Start Time:	08:57 AM
End Time:	09:41 AM
Date:	July 23, 2014

 

TITLE: The Fall of Jerusalem

Scripture: 2 Kings 25:1 – 30

God’s Message / God’s Commands / God’s Promises:

→ So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. He encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it. The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.  By the ninth day of the fourth^[a] month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat. Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Babylonians^[b] were surrounding the city. They fled toward the Arabah,^[c] but the Babylonian^[d] army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered, and he was captured. He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where sentence was pronounced on him. They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.

NOTES:

Ø  Repaying evil with evil is never a solution!  Zedekiah already did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord and so Babylon came after him and made a slave but then instead of humbling himself before God, he decided to commit another sin by rebelling against the person in authority over him.  Know that everything happens for a purpose, even the people above us or around us is there for a specific purpose.  But when we fight our battles in our own crooked and evil logic, it will just bring us deeper to our sin and not redeem from it.  That’s why the best solution is to humble down and return back to God just like Josiah did.  It may not stop the disaster upon us, but it will surely save us from it, just like what God did for Josiah.

→On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, an official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He set fire to the temple of the Lord, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down. The whole Babylonian army under the commander of the imperial guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem. Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard carried into exile the people who remained in the city, along with the rest of the populace and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon. But the commander left behind some of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields.  The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the movable stands and the bronze Sea that were at the temple of the Lord and they carried the bronze to Babylon. They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. The commander of the imperial guard took away the censers and sprinkling bowls—all that were made of pure gold or silver. The bronze from the two pillars, the Sea and the movable stands, which Solomon had made for the temple of the Lord, was more than could be weighed. Each pillar was eighteen cubits^[e] high. The bronze capital on top of one pillar was three cubits^[f] high and was decorated with a network and pomegranates of bronze all around. The other pillar, with its network, was similar.  The commander of the guard took as prisoners Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniahthe priest next in rank and the three doorkeepers. Of those still in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men, and five royal advisers. He also took the secretary who was chief officer in charge of conscripting the people of the land and sixty of the conscripts who were found in the city. Nebuzaradan the commander took them all and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them executed. So Judah went into captivity, away from her land.  Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to be over the people he had left behind in Judah.  When all the army officers and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah as governor, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah—Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, Jaazaniah the son of the Maakathite, and their men. Gedaliah took an oath to reassure them and their men. “Do not be afraid of the Babylonian officials,” he said. “Settle down in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you.”  In the seventh month, however, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was of royal blood, came with ten men and assassinated Gedaliah and also the men of Judah and the Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah.  At this, all the people from the least to the greatest, together with the army officers, fled to Egypt for fear of the Babylonians. In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. He did this on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month. He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king’s table.  Day by day the king gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived.

NOTES:

Ø  God’s anger only lasts for a moment, but His love endures forever. God turned His back to Judah and Judah experienced the worst.  The temple that represents God’s home in the midst of His people was destroyed, literally shows God not having a place in His people during this time.  But God’s anger lasts for a moment as He never forgets David and the others who have followed Him wholeheartedly.  So He released Jehoiachin in the 37^th year of his exile.  He was still under the power and influence of Babylon but he was given a seat of honor higher than those of other kings who were with the king of Babylon during that time.  The king of Babylon spoke kindly to him.  This was a clear miracle, a clear change of heart and it was only made possible because of God.  We may not know the reason behind the change of mind of Babylon but we know that it was definitely because of God’s love for His people and for David that he once again spared and saved David’s lineage, so Jehoiachin lives and treated with favor and love all the rest of his days.  Hallelujah!

Prayer:

Lord Jesus thank You because You anger lasts only for a moment but Your love overcomes and endures forever.  Thank You because You never forget and You always fulfill Your words.  Thank You Jesus because Your love is stronger than anything else.  Thank You because now I can leave every troubles and battles I have into Your hand.  Help me Lord to understand that humility and obedience is what You need.  Help me to always have a humble heart and never to nurture evil in my heart.  Help me never to repay evil with evil but to always humble and allow You to do Your will in my life.  Thank You Jesus because the disasters we go thru lasts only for a moment then we will see one more time Your goodness and love and favor poured to overflow in our lives.  Thank You Jesus.  In Your Name I asked all these things, Amen!