The Results Of Not Taking God Seriously

The Results Of Not Taking God Seriously

The kingdom of Judah ended badly.

THE SIGNIFICANT battle of the late 600s B.C. was fought at Carchemish, the modern city of Jerablus, Syria, on the Euphrates River near the border with Turkey. Carchemish had military importance because it guarded the primary ford of the Euphrates.

In 612 B.C. the Babylonians had destroyed Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire. Three years later Egypt marched northward against the Babylonians in an effort to shore up the weakened Assyrians. King Josiah of Judah, preferring a Babylonian presence to that of Egypt and Assyria, tried to stop the Egyptians at Megiddo but was slain. Then the people anointed his son Jehoahaz and made him king. After ruling only three months, he was imprisoned by Pharaoh Neco. The pharaoh then placed another of Josiah’s sons, Jehoiakim, on the throne of Judah and made Judah a vassal state of Egypt (2 Kings 23:29-35). The Egyptian army continued northward to Carchemish, which it garrisoned with its army and the remnant of the Assyrian forces.

The year 605 B.C. was a decisive one in the history of the ancient Near East. Nebuchadnezzar II, crown prince of Babylon, became commander in chief of the armies of Babylon. In the spring of 605 he marched to Carchemish and defeated the Egyptians and Assyrians in hand-to-hand fighting. As a result, Babylon took control of Syria and Palestine.

From his victory at Carchemish, Nebuchadnezzar led his armies to Judah and besieged Jerusalem. Jehoiakim renounced Egypt and became a vassal of Babylon (24:1). Nebuchadnezzar took a number of Jewish leaders to Babylon, including Daniel (Daniel 1:3).

Jehoiakim, an evil king in God’s eyes, remained loyal to Babylon for only three years, so Nebuchadnezzar, now king of Babylon, once again sent his armies to force Jehoiakim to submit to him. Jehoiakim then remained in subservience to Babylon until his death in 597 B.C. (2 Kings 24:1-6).

Jehoiakim was succeeded by his eighteen-year-old son, Jehoiachin, who also did not follow Jehovah and was as bad as his father, oppressing his own people (vv. 8-9). So despicable was he that God said through Jeremiah the prophet, who was living in Jerusalem:

“As surely as I live,” says the Lord, “I will abandon you, Jehoiachin. . . . I will hand you over to those who seek to kill you, of whom you are so desperately afraid—to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the mighty Babylonian army. I will expel you and your mother from this land, and you will die in a foreign country.” (Jeremiah 22:24-26)

This prophesy was fulfilled only three months into Jehoiachin’s reign on March 16, 597 B.C., when Nebuchadnezzar, after besieging the city, accepted the surrender of King Jehoiachin, his mother, advisers, nobles, and officials.

Nebuchadnezzar took ten thousand people captive to Babylon, including the king. In addition, Nebuchadnezzar carried away all the treasures from the temple and the royal palace.

Eleven years later Nebuchadnezzar would return a final time, destroying the city and temple and taking all but the poorest of the remaining Jews captive to Babylon (2 Kings 25:1-21).

Eight hundred years earlier God had declared: “If you refuse to listen to the Lord your God, and do not obey all the commands and laws I am giving to you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you. . . . The Lord will bring a distant nation against you from the end of the earth. . . . Its armies will lay siege to your cities until all the fortified walls in your land—the walls you trusted to protect you—are knocked down. . . . The Lord will scatter you” (Deuteronomy 28:15-64).

Judah refused to listen to God, and God did just what he had promised.

Reflection

Just as God held the nation of Israel accountable for its disobedience, he holds us as individuals accountable for whether or not we give him our allegiance and obey him. What lessons from Judah’s final days can you apply to your life?

Fear God and obey his commands, for this is the duty of every person. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14