2 Kings 25:1-21 - Will you be Carried Away into Captivity?

2 Kings 25:1-21

The Fall and Captivity of Judah (2 Chronicles 36:15–21; Jer. 52:4–30)

1 Now it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and encamped against it; and they built a siege wall against it all around. 2 So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 3 By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

4 Then the city wall was broken through, and all the men of war fled at night by way of the gate between two walls, which was by the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were still encamped all around against the city. And the king went by way of the plain. 5 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him. 6 So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they pronounced judgment on him. 7 Then they killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, put out the eyes of Zedekiah, bound him with bronze fetters, and took him to Babylon.

8 And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month (which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 9 He burned the house of the LORD and the king’s house; all the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great, he burned with fire. 10 And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down the walls of Jerusalem all around.

11 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive the rest of the people who remained in the city and the defectors who had deserted to the king of Babylon, with the rest of the multitude. 12 But the captain of the guard left some of the poor of the land as vinedressers and farmers. 13 The bronze pillars that were in the house of the LORD, and the carts and the bronze Sea that were in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried their bronze to Babylon. 14 They also took away the pots, the shovels, the trimmers, the spoons, and all the bronze utensils with which the priests ministered. 15 The firepans and the basins, the things of solid gold and solid silver, the captain of the guard took away. 16 The two pillars, one Sea, and the carts, which Solomon had made for the house of the LORD, the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. 17 The height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and the capital on it was of bronze. The height of the capital was three cubits, and the network and pomegranates all around the capital were all of bronze. The second pillar was the same, with a network.

18 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers. 19 He also took out of the city an officer who had charge of the men of war, five men of the king’s close associates who were found in the city, the chief recruiting officer of the army, who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the city. 20 So Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 21 Then the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive from its own land.

Judah was finally taken and carried away into captivity to Babylon for their continued unrepentant sins of idolatry and immorality of worship given to dead works of their hands over the living LORD who delivered them from the bondage of Egypt where such sins had held them captive long ago.  After a year and a half of the siege from Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon against Jerusalem, with starvation rampant among God’s people, the wall of the great city was broken down and many fled the city as the king was taken and watched his sons killed before his eyes that were then taken their sight away to see the light of God’s mercy come to and end for him.  A few years later, they came and burned the remaining buildings of Jerusalem to the ground and broke the city walls down all around.  They stole away all the bronze pieces remaining of the temple of worship erected by Solomon and took the remaining people into captivity to Babylon.  This is the finale of Judah who was carried away into captivity as the promised consequence of their rejection of their LORD and substitution of lifeless gods of their own imagination enthroned on their hearts also broken down and carried away by sin.  They had not taken advantage of the grace and mercy in God’s forgiveness of sin by repentance and reaped the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7) as a result, a warning to all the world to turn from sin to Him (Mark 1:15, Acts 3:19) and reject worship of any before Him as the first commandment tells us all, Jew and Gentile, to pursue.  May all who hear the gospel of for and grace turn from sin to worship Him alone who can deliver from the destruction to come when God’s judgment falls on us all and only those not carried away into eternal captivity of suffering will be united with Him in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:2) that will never be under siege or destroyed because God Himself will be there (Revelation 21:3) to rule over us in the goodness of unending joy and peace without fears or tears (Revelation 21:4) as we worship in spirit and truth forever without judgment to end our lives ever again.