For the past few weeks, we have been following the stories of a succession of Jewish Kings, and by inference the Jewish people, in the 600-700 years before the birth of Jesus. We have seen how the Jewish society split into two kingdoms, Samaria (also called Israel) in the north and Judah in the south. We have seen how, under the leadership of the Kings, the Jewish people drifted away from God, and their covenant with him, and adopted the religions of the neighboring societies, religions that reflect their more secular cultures. We have seen how God sends a series of prophets to admonish the Jews to return to God. We have seen occasional kings heeding the prophet’s message, but within a generation, we see the kings and society returning to their secular behavior.
This cycle of immoral kings leads to the destruction of the northern kingdom with the elite being taken into exile by the Assyrians. We have seen how the repentance of the southern king led to God intervening and destroying the Assyrian forces before they could lay siege to Jerusalem. We have seen that even when God performed this miracle, within a generation, the Jewish society again returned to their sinful ways. A never-ending cycle.
Eventually, the fate of the southern kingdom, including Jerusalem, was to be no better than that of the north. The Babylonians, under King Nebuchadnezzar, have become the new “world power”, replacing the Assyrians who had conquered the northern Kingdom. Spoiler alert! Nebuchadnezzar’s empire also was doomed to fall. But here, he is seen as an instrument of God in bringing punishment on the sinful and idol-worshipping people of Judah. Less than 25 years have passed since the events of yesterday’s reading, when Jehoiachin’s father, Josiah, had tried to turn the people of Judah back to God by observance of the covenant law.
Today’s passage (2 Kings 24:8‑17) describes the first deportation of the Hebrews from Jerusalem into Babylon. Much like what will happen when the Romans invade Jerusalem some 500 years later (63 BC), Nebuchadnezzar installs King Jehoiakim of Judah as a vassal. Jehoiakim rebels against Babylonian rule after being subjected to them for three years. This rebellion brings a wave of invasions and destruction from neighboring peoples on a sinful Judah (2 Kings 24:1‑7).
Now Jehoiakim’s son, Jehoiachin, a mere 18 years old, ascends to the throne. The young king, like his predecessors, did not follow the ways of the Lord, living a life of immorality and idolatry. Jerusalem then was besieged by the Babylonian forces. During the siege, Nebuchadnezzar himself arrives. According to Babylonian records, the king “encamped against Jerusalem and on the second day of the month of Addaru [March 16, 597 BC by our modern calendar] he seized the city and captured the king”, Jehoiachin. It was the eighth year, by Jewish reckoning, of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. The city does not seem to have put up much of a fight, even though, built on a hill with steep sides, it was a formidable challenge to attacking forces, as Sennacherib found to his cost.
Jehoiachin, however, together with his mother and all his court, surrendered and was taken captive by the Babylonian king. Jehoiachin was to remain under his rule for 37 years, until the death of Nebuchadnezzar, under relatively comfortable circumstances. This fulfilled a prophecy of Jeremiah: “As I live, says the Lord, even if King Coniah [short for ‘Jeconiah’], son of Jehoiakim of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, even from there I would tear you off and give you into the hands of those who seek your life, into the hands of those whom you fear, even into the hands of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon and into the hands of the Chaldeans. I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. But they shall not return to the land to which they long to return”(Jeremiah 22:24‑27).
What was even more shameful and sacrilegious, the treasures of the Temple and the royal palace were all carried away. Some of these included gold vessels which had been put in place by King Solomon when he built the Temple. It was a terrible sacrilege but, with sacrifices no longer possible, there is even an implication that Yahweh was no longer present among his people.
Finally, practically the whole population of Jerusalem was carried off. This included the whole of the army, as well as craftsmen and artisans. All of these could be used by Nebuchadnezzar for his own building projects. Only a remnant, the poorest of the poor, were left behind. Altogether some 10,000 were reportedly taken away. There is likely to have been an overlap between soldiers and skilled craftsman. Just as in Israel today, all young men were required to serve in the armed forces.
In Jehoiachin’s place, his uncle Mattaniah was installed as king and given the name Zedekiah. Mattaniah was a son of King Josiah, whom we saw in yesterday’s reading and the brother of Jehoiachin’s father, Jehoiakim.
Once again, we see God’s people pay for their leader’s infidelities in failing to keep the law of the Lord. Even so, it is likely that many of those who were carried off adjusted to their new circumstances, made the best of them, may even have done very well and came to regard their place of exile as a new home for them and their children. In our own times, we see Jewish communities in exile thriving, not to mention the millions of other peoples who have contributed to the ‘melting pot’ that is the United States, Australia and the European Union.
There was not much benefit in sitting and moping about one’s past and longing for old days, old ways and old places, although some did do that. Nothing that happens to us is the end of possibilities. Every experience is a challenge to find God in a new situation, a new environment. Wherever life brings us, God is close by. He is always to be found where we happen to be now, not where we would like to be.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!