As the walls of Jerusalem crumbled, so too did the hearts of its people—but not all was lost. Step into the poignant world of 2 Kings 25 with me, Pastor Brandon, and witness the resilience of hope amidst the ashes of destruction. Together, we'll navigate through the harrowing siege led by King Nebuchadnezzar, the despair of famine, and King Zedekiah's dire fate. Yet, like the quiet after a storm, we find solace in the steadfast love of God, a beacon for the weary and a testament to His unchanging faithfulness.
This episode weaves the tale of consequences met with mercy, as we recount the assassination of Governor Gedaliah, the people's desperate escape to Egypt, and the surprising act of kindness towards King Jehoiachin by Evil-Merodach, Babylon's benevolent ruler. The story of Judah serves as a powerful allegory for our own lives, where our choices shape our destiny, but divine providence always holds the final card. So join us in reflecting on this legacy of faithfulness and looking ahead with anticipation to the empowering teachings of Colossians chapter one—where we'll explore what it means to be grounded in steadfastness and grace.
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The More You Dig. The More You Find.
As the walls of Jerusalem crumbled, so too did the hearts of its people—but not all was lost. Step into the poignant world of 2 Kings 25 with me, Pastor Brandon, and witness the resilience of hope amidst the ashes of destruction. Together, we'll navigate through the harrowing siege led by King Nebuchadnezzar, the despair of famine, and King Zedekiah's dire fate. Yet, like the quiet after a storm, we find solace in the steadfast love of God, a beacon for the weary and a testament to His unchanging faithfulness.
This episode weaves the tale of consequences met with mercy, as we recount the assassination of Governor Gedaliah, the people's desperate escape to Egypt, and the surprising act of kindness towards King Jehoiachin by Evil-Merodach, Babylon's benevolent ruler. The story of Judah serves as a powerful allegory for our own lives, where our choices shape our destiny, but divine providence always holds the final card. So join us in reflecting on this legacy of faithfulness and looking ahead with anticipation to the empowering teachings of Colossians chapter one—where we'll explore what it means to be grounded in steadfastness and grace.
SOAP Bible Study Method- https://www.brandoncannon.com/soap/
Bible reading plan- http://www.experiencerlc.com/the-bible/
Free weekly newsletter- https://www.brandoncannon.com/
Social:
Facebook: https://facebook.com/thebrandoncannon
Instagram: https://instagram.com/brandoncannon
Twitter: https://twitter.com/brandoncannon
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theBrandonCannon
The More You Dig. The More You Find.
Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today, 2 Kings 25, man, we are ending it up today and we're going to call it today. Even in destruction there is hope. Yay, even in destruction there is hope. We're going to talk about that in just a moment. But, as always, before we do anything else, make sure you like, share and subscribe. Leave us comments on the YouTube channel. Also, make sure you leave us a five star review on the podcast and then, when we all gather together, the Facebook group Bible Breakdown Discussion.
Speaker 1:By the way, did you know, if you go to our website, thebiblebreakdowncom, you can actually go there, and what we are in the very slow process of doing is we are archiving all of these episodes. We are going to eventually, by God's grace plan on covering every chapter in the entire Bible, and so what we're doing right now is we are covering every chapter, and what I want to do because this is a lifetime goal of mine I want to provide commentary to every chapter in the Bible. I don't know if I'm going to do it there or elsewhere, but if you would like to get caught up on different things or, as you are, reading through the Bible with yourself or with others. If you have questions, there's a place there where you can get different resources for every chapter in the Bible as we go through it together and eventually, over time, I want to create something that will just last for a long time, so make sure you go there TheBibleBreakdowncom. You can actually get each one of these episodes sent to your email address if you'd like to, so you can subscribe there. Okay, all right, we have your Bibles. When you open it with me to 2 Kings, chapter 25, the finale of what's going on, we're going to finish this thing off and it's going to be awesome. Okay, because of the hope that's there, and it's bittersweet because it ends bad, but there's still hope.
Speaker 1:It reminds me of one time I watched a TV show and I loved this TV show. It was like my favorite one I ever watched at the time and I knew, of course, the TV show is not going to last forever, but I really got into it and the next season was only like six months off, like I didn't realize that while they were showing the first season, it had already been greenlit a while back and so season two had come on and then, like six months later, season three had come on and I was like, oh, this is so great. And so I got, I got done with season three and I'd never been more invested in this TV show, you know what I mean? Like I was like I feel like these people are like real. I mean it was amazing. So I'm expecting another six months, you know. And so as soon as season three was over with, I go looking online when is season four going to come out? And they were like two years, like what? What happened? And I still don't know exactly what happened, but for some reason it went from six months to two years and the horrible thing was just devastating. It was devastating, but the article I read said but they'll be back. Make sure you know they're coming back. It's already been green lit, they've already started the process. It's just going to take a while. Well, that's now been years from now ago, and so they did eventually come out with that next season. It was great. But when I first heard about that, it was devastating. But there was still hope, there's still good things that was going to happen. And so what I want to do is I want to bring you up to speed with what's been going on, and we're going to finish this with this horrible moment, but then hope for the future.
Speaker 1:Remember what we told you is 1st and 2nd Samuel. 1st and 2nd Kings were originally written, inspired by the Holy Spirit. We don't exactly know who, but it was written in order to answer the question of how do we get here? Because, as we're going to see today, israel has already been conquered by Assyria, but now Judah, the other part of the nation of the Israelites, is going to be conquered, and they go into 70 years of captivity. And while they're there, the question comes up how do we get here? I thought Yahweh said we would never be conquered. What happened? Well then, very methodically, over 1st and 2nd Samuel, which is originally just Samuel, and then 1st and 2nd Kings, which was originally just Kings, they say this is what happened. Over and over and over again, god said stop that, quit that, don't touch that, get away from that. And we said no, no, no, no. And eventually God said okay, well, you step far enough out from under the umbrella of my protection. This is what's going to happen. And so we now see the end of the story. So, if you're ready, 2nd Kings, chapter 25, verse 1,. Here's the end of the story. The Bible says this.
Speaker 1:So on January 15th, during the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon led his entire army against Jerusalem. They surrounded the city and built siege ramps against its walls. Jerusalem was kept under siege until the 11th year of King Zedekiah's reign. So in other words, 9, 10, 11, so two years of siege. By July 18th, in the 11th year of Zedekiah's reign, the famine in the city became very severe and the last food was entirely gone. Then a section of the city wall was broken down. Once the city was surrounded by the Babylonians, the soldiers waited for nightfall and escaped through the gate between the two walls, between the king's garden, and they headed toward the Jordan Valley. But the Babylonian troops chased the king and overtook him on the plains of Jericho, for his men had all deserted him and scattered. They captured the king and took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where they pronounced judgment upon Zedekiah. They made Zedekiah watch as they slaughtered his sons and gouged out Zedekiah's eyes, bound him in bronze chains and led him away to Babylon. So they're saying what happened was the way a siege works is they surround the city and they cut off any access to provisions, and so slowly you begin to eat your provisions until it's all gone and you slowly start to starve yourself into submission. So what the Bible says is they finally ran out of food and so they tried to escape, but they were captured. And then, of course, judgment happens.
Speaker 1:Verse 8, on August 14th of that year, which was the 19th year of King Nebuchadnezzar's reign, zebusoradin excuse me, nebusoradin of the captain of the guard and an official of the Babylonian king, arrived in Jerusalem. That's really hard to say. Verse 9, he burned the temple of the Lord down, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. He destroyed all the important buildings in the city. Then he supervised the entire Babylonian army as they tore down the walls of Jerusalem on every side. Then Nebusoradin, the captain of the guard, took as the exiles the rest of the people who remained in the city, the defectors who had declared their allegiance to the king of Babylon and the rest of the population. But the captain of the guard allowed some of the poorest people to stay behind to care for the vineyards and the fields.
Speaker 1:The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars in the front of the Lord's temple and the bronze water carts and the great bronze basin called the sea. They carried all of the bronze away to Babylon. They also took the ash buckets, shovels, lamp snuffers, ladles and all the other bronze articles used for making sacrifices at the temple. The captain of the guard also took the incense burners and basins and all the other articles made of pure gold or silver. The weight of the bronze from the two pillars, the sea and the water carts was too great to be measured. These things have been made for the Lord's temple in the days of Solomon, which each of the pillars was 27 feet tall. The bronze capitol on top of each pillar was 7.5 feet high and was decorated with a network of bronze pomegranates all the way around.
Speaker 1:Nebuseradin, the captain of the guard took with him as prisoners Zariah, the high priest, zephaniah, the priest of the second rank, and the three chief gatekeepers, and from among the people still hiding in the city, he took an officer who had been in charge of the Judean army, five of the king's personal advisors and the commander's chief secretary who were in charge of recruitment, and 60 other citizens. Nebuseradin, the captain of the guard took them all to the king of Babylon at Riblah. And there at Riblah, in the land of Hamath. The king of Babylon put them all to death, so the people of Judah were sent into exile from their land. Them king, nebuchadnezzar, appointed Gildiah, the son of Achaem, the grandson of Zephiah, the governor of all the people who had left in Judah. Who had been left in Judah.
Speaker 1:When all the army commanders and their men learned that the king of Babylon had appointed Gaddaliah as governor, they went to see him at Mizbah. These included Ishmael, son of Nathanaeth, johanan, son of Kirith, suriah, son of Telumuth, and Nefohath of Jesiah, the son of Makath, and all their men. Gaddaliah vowed to them that Babylonian officials meant them no harm. Don't be afraid, live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and all will go well for you, he promised. But in mid-autumn of that year, ishmael, son of Nathiah, the grandson of Meshallimah, who was a member of the royal family, went to Mizbah with ten men and killed Gaddaliah. He also killed all the Judeans and the Babylonians who were with him in Mizbah. Then all the people of Judah, from the least to the greatest, as well as the army commanders, fled in panic to Egypt, for they were afraid of what the Babylonians would do to them.
Speaker 1:In the 37th year of exile of King Jehoekin of Judah, evel Meridoc ascended to the Babylonian throne. He was kind to Jehoekin and released him from prison on April 2nd of that year. He spoke kindly to Jehoekin and gave him a higher place in all the other exile kings of Babylon. He supplied Jehoekin with new clothes to replace his prison garb and allowed him to dine in the king's presence for the rest of his life. So the king gave him regular food allowance as long as he lived.
Speaker 1:Wow, first of all, there's a lot of hard words to say in that chapter, but we come to the end of 2 Kings, chapter 25. Now once again, remember the goal behind this is necessary endings. Even in destruction, though there is hope. Now what we're going to do from here is we're going to be reading some other things, but we're going to come back to 2 Chronicles, 1 and 2 Chronicles in a little while. It's going to tell the same story we just finished in 1 Samuel, 2 Chronicles. Excuse me, kings, I'm getting them all confused, but with hope because, as you see, there was a 37th year of exile. They're going to be in exile for 70 years and when the time comes for them to come back, they're going to realize they need to make sure that they get this thing right, that God still has a plan for them. And that's what I want to say to somebody listening to this today as we finish up 2 Kings.
Speaker 1:If you remember, the overall theme of 2 Kings is actions, have consequences, actions, have consequences. And I don't know about you, but when I was young, I thought I would live forever. I thought all my friends would live forever. I thought my family would live forever. I thought that everything was going to go okay. I had no idea how it was going to happen. We just knew it was going to be fine and everything was going to be great. But then, as I lived a little bit longer, made some mistakes, made some errors in judgment here and there, and found out that life isn't perfect. Bad things do happen to good people. And I found myself having to live with the consequences of actions. Some of you have had the same thing. Maybe there's lifelong consequences to some of the actions that you have made and you wonder what's next.
Speaker 1:Can I tell you this Actions do have consequences, but there's always hope. God is for you more than you can imagine. And can I tell you this God has a good idea for you. God's word says all things work together to the good of those who love the Lord are called according to his purpose. Philippians 1-6 says we can be confident in this. He who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Jeremiah 29-11 says that I know the thoughts I have towards you, says the Lord. Thoughts of hope. Give you a hope in the future. You know what he said that to. He said that to a people that were getting ready to go into exile that even as they were getting ready to go into this horrible time, he said I still got my mind set on you. I wanna tell you today that if you are living with the consequences of some actions, God still has his eye on you. He's still thinking about you.
Speaker 1:So don't give up. Even if this is the lowest moment of your life, don't give up because God hasn't given up on you. One more day, try again. One more day, live for God and watch what happens, cause that's what legacies are made out of. Legacies are not made out of getting things right all the time. Legacies are made out of one more day trying again. And if you do that, one day after another. Before you know it, you will build a legacy of God's faithfulness in your life. Let's pray together.
Speaker 1:God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, for the book of second kings, cause it reminds us that even when we make so many mistakes, you don't give up on us. Even though, yes, actions have consequences and sometimes we go through seasons of justice, seasons of difficulty, you never give up on us and even when things look their darkest, lord, there's still hope. I'm thankful for that today. I'm thankful for you. I pray you will fill us with your hope and as we live this day, we will live it knowing that you are for us and not against us. In Jesus' name, we pray amen. You know one more time don't forget.
Speaker 1:God's word says in second kings, there was a moment that young man and Elisha, surrounded by an enemy, and Elisha says this do not be afraid, for there's more on our side than on theirs. And then Elisha prayed oh Lord, open his eyes and let him see. The Bible said that God did, and that young man saw that around their enemy was a vast army of angels surrounding them. My prayer is that today and always, god will open your eyes to see that, yes, you may have enemies, but you have got so much more going for you than against you. God is with you more than you realize. I hope you have a great day today. I love you and I'll see you tomorrow. For Colossians, chapter one.