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Zedekiah Fails His Last Chance
In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign “Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem.”
2 Kings 25:1
.
The outlook for Judah was hopeless. “Behold, I am against you,”
the Lord Himself declared through Ezekiel. “I will pour out My
indignation on you; I will blow against you with the fire of My
wrath, and deliver you into the hands of brutal men who are skillful
to destroy.”
Ezekiel 21:3, 31
.
The Egyptians attempted to come to the rescue, and the
Chaldeans, in order to keep them back, abandoned their siege for a
while. Hope sprang up in Zedekiah’s heart, and he sent a messenger
to Jeremiah, asking him to pray to God for the Hebrew nation.
The prophet’s fearful answer was: “Do not deceive yourselves.
... For though you had defeated the whole army of the Chaldeans
who fight against you, and there remained only wounded men among
them, they would rise up, every man in his tent, and burn the city
with fire.”
Jeremiah 37:9, 10
. The remnant of Judah were to go into
captivity and learn through adversity the lessons they had refused to
learn under more favorable circumstances.
Among the righteous still in Jerusalem were some who deter-
mined to safeguard the sacred ark containing the tablets of stone on
which God had written the Ten Commandments, placing it beyond
the reach of ruthless hands. With mourning they concealed the ark
in a cave. It was hidden from Israel because of their sins and was
never to be restored to them. That sacred ark is still hidden.
Now, as the doomed city was about to fall into the hands of
the heathen, Jeremiah considered his work done and tried to leave.
He was prevented by an officer who reported that he was about to
join the Babylonians. The prophet denied the lying charge, but “the
princes were angry with Jeremiah, and they struck him and put him
in prison.”
Verse 15
.
The hopes that had sprung up when the armies of Nebuchadnez-
zar turned to meet the Egyptians were soon dashed to the ground.
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