Approaching Doom
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have commanded the respect of the heathen, and this would have led
to precious opportunities for the conversion of souls.
Scorning the unusual privileges granted him, Judah’s king willfully
followed a way of his own choosing. He violated his word of honor to
the Babylonian ruler, and rebelled. This brought him and his kingdom
into a very strait place. Against him were sent “bands of the Chaldees,
and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of
the children of Ammon,” and he was powerless to prevent the land
from being overrun by these marauders.
2 Kings 24:2
. Within a few
years he closed his disastrous reign in ignominy, rejected of Heaven,
unloved by his people, and despised by the rulers of Babylon whose
confidence he had betrayed—and all as the result of his fatal mistake
in turning from the purpose of God as revealed through His appointed
messenger.
Jehoiachin [also known as Jeconiah, and Coniah], the son of Je-
hoiakim, occupied the throne only three months and ten days, when
he surrendered to the Chaldean armies which, because of the rebellion
of Judah’s ruler, were once more besieging the fated city. On this oc-
casion Nebuchadnezzar “carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the
king’s mother, and the king’s wives, and his officers, and the mighty
of the land,” several thousand in number, together with “craftsmen
and smiths a thousand.” With these the king of Babylon took “all the
treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s
house.”
2 Kings 24:15, 16, 13
.
[439]
The kingdom of Judah, broken in power and robbed of its strength
both in men and in treasure, was nevertheless still permitted to exist as
a separate government. At its head Nebuchadnezzar placed Mattaniah,
a younger son of Josiah, changing his name to Zedekiah.
[440]