The final four evil kings of Judah who reigned after Josiah chose sin. Their eyes were no longer on God but on evil.  Though God sent prophets to tell them what will happen; they turned away from God and His words of warning.  This resulted in captivity.

Babylon conquered Jerusalem and looted and burned the temple. They carried God’s people into exile. But in the end, Judah returned from exile in Babylon, ready to rebuild.  God used the exile to cause the people to repent.  God even used a pagan king to rebuild Jerusalem’s temple! There is no one like our God!

2 Chronicles 36

And the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king in Jerusalem in place of his father.

Jehoahaz King of Judah

² Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. ³ The king of Egypt dethroned him in Jerusalem and imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. ⁴ The king of Egypt made Eliakim, a brother of Jehoahaz, king over Judah and Jerusalem and changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. But Necho took Eliakim’s brother Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt.

Jehoiakim King of Judah

⁵ Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord his God. ⁶ Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked him and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon. ⁷ Nebuchadnezzar also took to Babylon articles from the temple of the Lord and put them in his temple there.

⁸ The other events of Jehoiakim’s reign, the detestable things he did and all that was found against him, are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. And Jehoiachin his son succeeded him as king.

Jehoiachin King of Judah

⁹ Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months and ten days. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord. ¹⁰ In the spring, King Nebuchadnezzar sent for him and brought him to Babylon, together with articles of value from the temple of the Lord, and he made Jehoiachin’s uncle, Zedekiah, king over Judah and Jerusalem.

Zedekiah King of Judah

¹¹ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. ¹² He did evil in the eyes of the Lord his God and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke the word of the Lord. ¹³ He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him take an oath in God’s name. He became stiff-necked and hardened his heart and would not turn to the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹⁴ Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people became more and more unfaithful, following all the detestable practices of the nations and defiling the temple of the Lord, which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

The Fall of Jerusalem

¹⁵ The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. ¹⁶ But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy. ¹⁷ He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and did not spare young men or young women, the elderly or the infirm. God gave them all into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. ¹⁸ He carried to Babylon all the articles from the temple of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the Lord’s temple and the treasures of the king and his officials. ¹⁹ They set fire to God’s temple and broke down the wall of Jerusalem; they burned all the palaces and destroyed everything of value there.

²⁰ He carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and his successors until the kingdom of Persia came to power. ²¹ The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.

²² In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:

²³ “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:

“‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up, and may the Lord their God be with them.’”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW WILL WE RESPOND?  WE HAVE TWO CHOICES.

We have been given the free will from God, our Creator to choose Him or  to choose evil.  The choice of evil leads us to succumb to the Prince of Darkness who is evil defined.  We become his slave as a captive of evil.  The Enemy shows us the way  to do all things evil and detestable to God as he filsl our being daily with hate.  Hate produces within us all the traits of evil that are in direct opposition to God such as;

• Hearts filled with hate with intent to hurt, maim, and kill others who get in our way, including our own children!
• Minds that are distracted, discontented, confused and deceived so that we seek the worship any manmade god or idol that is not God who created us.
• Souls become depleted of peace, joy, strength and wisdom causing us to become fearful because we are empty of the goodness of God.

Our choice of evil removes us from the protection of God.  Our choice to ignore, revolt, mock and walk in the opposite direction of God draws as farther away from God’s blessings of His provision, guidance, and help in times of trouble.  It is we who moved; not God.  Our God is faithful, however, even when we are not. He sees and knows our hearts, minds, and souls in need of Him.  God’s love does not change even though we cease to love.  God does not give up on us.  It is not his desire that anyone perish without Him.

The Good News is that we have a choice to return to God who welcomes us immediately.  His compassions do not fail.  God is the only One who is truly Good all  because of His unfailing, unchanging love, His unending mercies offered daily, and his grace that trumps our sins when we repent of them. God’s Grace wins every time because God has not given up on us and will never give up His authority and sovereignty of the world He created for us to live. If that were not enough, God gave us His Son, His one and only Son, Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins—while we were still living in sin! Romans 5:8 The work to pay our debt of sin has been accomplished!  There is no one like our God!

It’s time to choose!  We make a ton of daily decisions in our lives. In every detail of those decisions we can choose to ask the wisdom of God or hurriedly go our own way and just hope for the best outcome.

Is there a way we might prepare for all these decisions so that better outcomes could might be had?  Why, yes, we can! Paul, inspired always by God’s Holy Spirit, writes;

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”  Romans 12:1-2, MSG

Do you feel as if you are in exile because of your choices? Sometimes our outcomes are not what we expected.  We think why does this seem worse than God’s best? But remember, God’s not finished with us yet. We don’t see the whole picture as He does from His view of things. Our God uses our “disasters” to develop our character. Do not spend all your time seeking relief but reflect on what God wants to teach you. Ask him to show you what is truly important.  “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28, KJV 

I’m standing on this promise, even now, along with all the promises of God!

Lord,

Thank you for your blessed assurance that fills our hearts, minds, and souls today. Cleanse our hearts, renew our minds, refresh our souls, and restore daily the joy of your salvation at work within us—all for our good and your glory!

In Jesus Name, Amen