He Cast Them Out

He Cast Them Out

The year was 586 BC. Babylon had risen in power to become the dominate nation among the nations. Nebuchanezzar was reigning as King of the Universe, King of Kings, King of Babylon, and King of Sumer and Akkad. This oldest son of Nebopolassar had become a mighty warrior and defeated many nations. Over in Egypt, Pharoah Necho II had passed away and the throne had passed to Psamtik II and then Apries. Both Pharoahs encouraged rebellion against Babylon, for Egypt had been a great power itself for millennia.  Over in Judah, Zedekiah was considering his next moves.

Jeremiah was prophesying in Jerusalem. "Thus says the Lord, “Behold, I am about to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will take it; and Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but he will surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye; and he will take Zedekiah to Babylon, and he will be there until I visit him,” declares the Lord. “If you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not succeed.” Zedekiah could not understand why Jeremiah did not prophesy victory for the Judeans like the other prophets. Then Jeremiah did something that confused the king even more - he bought a field in Anathoth. He then prophesied again that though Jerusalem and Judah would be destroyed and the people exiled, that land would be bought and sold again and the people would one day return.

Zedekiah ignored the warnings of Jeremiah and kept on being an evil king by following the sins of Manasseh and Ahaz. His rebellious heart would not submit to God, so God gave him into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. He planned to go to Egypt to escape from Babylon, but Jeremiah prophesied that the throne of Nebuchadnezzar would be set up in that land too. In Zedekiah's tenth year, Nebuchadnezzar set up seigeworks against Jerusalem. By the 3rd month of the next year, the famine was so severe inside Jerusalem that Jeremiah recorded this in Lamentations:

Better are those slain with the sword
Than those slain with hunger;
For they pine away, being stricken
For lack of the fruits of the field.
The hands of compassionate women
Boiled their own children;
They became food for them
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
The city was broken into by night and all the King and the men of war fled through the Chaldean army and out into the Arabah. They were overtaken in the plains of Jericho and scattered by the Chaldeans. Zedekiah was captured and brought the Nebuchadnezzar t Riblah for sentencing. He was forced to watch his sons be killed in front of him, then Nebuchadnezzar put his eyes out. He was then bound with bronze fetters and brought to Babylon.
Zedekiah would have been better off listening to the words of the LORD through Jeremiah. Had he surrendered, it would have turned out differently. But this also was from YHWH, whose anger against His people had risen to the point where He cast Judah and Jerusalem out of His sight. The warnings to David and Solomon, and all the kings since them, were fulfilled. God warned them, gave them grace, presented many opportunities to repent, and when they still did not listen, He fulfilled the curse of the Law against them. God keeps His covenant and fulfills it. No one can say they had not been warned, for every prophet from Moses to Jeremiah had warned them of impending judgment. It is best to listen and repent quickly than to reject the Word of God and face certain judgment.
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