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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
This
is how Jerusalem was taken:
In
the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army and laid siege to
it. And on the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, the
city wall was broken through. Then all the officials of the king of Babylon
came and took seats in the Middle Gate: Nergal-Sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-Sarsekim
a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer a high official and all the other officials of
the king of Babylon. When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them,
they fled; they left the city at night by way of the king’s garden, through the
gate between the two walls, and headed toward the Arabah.”
But
the Babylonian army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of
Jericho. They captured him and took him to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at
Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced sentence on him. There at
Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and
also killed all the nobles of Judah. Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound
him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon.
The
Babylonians set fire to the royal palace and the houses of the people and broke
down the walls of Jerusalem. Nebuzaradan, commander of the imperial guard,
carried into exile to Babylon the people who remained in the city, along with
those who had gone over to him, and the rest of the people.
Jeremiah
38:28b-39:1-9
This ends today’s reading
from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
The
big question looming from Jeremiah 38 was whether or not Zedekiah, the king of
Judah, would accept God’s proposition as given to him from Jeremiah himself.
Simply,
the proposition was this:
If
Zedekiah surrendered to the Babylonians, then he would live as would his family
and the city of Jerusalem would be spared from destruction.
In
other words, one decision from Judah’s king would have far reaching
ramifications, good or bad.
So
what would Zedekiah do? Would he finally choose to adhere to God’s word in
obedience? Or would he defer to what he had done all along up to this point and
do evil in the sight of God (2 Kings 24:19)?
As
Jeremiah 39 opens, we find the answer to the question. Look again at these
verses:
This is how Jerusalem was taken:
In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of
Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against
Jerusalem with his whole army and laid siege to it. And on the ninth day of the
fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, the city wall was broken through. Then
all the officials of the king of Babylon came and took seats in the Middle
Gate: Nergal-Sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-Sarsekim a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer
a high official and all the other officials of the king of Babylon. When
Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled; they left the
city at night by way of the king’s garden, through the gate between the two
walls, and headed toward the Arabah.”
But the Babylonian army pursued them and
overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. They captured him and took him to
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he
pronounced sentence on him. There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the
sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and also killed all the nobles of Judah. Then
he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to
Babylon.
The Babylonians set fire to the royal
palace and the houses of the people and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. Nebuzaradan,
commander of the imperial guard, carried into exile to Babylon the people who
remained in the city, along with those who had gone over to him, and the rest
of the people. Jeremiah
38:28b-39:1-9
Everything
played out just as the prophet Jeremiah said it would. The Babylonians, who had
once retreated from Jerusalem to deal with the Egyptians, returned intent on
conquering Jerusalem, the holy, divine spiritual nerve center of the Judean
kingdom.
Scripture
tells us that Nebuchadnezzar brought his entire army to bear against the
fortified city and its Israelite inhabitants and it didn’t take long for the
Babylonians to breach the city’s security by breaking through the city wall.
What followed was complete domination as the Babylonian officials assumed
positions of authority at the Middle Gate.
So
what was Judah’s king doing at this time?
He
was supposed to surrender. That was the proposition God made to him if he
planned on living and not seeing his family or capitol city harmed.
But
as we read, Zedekiah didn’t do that. Rather, he decided to run away along with
some of the soldiers who were with him. God’s word tells us they escaped the
city under the cloak of darkness “by way of the king’s garden” and “through the
gate between the two walls.” Once outside the city, they “headed toward the
Arabah.”
Zedekiah
was expected to go with God’s way, but instead he decided to go his own way, a
choice that had harsh consequences attached to it. For everything that God said
would happen came to be in light of Zedekiah’s sinful disobedience.
First,
Zedekiah was captured by the Babylonians and brought before King Nebuchadnezzar
of Babylon who passed sentence on him.
Part
of that sentence was to watch his own people die before his very eyes, starting
with his sons who were slaughtered along with Judah’s nobles. It would be the
last things that Judah’s former king would see because God’s word tells us that
Nebuchadnezzar had Zedekiah’s eyes put out before he had him shackled and
hauled away to Babylon along with the people who remained in the city. The seventy
year exile was beginning.
Finally,
scripture tells us that Jerusalem was set ablaze, starting with the royal
palace and the houses of the people. The once formidable walls of the city were
brought crashing down. All that would remain of what was once the most revered
and divine city in the world would be smoldering ashes and rubble.
Friends,
the Lord is sending us a very powerful message today and we had better be
paying attention. For He is always giving us direction in the ways He wants us
to go and we have a choice to either comply with the way of the Lord or go our
own way. It’s either one way or the other.
If
we are obedient to God’s way, we can expect God’s blessing and favor.
If
we choose to go our own way as Zedekiah did, we can expect God’s punishment and
consequences because He will not tolerate being disrespected, disregarded, or
dishonored. These sins will be addressed with the harshest penalties God can
bring.
If
you don’t believe that, then you will be no better than Judah’s king and your
fate will be no different.
You
can count on that for the Lord will always have His way. Period.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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