Hope From the Word

Bill Luebkemann: There’s a danger of mistaking the patience of God as acceptance of wrong behavior. Today you see people that are slipping into sin or maybe they’re not saved and they’re just living for the world. And they say everything’s going to be okay. We’re doing great. We have a nice house in Marlton and two SUVs and the bills are paid. We have a lot of bills, but we make the minimum payment every month and life is just good.

God delays his judgment for a long time, but the absence of judgment does not mean God is blessing. People get confused with that. Just because God hasn't judged someone yet doesn't mean he isn't going to.

Guest (Male): Just before judgment came and the people of Judah were carried away into captivity, they were told they wouldn’t be judged. But those proclaiming that message were false prophets. The true prophets, including Jeremiah, made it crystal clear that judgment was indeed coming, and it was coming soon.

This is Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann. We have a mixed message in our day, just as they did. So we need to be certain which one is true. To help hone those skills in discernment, let’s join Pastor Bill in 2 Kings chapter 24.

Bill Luebkemann: Well, we’re going to do the last two chapters of 2 Kings today, Lord willing. We’ve been watching the kingdom of Judah deteriorate here, fall apart, if you will. We saw the kingdom of Israel, the northern kingdom, that went into oblivion some hundred and something years prior to this point. Judah has hung in here, but it’s kind of been on a death spiral here.

We saw at the end of chapter 23 last week that Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem 11 years. His mother's name was Zebidah, daughter of Pedaiah, she was from Rumah, and he did evil in the eyes of the Lord just as his fathers had done.

So we’re beginning here in chapter 24. During Jehoiakim's reign, now this is the reign in Judah and in Jerusalem, the southern kingdom, during Jehoiakim’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, invaded the land, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years.

But then he changed his mind and rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. Now, this first time around, Nebuchadnezzar was probably not the king yet over in Babylon. He was probably just the prince, the king’s son. This first attack was really what was happening was you have Egypt down here in the lower left, you have Babylon to the upper right, and you have Assyria to the upper left. Judah was kind of in the middle of all that. So these three nations always were warring with each other.

It's kind of like Judah, Israel, got caught in the crosshairs, if you will. Judah had been allied with Egypt for a long time, and when Babylonian guy went over and fought against the Egyptians at a place called Carchemish, he didn’t want to have to worry about what the Israelites were doing. So it was a good buffer between him and Egypt. If he could win the battle against Egypt, if he could subdue Judah and become kind of like a vassal state under his control, then that gave him a buffer to protect himself from the Egyptians.

So they were kind of in the middle between these three nations, which is the way God worked it out because God wanted to bring judgment against them. He brought judgment against the northern kingdom of Israel some hundred and some years earlier. And now Judah just wasn't following him, serving idols, doing the wrong things, not paying any attention to the Lord their God.

This all worked out in God's plan. These nations may have thought they were fighting each other, but it was God's plan that Judah would be conquered by them. And this first battle with Nebuchadnezzar against the Egyptians at Carchemish and then kind of on his way home subduing Judah, that happened around the year 605 BC. It's recorded in the Babylonian Chronicles, which are some tablets that were dug up over there somewhere by some archaeologist in the 1800s, possibly as early as 1889 or thereabouts.

And some guy translated these tablets and had done a lot of work on them, and around the year 1919, he died and nobody did anything more or even read his work for like 40 years. So in the 1950s, these things were published and there's a lot more detail filled in about these events. And I only mention all that because it lines right up with what the Bible says. They’ve never dug anything up over there yet that in any way disputes what the Bible says.

People look at the Bible—it would be years ago, they’d look at it and say, "Man, Solomon couldn’t possibly have as many horses as the Bible says he has. Nobody could have that many horses back then." And then they dig up stables and find hundreds of stalls for horses, row after row after row. And they realize, maybe he did have that many horses.

And it seems like every time somebody says they can't trust the Bible or this couldn't possibly be right, it turns out that they dig something up and it is right. They never dug anything up ever that disproves anything in the scripture. Obviously, there are many things in the scriptures that have never been substantiated by any other means, but the things that have been substantiated have always turned out to be true, which I think is important.

Now, look. Nebuchadnezzar subdued Egypt, he subdued Judah, he got this guy Jehoiakim to be his vassal king, just kind of like you're working for me now and shut up and do what you're told and you might live. Then the rumor is Nebuchadnezzar heard that his father had died and he wanted to go home as quick as he could and be sure that he would inherit the throne from his father. He didn't want anyone else to get it.

He was some hundreds of miles away. One figure I saw was he was 500 miles away and he traveled home in 14 days, which was an amazing feat for that period of time. I had lunch today with a friend of mine and he had to go to a funeral in Indiana and he drove there in one day. He was real proud of himself, just stopped twice to get gas and stuff, and 11 hours, 600 and something miles to Indiana.

Here, this guy has 500 miles away, made it in 14 days. That’s 10, 20, 30, about 35 miles a day. And you think about it, that’s pretty impressive without modern transportation. And so Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years, but then he changed his mind and rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar.

I think there's some speculation that he figured, "Well, Nebuchadnezzar went home, I don't have to see him anymore," and some people think maybe Jehoiakim got together with Egypt. And so he may have not just rebelled himself, he may have been doing it in cahoots with Egypt. And that really got Nebuchadnezzar unhappy.

The Lord sent Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite, and Ammonite raiders against him. He sent them to destroy Judah in accordance with the word of the Lord proclaimed by his servants the prophets. Surely these things happened to Judah according to the Lord's command in order to remove them from his presence because of the sins of Manasseh and all he had done, including the shedding of innocent blood. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was not willing to forgive.

So, look. There were false prophets in the land, which we’re going to get to later if we have time. There were false prophets all throughout this time that kept telling the various kings, look—especially the next one, Zedekiah—the Lord’s going to give you back the land. You’re not going to be taken away captive.

Even though the true prophets like Jeremiah, for example, had said, "You're going to be carried away in captive, this land is going to cease to exist, go along with it." Jeremiah would say, "Surrender to them and you won’t die. You'll be carried away captive, but you won't die because that's what the Lord's will was."

Well, you had your false prophets who kept saying, "No, that’s not going to happen. The Lord says you’re going to be able to stay here and you’re going to defeat the Babylonians." And unfortunately, these kings always chose to believe the false prophets.

And look, the Lord sent these various raiders against the land, and the reason why he sent them, it says, was to destroy Judah in accordance with the word of the Lord proclaimed by his servants the prophets. This would be a very important sentence because of the false prophets saying the opposite thing. The false prophets saying, "It's not going to happen, it doesn't matter what you did, the Lord's going to redeem you, everything's going to be okay, just sit tight and relax."

And just to make it clear here, this says that it was by the Lord's will that this happened, that the Lord sent these raiders. The Lord had raised them up just for this purpose, apparently, that the Babylonians, the Arameans, the Moabites, the Ammonites, they came, and the reason was to destroy Judah. And the reason they were going to destroy Judah was because that's what God had planned. That's what he wanted, because they had left from following him and were following these vain idols.

Surely these things happened to Judah according to the Lord's command in order to remove them from his presence because of the sins of Manasseh and all he had done. So just another emphasis here in the next verse. We saw in the previous verse that it happened in accordance with the word of the Lord, and now we see in this verse, surely these things happened according to the Lord's command.

So when the Bible tells you something twice in a row, I always figure it must be really important. And it says exactly the same thing here twice in a row. That the Lord is not going to grant them favor at this time. He's not going to give them independence, if you will. They’re not going to be celebrating July 4th or anything like that.

Those who thought the Lord was going to redeem them at this point were wrong. Those who thought they weren't going to get carried away were wrong. Everything's okay! Today you see people that are slipping into sin or maybe they’re not saved and they’re just living for the world.

And they say everything’s going to be okay. We’re doing great. We have a nice house in Marlton and two SUVs and the bills are paid and we make the minimum payment every month and life is just good. God delays his judgment for a long time, but the absence of judgment does not mean God is blessing. When people get confused with that today as well, just because God hasn't judged someone yet doesn't mean he isn't going to.

And the time had come for these people here, and now it was too late. Maybe if they had turned around and followed the Lord, maybe then he would have abated his punishment, but they didn't do that. They were choosing—the king would choose to believe the false prophets while at the same time he wasn't following the Lord. So it's silly. But yet you see people today doing exactly the same thing.

And this guy Manasseh was one of the big problems. There were many bad kings, but he was one of the badder bad kings and he had done much, including shedding lots of innocent blood. And the Lord was not going to forgive that.

Verse 5. As for the other events of Jehoiakim's reign—he didn't last very long—and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? Jehoiakim rested with his fathers and Jehoiachin, his son, succeeded him as king. The king of Egypt did not march out from his own country again because the king of Babylon had taken all his territory from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates River.

So look, this guy Jehoiakim didn't last long, and he rested with his fathers, it says here, verse 6. He rested with his fathers and his son succeeded him. For a little more on him, you can look over at 2 Chronicles chapter 36, verse 6 and 7, where it says Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, attacked him and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar also took to Babylon articles from the temple of the Lord and put them in his temple there.

Look, some people look at this and say, "Oh, well it says here Nebuchadnezzar took him to Babylon, but it says back here that he died and rested with his fathers." That doesn't seem to agree with itself. But you have to read 2 Chronicles 36:6 carefully. It says here that Nebuchadnezzar attacked him and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon. That was his intention. It doesn't say that he actually did take him there.

And some people feel that he died on the way or he died before they could take him to Babylon, that he never really made that journey. In fact, over in Jeremiah 22, verse 19, talking about Jehoiakim, it says he will have the burial of a donkey, dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.

He wasn't buried with his fathers. It says he rested with his fathers; it doesn't say he was buried with them. He was bound in shackles to be taken away, but apparently, he never was taken away, must have died in the process of doing that, and his body was thrown outside the city so he had a very dishonorable funeral service, if you will.

Now, the king of Egypt did not march out again. He was afraid of the guy from Babylon because the guy from Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, had taken all the territory from the brook, the river of Egypt, all the way out to the Euphrates. That entire area had been conquered by Babylon and the king of Egypt was home licking his wounds and he didn't come out again at night.

Now, verse 8. Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he became king. Chronicles says he was eight years old, by the way. Some people feel that was a typographical error by the copyists over the years. We believe the scriptures are inspired by God in the original writing, but that doesn't mean that nobody made an error translating them or copying them over the years.

Other people feel, by the way, that he started to help the king when he was eight years old and actually became king himself when he was 18. So you could believe either one if you want. But Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he became king and he reigned in Jerusalem three months.

His mother's name was Nehushta, daughter of Elnathan. She was from Jerusalem. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord just as his father had done. This guy just carried on right where his father had left off. He continued to do it. And this is what Jeremiah had to say about him as to why he didn't last here. He reigned in Jerusalem three months doing evil.

This is what Jeremiah had to say about him. This is what the Lord says. Record this man as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper. None will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah. That’s from Jeremiah 22:30, condemning this guy for his offenses against God.

If you want to know what he did, well, it doesn't exactly say what he did, but back in verse 24 of Jeremiah, as surely as I live, declares the Lord, even if you, Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off. I will hand you over to those who seek your life, those you fear, to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and to the Babylonians.

I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another country where neither of you was born, and there you both will die. So this guy here did not have any offspring to sit on his throne, and it was all by the word of the Lord. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord. He only reigned three months.

Look, he didn't die. Here's what happened to him, verse 10. At that time, the officers of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, advanced on Jerusalem and laid siege to it, and Nebuchadnezzar himself came up to the city while his officers were besieging it. Jehoiachin, king of Judah, his mother, his attendants, his nobles, and his officials all surrendered to him. So they did the right thing here, at least finally. They turned in the towel and surrendered.

In the eighth year of the reign of the king of Babylon, he took Jehoiachin prisoner. So the king of Babylon came up, besieged—and there are Egyptian papyrus that record some of these events also. And by the way, this chapter here is the first time you see things that are dated according to the reign of another king, not the king of Israel or the king of Judah. Here we see this is now according to the reign of the king of Babylon.

Then Nebuchadnezzar came back here and he laid siege to the city, and this king was pretty smart. He and his mother and his attendants and his nobles and his officials, they all surrendered to the guy and they were all carried away as prisoners. And look, it says over in Jeremiah, "I will hand you over to those who seek your life, those you fear, to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and to the Babylonians. And you’ll be childless, and none of your offspring will sit on the throne."

This guy turned himself over and hoped for the best, and it wound up that he was able to live in Babylon for a while. Verse 13. As the Lord had declared, Nebuchadnezzar removed all the treasures from the temple of the Lord and from the royal palace and took away all the gold articles that Solomon, king of Israel, had made for the temple of the Lord. He carried into exile all Jerusalem, all the officers and fighting men, and all the craftsmen and artisans, a total of 10,000.

Only the poorest people of the land were left. Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin captive to Babylon. He also took from Jerusalem to Babylon the king's mother, his wives, his officials, and the leading men of the land. The king of Babylon also deported to Babylon the entire force of 7,000 fighting men, strong and fit for war, and a thousand craftsmen and artisans. He made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin's uncle, king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah.

So look, here’s what Nebuchadnezzar did. He removed the treasures from the temple, he went in there and took everything out of it. The gold articles, the stuff that had been there since the time of Solomon, and that was a few hundred years prior to this point. I have the number of years here somewhere in my notes.

Look, just as a rough timeline here, 605 BC, that’s the beginning of this chapter. Then when the bands of Moabites and Arameans and Ammonites were raiding through the land, that was around 601 to 598 BC. And then around 597 BC is when Nebuchadnezzar came back and carted everybody away here, some eight years after the first one.

And he’s going to come again, by the way, in another 11 years and haul away a lot of what was left. He carried all these people into exile. The cream of the crop—the officers and the fighting men and the craftsmen and the artisans. A total of 10,000 people. And he left only the poor people behind, just the ones that could tend to the vineyards and keep the vines growing.

And he took the king and the king's mother and his wives and all these other people to Babylon to be captives. And he also deported all the fighting men, these craftsmen and artisans. And he made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin's uncle—now look, remember Josiah was the king, the good king we read about last week. Now he had a son, Jehoahaz, who was the king for a little while, and then when he died, his brother Jehoiakim became the king, right?

Then Jehoiakim’s son, Jehoiachin, became the king. But now Jehoiakim’s uncle, who’s the brother of his father and the third son of Josiah, now he becomes king. So we’re back to him not having any descendants to sit on the throne. His uncle becomes the king in his place.

Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem 11 years. His mother's name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah, she was from Libnah. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord just as Jehoiakim had done. It was because of the Lord's anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end, he thrust them from his presence.

Look, by the way, I made a note here, too. Some people feel, and Indiana Jones would support this, that Jeremiah hid the ark of the covenant before they came in and took everything else away. So it says here they stole all the stuff. Well, you know, who knows? The ark of the covenant could very well have been there, you know, but there's all those myths and fables that it was hidden away and it's buried somewhere in a secret passage.

And some people in Israel know where it is today, but they ain't telling. And if they ain't telling, my opinion, they don't know, because if they really knew, they’d have Geraldo over there, they’d have a big exposé on television about it.

Ezekiel, by the way, one of the captives that was taken away here, and what he wrote, the book of Ezekiel, he wrote while he was in captivity in Babylon. And leaving behind here, what Nebuchadnezzar left behind was a land that was greatly weakened. The good people were gone, the strong people were gone, the knowledgeable people were gone. And who was left was the people who were the nobodies that had been left to tend everything. Everybody who was somebody got taken away.

The land area was greatly reduced. They had lost land on all sides. The people were split. They were in factions. They had the false prophets among them who were constantly prophesying false things. They had some people who were in favor of realigning with Egypt. They didn't like the fact that they were under the Babylonian authority.

And the Lord had told them, "If you go along with this captivity, everything will be fine for you." You’re going to be carried away, you're going to be deported, you'll be able to live, they won't bother you too much. You don't have to be killed and have your eyes gouged out like’s going to happen to this guy here.

But the people were split. It was a smaller country. The good people were gone. And it all comes down to the fact that they had done so much evil in the eyes of the Lord, and even more so towards the end.

Guest (Male): You’ve been listening to Hope from the Word. We’re currently in Pastor Bill Luebkemann’s study of 2 Kings. If you’d like to hear this message again, you have several options. Visit our website at ccmarlton.org, download the Hope FM app to your smartphone or tablet, or look for us wherever you find your podcasts.

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There’s more to come from Bill’s study of 2 Kings, and we’ll have that for you next time on Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel of Marlton.