Time for Accountability

2 Kings 24-25.

Because of the horrific, evil reign of Manasseh in chapter 21, God pronounced judgment against Judah.  The southern kingdom lived under the thumb of the Assyrian Empire for some time but Jerusalem had been spared for the most part.  Meanwhile, the Babylonians (Chaldeans) conquered the Assyrians.  Now, the Babylonians ruled, basically from India to Africa.

Jerusalem would no longer be spared.  In what turned out to be a two-step process, the Babylonians laid siege to the city, took the people captive, and escorted them back to Babylon for integration and retraining.  Among them were prophets and other leaders such as Zephaniah (25:18), Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  Only the poorest and unskilled were allowed to remain in the land.  Most all the valuables in the Temple were removed and carried off.

In the second attack, the Babylonians burned every significant structure in Jerusalem, including the Temple and the king's palace.  The walls of Jerusalem were broken down.

The opening of the book of Daniel describes the sophisticated approach of the Babylonians to retrain and groom Jewish leaders.  However, during the seventy years of exile, the scriptures record the strong faith of the Jewish leaders, their influence at strategic times, and the mourning of the loss of their land.  They even sang about it.

"By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.  On the willows there we hung up our lyres.  For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion!'  How shall we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land?  If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill!  Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!"  Psalm 137:1-6

It is a sad ending to these two books that record the history of the kings.  The reminder to all of us is the seriousness of obedience to God.  No one who lived life to please God ever regretted it.