14 May 2014

King Zedekiah

Posted by joncooper

How He Became King: Appointed by King Nebuchadnezzar
When He Began Reigning: 21 years old
Reign Length: 11 years
Ruled Over: Judah
Type of King: Evil
Prophet: Jeremiah
Death: Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem, took him to Babylon, and burned him alive
Burial: Unknown

Zedekiah was the last king of Judah. He was appointed king by Nebuchadnezzar after the Babylonians conquered conquered Jerusalem. Zedekiah began reigning when he was 21 years old, and he reigned over Judah for 11 years. He was a wicked king:

2 Kings 24:17: “And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father’s brother king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah.
18 Zedekiah was twenty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
19 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.”

The king was not alone in his wickedness. During his days the people and the priests did very wickedly. God sent prophets to warn them to repent, but they refused to listen:

2 Chronicles 36:14: “Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.
15 And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place:
16 But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy.”

During Zedekiah’s reign the king rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah warned him that God was going to fight against Israel, and told the king that if he did not repent then God would destroy the Temple. However, Zedekiah refused to listen. When the Babylonians came against Jerusalem, Zedekiah had Jeremiah put in prison:

Jeremiah 32:2: “For then the king of Babylon’s army besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah’s house.
3 For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Wherefore dost thou prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;”

Just as Jeremiah had foretold, Nebuchadnezzar came against Jerusalem and conquered it:

2 Kings 25:1: “And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.
2 And the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
3 And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.
4 And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king’s garden: (now the Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king went the way toward the plain.
5 And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were scattered from him.”

Nebuchadnezzar did exactly what Jeremiah had prophesied. He looted the Temple, burned it, and destroyed the walls of Jerusalem:

2 Chronicles 36:18: “And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon.
19 And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.
20 And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:
21 To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.”

Zedekiah did not fare any better. Nebuchadnezzar killed Zedekiah’s son, put out the king’s eyes, and carried him away to Babylon:

2 Kings 25:6: “So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him.
7 And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.”

The book of Jeremiah tells us that Nebuchadnezzar burned Zedekiah alive:

Zedekiah 29:22: “And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah which are in Babylon, saying, The Lord make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;”

Judah was carried out of the land and went into exile. The days of the kings of Judah had come to an end.

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