Reading: 2 Kings 23-25, Psalm 108
Well, we have reached the end of the kingdom of Judah.
What’s that you say? Didn’t we just have the best king that Israel ever had? Why yes, we did. But the covenant curses of God were not on the table. God has promised, and God would fulfill. Still, he promised not to do so during the reign of Josiah, so we will wrap that up first, and see how the last kings of Judah spiraled down until Babylon comes to carry out God’s judgment.
Josiah started by restoring the Temple. There he found the the book of the Law of the God of Israel. Today we see him lead the nation in repentance, a renewal of the covenant, and we learn that the Passover has not been celebrated since the days of the judges! Josiah remedies that, and holds a nationwide meeting to restore the covenant with God. He’s still not done. He not only tears down the foreign idols and high places, he desecrates them by burning human bones on the altars. He kills the priests of the high places that were the start of Israel’s idolatry on their own altars. Josiah is on a roll.
Then he dies. He is killed in battle with Neco, the Egyptian Pharaoh. And it all falls apart. His son Jehoahaz, who we are told little about except that he did evil things, is almost immediately captured by the Pharaoh, who installs another of Josiah’s sons as king. From this point on, Judah is a puppet kingdom, alternating between the rule of Egypt and of Babylon. Jehoiakim is also described as doing evil in the sight of God. He becomes a vassal king of Babylon instead of Egypt, but eventually rebels against him as well. His son Jehoiachin only lasts three months before the Babylonian army shows up. Rather than fight it out, he surrenders to them and they set up his uncle Zedekiah as king. This lasts a few years before he also rebels, and this time the Babylonians come and completely destroy the city of Jerusalem. They tear down the walls, destroy the Temple, deport the people, and kill the remaining royal family and the priests. The almost ludicrous pattern continues though, as the governor they set up, Gedaliah, is assassinated by a rebellion of Judeans who then promptly flee to Egypt, leaving the land populated only by the poorest and most infirm.
The book of Kings ends with the promised land desolate, depopulated of the people of Israel. The last few free people flee, ironically, to Egypt. The temple is gone, and now there is no way for the people who remain to carry out the worship of the God of Israel even if they wanted to. The line of priests is nearly wiped out, and the only members of David’s house still living are in Babylon.
Oh, yeah, the members of the royal house in Babylon. The book of Kings doesn’t end quite yet. We are told that Jehoiachin, the king who surrendered to the Babylonians rather than let them destroy his city, is eventually freed, and even given a bit of a privileged position in Babylon. As to why this happened, we don’t know for sure, but it might have had something to do with a certain administrator named Daniel, who we will meet a little bit later. The point being, the author of Kings closes the fairly depressing tale of the history of Israel’s kingdom with a little bit of hope. The line of David is not broken, and it will survive in the city of Babylon until the day God regathers his people.
A huge portion of the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures, the part we are bound for next, takes place concurrently with the events we have just read through. The book of Kings tells the story more or less in chronological order, though with a particular point in mind. The next several books we read are prophetic literature. They are collections of spoken oracles, short stories, and dialogues with God. They don’t necessarily fit any category of literature that we read today, so they may be hard to follow. I will be doing my best to tie them back to the history that was happening at the time, but at times we will be dealing with things that seem very unhelpful and uninformative. As you read the prophets, try to remember that these were all revelations that proceed directly from the books of Moses and the promises of God. They were collected into the Hebrew Scriptures to make a point about God’s character as a promise keeper. The “prophetic” books of Joshua through Kings told the linear story of the working out of the books of Moses. The books we more commonly think of as “prophets” will be casting judgment on that linear story in light of the books of Moses. It is all the same story, and it is all going the same place: to the Anointed One, the eternal righteous king.