The God Who Never Gives Up Series

We have come to the last 4 Kings of Judah. Next week we will close with the fall of Jerusalem. In one chapter the author penned through the 4 Kings.

• Everything moves downhill from Manasseh’s reign onwards because the Lord has decreed that He will judge Judah and Jerusalem will fall under the Babylonians.

• The outcome wasn’t the arbitrary decision of an uncaring God, but the consequences of Judah’s persistent rebellion against God.

We are still going to hear this line repeating, for all the last four Kings: “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his fathers had done.”

• Every one of them from Jehoahaz (23:32), Jehoiakim (23:37), Jehoiachin (24:9) and Zedekiah (24:19).

The sin of Judah has led to God’s judgement, yet we are going to see God not giving up on them despite their rebellion.

• God will surely judge, but judgment is not God’s goal, redemption is.

• Punishing Judah isn’t God’s end, it is the means to an end. The end is to bring them to understand the errors of their ways, humble themselves and return to Him.

• Repentance is what God is seeking after. Over the next two sermons, we are going to see a patient God still urging the people to turn around.

This is the picture we are looking at:

Josiah 31 years. Killed by Pharaoh Neco (Egypt) 23:29

Jehoahaz 3 months (taken to Egypt) Josiah’s 1st

Jehoiakim 11 years (puppet king of Pharoah Neco) Josiah’s 2nd

• Babylon overthrew Egypt at Battle of Carchemish 605BC

• 1st deportation to Babylon (Daniel and friends)

Jehoiachin 3 months (under siege by Babylon)

• 2nd deportation (24:15-16, includes Ezekiel)

Zedekiah 11 years Josiah’s 3rd

• Babylonian siege and falls of Jerusalem (587BC)

• 3rd deportation

GOD SPEAKS TO THE KING through the prophet Jeremiah. See Jer 1:1-3.

• Jer 1:1-3 The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. 2The word of the Lord came to him in the 13th year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah, 3and through the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.

• For this entire period, God has been speaking. We have this line “This is what the Lord says” throughout the 52 chapters of Jeremiah.

4th last King JEHOAHAZ – 23:31-35

23:29 Pharaoh Neco (Egypt) killed Josiah at the battle in Megiddo and the locals made his son Jehoahaz King.

Listen to what God says to JEHOAHAZ –

• Jer 22:1-5 This is what the Lord says: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and proclaim this message there: 2‘Hear the word of the Lord to you, king of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne—you, your officials and your people who come through these gates. 3This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. 4For if you are careful to carry out these commands, then kings who sit on David’s throne will come through the gates of this palace, riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by their officials and their people. 5But if you do not obey these commands, declares the Lord, I swear by myself that this palace will become a ruin.’”

• 22:10-11 10Do not weep for the dead king or mourn his loss; rather, weep bitterly for him who is exiled, because he will never return nor see his native land again. 11For this is what the Lord says about Shallum (birth name of JEHOAHAZ) son of Josiah, who succeeded his father as king of Judah but has gone from this place: “He will never return. 12 He will die in the place where they have led him captive; he will not see this land again.”

Jehoahaz warmed the seat only for 3 months, and Pharaoh chained and took him away to Egypt. His brother Eliakim was placed as their puppet king (name changed to Jehoiakim).

3rd last King JEHOIAKIM – 23:36-24:7 Read 24:1-2

Not long into his term, the Egyptians met the full might of the Babylonian army led by Nebuchadnezzar.

• The Egyptians, together with the Assyrians, were defeated in the Battle at Carchemish in 605BC. This was significant because after this battle, both Assyria and Egypt ceased to be powers to be reckon with.

• Babylon ruled and Jehoiakim then became a vassal of Babylon.

GOD SPEAKS TO THE KING - Jer 25, 26, 36