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(The views expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
2 Chronicles 36:11–21, “Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the LORD. And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the LORD God of Israel. Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.”
After Josiah died, things went downhill very quickly in Judah. They willingly and knowingly made a contract with the Lord before they went into the Promised Land but they didn’t keep the contract. They didn’t obey the Lord fully and faithfully all the days of the Judges and the Kings. The Lord was graceful to them and sent may prophets to remind them of what they should be doing. Even the faithful king, Josiah was not enough to completely assuage the Lord’s anger against Israel and Judah. The Lord instituted the penalty clauses of the contact and gave them the fruit of the choices. Eventually the Lord brought Judah, the remnant of Israel, to Babylon, the home of idolatry so that they could experience idolatry and in its most evil forms. Israel and Judah didn’t trust the Lord to provide for them and allow the Land to rest every seven seven years and every fiftieth year as the Lord required. The Lord took Judah away from the Promised Land and allowed the Land to lie desolate and experience the years of rest that it required after all those years.
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