Warning: God Gives a Nation the Leaders It Deserves (2 Kings 24)

Scripture reading – 2 Kings 24 

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* Please note that words and phrases in brackets are the author’s amplification.

Our study returns to 2 Kings 24, where a brief narrative sets the stage for God’s judgment against Jerusalem. Jehoiakim, the third-to-last king of Judah, cut up and burned Jeremiah’s scroll, which warned that Jerusalem’s destruction was imminent (Jeremiah 36:20-24). Though warned that his evil deeds would bring God’s judgment upon the nation (Jeremiah 36:29-31), King Jehoiakim continued in his sins and “did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done” (2 Kings 23:37).

King Jehoiakim’s appeal to Pharaoh for help against Babylon had failed (2 Kings 23:35). The young king, finding himself paying tribute to Nebuchadnezzar (for he “became his servant three years”), set his heart against the king of Babylon and “rebelled against him” (2 Kings 24:1).

2 Kings 24

King Jehoiakim’s Reign and Final Days (2 Kings 24:1-7)

Provoked by Jehoiakim’s impetuous rebellion, Nebuchadnezzar sent mercenary raiders against Judah to destroy the nation, as the LORD “spake by His servants the prophets” (2 Kings 24:2). The prophet Daniel recorded the same events in his book, where we read, “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it” (Daniel 1:1).

The LORD had not forgotten the sins of King Manasseh and his lineage, nor had He forgotten that Judah had shed “innocent blood” by sacrificing their sons and daughters (2 Kings 24:3-4). (Judah’s slaughter of its innocent children, coupled with the fact that “the LORD would not pardon” that sin, should give 21^st-century nations pause to consider their ways. Indeed, abortion of the unborn in our day is no less egregious in the eyes of God and is as demanding of His judgment.)

King Jehoiachin’s Brief Reign and Disgrace (2 Kings 24:5-16)

King Jehoiakim died (2 Kings 24:5), and his son Jehoiachin succeeded him. Like his father, Jehoiachin “did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD” (2 Kings 24:9). Then Nebuchadnezzar “came up against Jerusalem” (2 Kings 24:10). The king of Judah surrendered, and after reigning for three months, he was taken to Babylon (2 Kings 24:11-12). Fulfilling all that the LORD had foretold through His prophets, Nebuchadnezzar “carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon, king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord” (2 Kings 24:13).

Nebuchadnezzar determined to eliminate any threat of another uprising and “carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land” (2 Kings 24:14; Jeremiah 40:10). Among the captives were the royal household (2 Kings 24:15), the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:1), and “Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah” (Daniel 1:6). 

King Zedekiah, the Final King of Judah (2 Kings 24:17-20)

Nebuchadnezzar appointed “Mattaniah,” the king’s uncle, to succeed Jehoiachin as king. The king of Babylon renamed Mattaniah “Zedekiah,” meaning “the LORD is just” (2 Kings 24:17). He was only 21 years old when he became king, and “he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem” (2 Kings 24:18).

Zedekiah, the last in a long line of foolish, wicked kings, was left to rule an impoverished nation lacking leaders skilled in governance and warfare. Like the kings before him, he did “evil in the sight of the LORD” (2 Kings 24:19) and “rebelled against the king of Babylon” (2 Kings 24:20). We will see in 2 Kings 25 that his rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar was the height of folly.

Closing thought –

As I reflect on Judah’s history, I am convinced that the LORD gives a nation the leaders it deserves. That remains true today, as it was in Judah’s day.