of Jeremiah was fulfilled.
Now, they left only the very poorest people in the land to keep the vineyards and so forth. The rest were all taken captive or killed. They put a fellow Gedaliah in charge, sort of the governor over the land, but some of the people after a while conspired against Gedaliah. They assassinated them. They assassinated Gedaliah, and so then they became frightened. They realized that when Nebuchadnezzar hears about this, he's going to send and wipe all of us out. And so the remnant of the people that were left fled on down into Egypt, and thus, you have the death of Judah.
Another nation that have been a mighty nation. Another nation that had known the power of God. Another nation that was created by God. And as long as God was at the center of the nation, they were strong and victorious. But when they failed and turned from God, they became destroyed by their enemies and the nations ceased to exist as such. Now for seventy years Jeremiah prophesied they would be in Babylon in captivity. And again, you really need Jeremiah as a background to this particular period of history. Also, of course, now as you get into Babylonian captivity, you need the prophecies of Ezekiel and Daniel and so forth. And so these all are good background for this particular point of history.
As we start into the books of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah, you remember that all the way through from First Samuel till now, we have been reading, "And the rest of the acts are they not recorded in the chronicles of the kings of Judah." So you're going to get further details on a lot of the kings of Judah. Not in the kings of Israel. We do not have the chronicles of the kings of Israel. But these are more or less the official court records, the court documents that record the reigns of the kings, their accomplishments and all, as we get into Chronicles. So in a sense, it is going to be going over the same period of history from Saul to Zedekiah as we deal with the kings of Judah. But yet, we will get further insight and details on many of the kings. Much of the insight in detail is very valuable and very interesting. And I think you'll enjoy the books of First and Second Chronicles as we deal now with the Chronicles of the kings of Judah.
And so your assignment, of course, is to go ahead and start reading First Chronicles, along with Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and Jeremiah. Might as well be smart, no premium on being dumb.
May the Lord give you an especially good week this week. Oh, may God deliver you from the power, the strong power of your own fleshly desires that would drag you down and cause you to live like other men in the world around you. And may you live a life that is pleasing unto the Lord. May you stand with Josiah before the law of the Lord and make a covenant to obey God and to follow after God and to serve Him with your whole heart and soul. May God anoint you and give you that strength that you need to fulfill the commitment that you made. In Jesus' name. "