seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
2 Kings 24:18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. 19 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done. 20 It was because of the Lord’s anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end he thrust them from his presence.
Now Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
Now Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
As I understand it, Zedekiah let Nebuchadnezzar put him on the throne. Presumably Zedekiah would be Nebuchadnezzar's puppet.
This commentary is from the easy English site.
Zedekiah was Jehoiakim’s brother. And he was also Jehoiachin’s uncle. He was the last king of Judah. Zedekiah was a weak ruler. Jeremiah warned Zedekiah that he should remain loyal to Babylon’s king. But Zedekiah thought that the new Pharaoh (Egypt’s king) would help him to be free from the control of Babylon’s king. The army from Babylon had left Jerusalem to attack the army from Egypt. Jeremiah warned Zedekiah that Babylon’s army would return. But Zedekiah was too weak to do what Jeremiah advised (Jeremiah chapters 27-28).
I got this from the blueletterbible.org site.
Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon: Jeremiah tells us that there were many false prophets in those days who preached a message of victory and triumph to Zedekiah, and he believed them instead of Jeremiah and other godly prophets like him. Therefore, he rebelled against the king of Babylon.
For example, Jeremiah 32:1-5 tells us that Jeremiah clearly told Zedekiah that he would not succeed in his rebellion against Babylon. Zedekiah arrested Jeremiah and imprisoned him for this, but the prophet steadfastly stayed faithful to the message God gave him.
"He had no real faith in Jehovah, Israel's covenant-keeping God, and therefore did not scruple to break his covenant with Nebuchadnezzar. But how dearly he paid for this violation of his oath!" (Knapp)
"He had no real faith in Jehovah, Israel's covenant-keeping God, and therefore did not scruple to break his covenant with Nebuchadnezzar. But how dearly he paid for this violation of his oath!" (Knapp)
Politicians, like king Nebuchadnezzar, make deals with other politicians, like Zedekiah. Then it makes the 6 o'clock news when the second politician breaks the deal. What do we expect?
Humans make deals with God. Then as soon as the strife is under control, or the human gets whatever prize was attracting those human magpies, they go back on their word.
My parents were pretty good about keeping their word. When they said "if you do that, this will happen" "this" generally happened. Believe me.... I tried them plenty of times.... and "this" almost always happened. I might as well have gone out to the "whipping stick bush" as soon as I started to do "that". I don't know how many of those reading this had a "whipping stick bush" in the yard. There were long slim thorn-less stems on this bush. When you whipped the stem back and forth, it whistled. It stung like crazy but it left only a slight whelp rather than a big bruise like a belt. Generally, there weren't a whole lot of things that would tempt me enough to take on the "whipping stick bush".
Wow... come to think of it... I'm smarter than the average king of Israel or Judah. God said, if you worship me... I'll take care of you. Then when the kings messed up... God sent people like Jeremiah and Ezekiel to warn them. I don't understand it... I knew my parents were good for their word. Weren't these kings smart enough to realize God would keep His word?
