2 Kings 24 Bible Study (Jerusalem Captured/Jehoiachin & Zedekiah Reign) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Meet me in second Kings chapter 24. I hope you have a copy of God's word with you. I wanna let you know in advance that there will be many scriptures that will be visiting this bible study. This will be more of a teaching than anything else. Sometimes studies like this can lean more on the preaching, but this time will be heavy on teaching.

So it's gonna require your faculties to be focused, a Bible in your hands, and a willingness to turn to different pages if you're gonna make the most of this time. We are now entering the final two chapters of the book of second kings. This is fascinating because we are now being brought to the concluding moments of this powerful historical account. And what we're gonna discover in these last two chapters are the reigns of the last three kings of the Kingdom Of Judah, the final three rulers. The name of the first one is pronounced Yehoa Kim, spelled Jehoa Kim.

The second is Yehoa Hinn, And the last and final ruler of this kingdom will be Zedekiah, a little bit different than the first two. Now as we come to these kings, we're gonna learn a lot, but the first thing I wanna ask you is who was the conscience of this nation at this time? In other words, who was the main prophetic voice that confronted and challenged and reminded these rulers and the people of Judah at this time. Does anybody have an idea? You can answer if you know.

Jeremiah is the main voice. And the reason I bring that up is because we studied Josiah at great length, and we learned that in the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. But that is not the only thing that is highlighted about Jeremiah's ministry. So I told you to turn to the second kings 24, but we're already gonna go to a different passage. Look with me at Jeremiah chapter one verse three, and highlight this and maybe put it in one of the margins of second kings 24.

Here's what we read in Jeremiah one verse three. It came also what is the it? The word of the Lord. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month. So I I bring this up at the outset of the study to inform you that in order for us to know greater depth and color to these historical facts in second Kings, we must heavily rely on Jeremiah's writings, which we will do.

But Jeremiah was not the only that God raised up in this period. While we will witness the rapid decline of the Davidic dynasty, we will simultaneously see the rise of another dominant power, Babylon. In fact, Babylon will be the agent that the Lord permits to bring Judah to its knees and to ultimately bring them into captivity by way of exile. But this will not happen all at once. When people hear about the Babylonian exile, they think it just happens in one episode.

It doesn't. It will actually take place by way of three deportations, separate exiles over the span of some years. And what every single wave will underscore is the profound stubbornness of God's people who will refuse to repent. Despite the mounting judgment and the frequent prophetic warnings, it's really staggering, as you will see. And that's just the overarching truth of these events.

As we will do tonight, we'll pull out our magnifying glasses and investigate these verses more carefully, and and the Lord will surely speak to us in deeper ways. And I think it will be helpful to actually begin in second Kings 23 verse 36, because this is where we are introduced to the first of the last three kings, and we'll read into second Kings 24 until verse two of that new chapter. Shall we do that? Beginning in second Kings 23 verse 36, Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebedah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah, and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that his fathers had done.

In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldeans, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by his servants, the prophets. Father, we ask, like Samuel, that you would speak for your servants are listening. We wanna be more than just students of these scriptures.

We wanna be obedient to them. And we ask, Lord, that you would grant us greater insight and revelation into these wonderful truths so that we would be conformed to the image of your beloved son. Lord, we pray that there would be true unction, true power, true clarity in a way that will benefit your people. We ask, Lord, that you would supply that grace because we're desperate for your voice. We ask these things in the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen and amen. We're meeting the first of the last three kings right here in the beginning of this chapter, Jehoiakim. And when you read about Jehoiakim in the book of Jeremiah, it doesn't take very long for you to learn that this man was wicked to the core. Jehoiakim hunted down the true prophets of God and ruthlessly killed them. Jehoiakim was also notoriously known for taking Jeremiah's scroll containing his prophecies and ripping them piece by piece and throwing it into the fire.

That's found in Jeremiah chapter 36. In fact, I encourage you to read that chapter at a separate time because it provides a wonderful illustration of how God preserves his word despite the attempts of man to destroy it. This man was evil. But the most notable fact about him in this chapter is one main thing. How during his reign, Babylon emerged on the world scene.

Babylon became the world power. Babylon was the instrument that God would use to subdue Judah into a vassal state. And, actually, Judah is not the only target of Babylon's conquest. Scroll down quickly to verse seven and notice this little anecdote. Second Kings twenty four seven reads, and the king of Egypt did not come out again out of his land rather, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the brook of Egypt to the River Euphrates.

So even Egypt felt the force of Babylon as it bulldozed in the nations. So the geopolitical scene here is drastically changing. Things are shifting, and remember, God is orchestrating all of it. Judah now is in a different place. And rather than this king humbling himself because of the dominance of this new nation, he tries to shake his way out.

He tries to struggle in his own strength to be free again while trying to also hold on to his sin. And I have no doubt in my mind that this king serves as a cautionary example of what will take place and what will follow anybody who is outside of the will of God and chooses to remain there despite being disciplined for it. What should anyone expect if they consciously defy the word of God, ignore it, choose to cling to their human wisdom when they should know better. I wanna give you two thoughts. The first thing is this.

When a person follows in the steps of YeHoYoYa Kim, stubbornly turning their backs on God, being warned over and over and still choosing to hold on to their sin, maintain their autonomy, try to figure out life without God's rule, the things they once conquered will find a way to gain victory over them again. Look at verse two of this chapter once more. And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldeans, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by his servants, the prophets. Do these foreign people groups sound familiar to us? They should.

Because we've been studying the old testament carefully, and we learned that over the centuries, it is these very same groups that God allowed the people of Israel to overcome, to keep at bay, to dominate. And now because of Jehoiakim's continual defiance, these same people groups are harassing him with the goal of devastating him and the people of Judah. Here's the lesson. When we choose to walk independently of the Lord, we open the door for all kinds of sin to wreak havoc in our lives, all kinds of iniquity. The same pestering things that we knew victory over will somehow overpower us.

Because you see, only closeness to Jesus Christ guarantees the sensitivity, the conviction, the guidance, and the contentment to overcome the mastery of the flesh, and the temptations that surround us and are always ready to pounce. Jehoiakim is nowhere near God's presence. He's actually rejecting it. He's running headlong in the opposite direction. And here's the rule.

You run away from God, you open doors for other things in your life. Things that will in fact torment you, destroy you in the end. You know, at Maranatha Conference, somebody approached me and asked, are we going to speak about Psalm 91 at any point? And though we didn't have a chance to explore that wonderful Psalm, I don't blame them for asking. If you've never read Psalm 91, read it before you go to bed tonight.

It is packed with God's glorious promises. There's actually room for nothing else. Verse by verse, all you're reading is one glorious thing after the other. But people tend to forget as they quote that wonderful chapter of the condition. It begins with a very practical condition.

In fact, so important is it that I had to memorize it. Psalm 91 verse one, he who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow of the almighty. Why memorize that one out of all the things? Because everything that you read in verse two onward depends on verse one. And what is he saying there in Psalm ninety one one?

You wanna experience these treasures, you wanna sit under this waterfall of wonder, you have to stay close to God. He who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow of the almighty. I've said this before, it's worth repeating. How close do you need to be to somebody for their shadow to be cast upon you? Pretty close.

This isn't gonna work. Almost shoulder to shoulder. And that is what the psalmist is saying. You wanna know all these things? Live in his shadow day by day.

Let his presence be your home. Walk in communion with God, and everything that you read in the rest of that Psalm is yours. Is Jehoiakim in the shadow of the almighty? No. He's living beneath his frown.

All the things that he ignored with Jeremiah's prophecies, all the things that he warned with the that he ignored with the warnings that came his way. But there's a second thing that befalls the spiritually stubborn as exemplified by this man. Yes, we learned here that we not only invite defeat the longer we stay away from the Lord, but we also forfeit treasures that only humble obedience can guarantee. That truth is not entirely clear from this passage, but it is in another book. Does anyone remember how Daniel one one starts?

You can go to the book to find it. Look how Daniel one one starts. The very first words of this awesome text, Daniel one one. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah. Stop.

Don't ignore these time stamps in your bible. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, that very same king that we're reading about in second Kings 24, What happened? Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it, and the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his God. Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility.

And we read past that that it's Daniel and his friends. That were part of what? This is the first deportation, by the way. The first wave. During the reign of Jehoiakim, King Nebuchadnezzar came, he besieged it.

He made Judah surrender. And with that, he took some of the vessels from the temple and some of the royal nobility. And he took some of the young people, says, I'm gonna train you, make you like my nation, like my people to serve my gods. You know this very well, unrepentant sin robs us. It will steal your peace.

It will steal your joy. It will stifle your fellowship with Christ. It will bar you and I from the warmth of godly community. It will rot meaningful and beautiful relationships, even in the church. It will spoil your resources.

It will devour your time, and it will tarnish your testimony in mind. I don't know if this has ever happened to you. Have you ever had somebody, more specifically a friend, at any point in your life steal from you? If you have, then you know the sense of betrayal that fills your heart upon discovering that, no matter how small the item. And with that sense of betrayal, there's this instinct to set up boundaries so it never happens again.

And I think it would be extremely helpful for you and I as followers of Christ to train ourselves to view sin as a thief. Because the more we believe that, the less likely we are to welcome it into our lives. See, if you even have a hint of understanding that sin, the false idea that it can profit you in any way, even in a small way, you'll never know the strength to reject it. You'll never know the ability to persist in your resistance against its temptation. But if you understand the nature of sin and the history of sin, then no matter where it goes, it robs, it steals.

Then when it knocks on the door of your heart, will you open it? You and I would be foolish to open it, in the same way that we would be fools to entertain the presence of a thief in our home. View sin as a thief. And thieves are clever. Right?

What makes a thief successful? It doesn't it doesn't come off as a thief. They come off trusting. And sin is no different. It masquerades as a friend.

It comes trying to promise some kind of a bargain. You invest in this, and I'll I'll give you this. Here's the ROI. Here's the return on investment if you if you actually take this, digest this, apply this. But it's a thief.

It's a scam. Con artist, every time, no matter what the sin is. Nebuchadnezzar came, and that not only reintroduced these Ammonites and all these other things that he controlled and allowed to ransack Judah, but he also took from Judah. Sin is no different. We invite things that we once knew victory over because we were close to Christ, and we also forfeit things that can only be maintained when we stay close to Christ.

There is no doubt that Jehoiakim played a major part in hastening the final judgment of this kingdom. However, interestingly, he doesn't receive the main blame. There's somebody else that actually receives greater accountability apart from Jehoiakim. Go back to chapter 24 of second Kings. He's found in verse three.

Surely, this came upon Judah at the command of the Lord to remove them out of his sight for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also for the innocent blood that he had shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord would not pardon. I can't think of any more depressing and dreadful words than these. The last few verses words of verse four, the Lord would not pardon. It's one thing for my dad to never forgive me, my mom to never forgive me, my friends, my pastor, church members to never pardon me, but it's a whole entire different thing if God chooses not to pardon. Now, just taking this at face value is challenging enough, but it becomes more difficult when we try to reconcile it with the glorious truth of the abundance of God's pardon and how he is rich in mercy.

Does not God forgive all sin, even the sin of shedding innocent blood? So why is he not willing to forgive here? Well, here's what we have to establish. Did God forgive Manasseh for his sin? We studied this in the past.

Right? He did. Did he not? We rejoiced in that study together. He did forgive this man.

So this is not a case of God not willing to forgive certain sins or arbitrarily choosing not to pardon other individual individuals. That's not the case at all. So then what does this mean here that the Lord would not pardon in verse four? Here's what it means. It refers to the Lord's unwillingness to reverse the consequences of Manasseh's sins.

There's a big difference. So what you find here is because Manasseh's actions were so pervasive, so impactful that they corrupted the nation to the degree that the effects of it were still evident to this point. In other words, what Manasseh had done, though he was personally forgiven by God, his actions on the nation required justice to be served, especially because his practices were still being imitated here. During the reign of Jehoiakim, we see Manasseh's practices still being repeated. So again, the main prophetic voice of this time was Jeremiah.

And you can't even get past chapter two before Jeremiah rebukes the people for this one crime among many crimes. In Jeremiah two, listen to these words in verse 34. Also on your skirts is found the lifeblood of the guiltless poor. You did not find them breaking in, yet in spite of all these things, you say, I am innocent. Surely his anger has turned from me.

Behold, I will bring you to judgment for saying I have not sinned. So the people, the common people had blood stained on their robes. And Jeremiah highlights, you didn't kill these people out of self defense. Did you notice that? Verse 34, you did not find them breaking in.

Why would he mention that? Because in Exodus, there was a law permitting those who are in their homes, if an intruder came in at night and you defend yourself to the degree that you killed the person, there's no guilt on you. But the prophet highlights, you're not doing this out of self defense, out of selfishness, out of cruelty. You're actually killing the guiltless poor out of convenience, out of irritation. And on top of that, you say, I'm innocent.

And when you continue in Jeremiah, you realize that Jehoiakim was not the best example. In fact, there were contemporary prophets in Jeremiah's day, one of them not very known by the name of Uriah, Uriah the prophet. Uriah the prophet really echoed Jeremiah's message. And one day he's preaching. The word gets to Jehoiakim.

Jehoiakim's like, he's a dead man. Uriah finds out. He flees to Egypt. Jehoiakim was not satisfied. He takes a couple of his officials.

He says, you go to Egypt. You're not coming back till you find him. They find Uriah. He comes into his presence. He slays him, and he dumps him outside the city like garbage.

So the spirit of Manasseh is very much still alive at this point. The people are killing each other, the king is killing the true prophets. And so Lord says, I'm not pardoning. You've crossed the line. Enough is enough.

Manasseh repented, you're forgiven, but I gotta deal with the consequences of this sin and exile is the answer. So that's what we find here. And Jehoiakim was such a wicked man. You have to turn there in Jeremiah 36 to see what the prophet pronounces. On top of all the other judgment he warned about, he gives this harrowing prophetic word.

Jeremiah 36 verse 30. I'll wait for you to get there. This is something that you gotta put a star beside or something because it goes way beyond this context. Jeremiah 36 verse 30. Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah, he shall have none to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night.

You threw my prophets out in the day to rot out there without any honor. The same is coming for you. But before that, notice what he says. He shall have none to sit on the throne of David. That's massive.

And at face value, it presents at least two problems. The immediate issue is what we find back in our main text. Come back to second Kings 24, and look at the concluding comments of the reign of Jehoiakim in verse five. Now the rest of the deeds of Jehoiakim and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiakim, his son, reigned in his place.

How? Jeremiah prophesied that there would be no more who would sit on the throne of David following Jehoiakim, and here we realize that his son actually does. Contradiction? No, a call for careful study. I think the answer is in the very same passage of second Kings 24.

Look down at verse eight. Jehoiakim was 18 years old when he became king and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Nehushta, the daughter of El Nathan of Jerusalem, and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father had done. Reining for three months isn't much of a rain, is it? You barely were able to warm the seat before the king of Babylon comes and removes you from that position of authority.

So this is a really legitimate governance. Essentially, the moment he enters in, he was taken out. So that satisfies that potential issue. But the second and more important implication of Jeremiah's prophecy is where we need to spend more time. So in Jeremiah thirty six thirty, he says, he shall not have anyone sit on David's throne.

Nobody following you. None of your direct descendants are actually going to occupy this position of power again. We think that that's not the case because Jehoiachin sits on the seat when we learn actually no, he is besieged, he's taken over, he is removed, brought to Babylon, and dies there. He never returns. What does this imply about God's promise to David, though?

Do you understand? What did God promise David? That you will have your sons occupying this throne forever. One of your descendants will have an eternal reign. And clearly that didn't happen.

And what we find here as we approach the total decimation of this administration, of this kingdom altogether, is a reversal seemingly of this promise. Did God break his promise? Did God change his mind? And if you think, well, maybe that's not what the Lord is really saying about Jehoiakim's descendants, go to Jeremiah and look here at chapter 22 and verse 24. This is a lengthy portion of scripture.

Why am I reading this to you? Why do you need to know this? Because you will have anti missionary Jews, and you'll have other people of different cults and faiths who wanna try to discredit the messiahship of Jesus, and they'll say here, well, what do you do with this curse? Here here's what I'm saying. Look at Jeremiah 22 verse 24.

Are you there with me? As I live declares the Lord, though Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah. Kenaiah is the same person as Jehoiakim. Though Kenaiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country where you were not born, and there you shall die.

But to the land to which they will long to return, they shall not return. This is the main part. Look at verse 28 down. Is this meant, Coniah, despised broken pot, a vessel no one cares for? Why are he and his children hurled and cast into a land that they do not know?

Oh, land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord, write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah. Uh-oh. None. None of his offsprings.

It's over. The final straw. And we should gulp a little bit because we've been studying this text since the days of Genesis. And we've been clinging to this promise that there's a king who will arrive, who will emerge and fulfill that promise that God made to David in second Samuel seven. It seems like it's not gonna happen.

How do we answer this? I'm actually gonna open it up. You don't have to give a lengthy answer, but if you have a brief idea how we can solve this, I'd love to hear it. Any idea of how we can figure this out. There are three possible answers.

There are three ways of solving this, and these are worth remembering and noting down. The first answer that we can give is that this prophecy speaks of YeHoi Kim's immediate descendants, his own children. Not speaking about the dynasty as a whole, but speaking about his own offspring. Look again at Jeremiah 22 verse 30. It says here, thus says the Lord, write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days.

Now, you read Chronicles and you learn that there's actually more than one child that this king has. So what he's saying here though is write him down as childless, not that he will never have children, but that he will never have any of his children reigning on the throne. Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days. So it seems to enforce here the reality of his lifetime, not an indefinite period of time. And all you have to do Listen, listen, this is the end of chapter 22 of Jeremiah.

All you have to do is go to Jeremiah 23 to realize that the Lord wasn't speaking about the entire dynasty. Go to chapter 23. Look at verse five of Jeremiah. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely. He shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

In his days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely, and this is the name by which you will be called, the Lord is our righteousness. Well, hold on. You just told us a few verses ago that none of his offspring will rule and reign. And in just the same breath almost, he says actually, remember I told you that David was gonna have his son? He's still coming.

So that should pretty much end this debate. Right? He's not speaking about his children. And I told you that we're studying the last three kings, right, of the Kingdom Of Judah, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and who's the last one? Zedekiah.

Yes. That will be a very important thing to remember if we ever hypothetically have a quiz on second Kings, by the way. Who's the last reigning king of the Kingdom Of Judah? Zedekiah. Zedekiah is not the son of Jehoiachin.

In second Kings twenty four seventeen, it says here, and the king of Babylon made Matania, Jehoiachin's uncle, king in his place, and change his name to Zedekiah. You see that? So the work was fulfilled. None of this king's children would reign, and when it came to his successor, it was actually his uncle. Case closed.

Right? Full stop. Well, people are gonna press. People are gonna press, and you should expect that pushback from those who will try to disqualify Christ as being the promised son of David. And be prepared to be taken to the genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth in the New Testament.

For what reason? Because people wanna show you how Jesus' lineage based on this prophecy is a cursed one. Matthew one eleven. What do we find here? Matthew one eleven.

And Josiah, the father of Jehochaniah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. And after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel. You see that name there? Jeconiah. And people will press and they'll say, you claim that Jesus is a descendant of this royal line, but did you forget what Jeremiah said about this very man that none would reign from his offspring?

And so they'll go on to say, you Christians invented the virgin birth to try to wiggle your way out of this. And so the first answer that you can use in trying to solve this apparent dilemma is that the prophecy does not deal with the king's immediate children, or his his his latter children rather. It deals with his immediate children. But second to that, we can say that even if that line remained cursed, that the virgin birth delivers Christ from that curse. It's not an excuse.

It's actually divine strategy. Think about it this way. Just as the curse of sin did not transfer to the Lord because of his miraculous conception, is it really so hard to believe that the curse of Kenia didn't transfer either? Was Christ infected with Adam's fall? Please say no.

No. So are we limiting the implication of his virgin birth to that curse alone and not any other curse? No. You can say that the virgin birth rescues, in a sense, Christ from this judgment. He's separate from it, though attached to this heritage.

But I don't even go there. I don't I don't even speak about the virgin birth and get into all these kind of hermeneutic gymnastics. I don't do that. You know why? This is the third and most important point in trying to answer this dilemma.

The curse was reversed. Look back at Matthew one eleven. Did you see a few names there? Look at the end of verse 12. Jeconai was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel.

Zerubbabel was one of the leaders who would return from Babylon to the land of Jerusalem to rebuild everything. And he was a governor for the people of Judah. And he appears in a couple of different prophetic books, but notice what Haggai says about Zerubbabel. In Haggai chapter two, I I already warned you that we're gonna go to different passages, but this is gonna be worth it. Haggai chapter two verse 23.

Now as you're turning there, do you remember the symbolic imagery that the Lord gave in his denunciation and his curse? Though you be like a signet ring on my hand, I will tear you off. A signet ring is a symbol of power and authority for for royalty. And the Lord says, it doesn't matter if you're on my hand. It doesn't matter how valuable this ring may be.

Because of your sin, I will rip you off and throw you away. Now notice what he says here to Zerubbabel, who's a descendant of that very same king. Haggai two twenty three, on that day declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, oh Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you like a signet ring. For I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts. Is it coincidental that the Lord is using the same imagery back when he spoke through Jeremiah to curse this line, to restore this line?

It's not coincidence. It's intentional. Yeah. I might have thrown you away, but now I am bringing you back. So way before Jesus Christ of Nazareth even appears on the scene, the curse was reversed.

And we find it right here. But hold on. Although it was reversed, it was not totally restored because Zerubbabel was not a king, was he? No. He he is a governor.

You read that in the prophetic writings. So the the beginning of the restoration happened in Zerubbabel's day, but when's the full realization of it gonna be known? Do you remember what the angel said to Mary in Luke one? Let me read it to you in verse 32. The latter portion says, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David.

The full restoration would not be known in Zerubbabel. It will be known in Christ. So if you can just remember this reference, Haggai two twenty three, if anybody approaches you and says, your supposed messiah actually belongs to a cursed line, and you say, well, yeah, well, the curse was reversed. And here's where Jews Jews will get in trouble, because you'll hear this mainly from them. If you look at their own tradition and their own ancient writings, many of their beloved scholars and rabbis believe that the curse was reversed.

Not because they're trying to make a defense for the messiahship of Jesus, just because it's plain it's here. So I was gonna provide you quote after quote. This is all accessible. And these days, you can find this stuff anywhere at the click of a few buttons. But resource after resource confirms that even Jews who don't believe in Jesus of Nazareth as their savior confirm that the the curse was indeed changed back.

And the promise remained. Choose any one of those answers, and you'll be more than okay. God's word never fails, and we should rejoice in that. And so we find here the end of Jehoiakim's reign. But let's come now to the final verses of our study.

We read about a little bit about Jehoiakim. Let's continue to read about him in second Kings 24 verse 10. At that time, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city while his servants were besieging it, and Jehoiachin the king of Judah gave himself up to the king of Bal Babylon, himself and his mother and his servants and his officials and his palace officials. The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of his reign and carried off all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the Lord, which Solomon king of Israel had made as the Lord had foretold.

So what's happening here now? The second deportation. The first one is described in Daniel one. The second one now appears here. Jehoiakim, Daniel was taken.

Jehoiakim, the second wave of deportation, much more severe than the first one. In the first one, he took some of the vessels and brought it to the house of his god. Now he's stripping the gold off of the temple. And more than that, look at verse 14. He carried away all Jerusalem and all the officials and all the mighty men of valor, 10,000 captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths, none remained except the poorest of the land.

And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon. The king's mother, the king's wives, his officials, and the chief men of the land, he took into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. And the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon all the men of valor, 7,000, and the craftsmen, and the metal workers, a thousand, all of them strong and fit for war. And the king of Babylon made Metaniah, Jehoiachin's uncle, king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah. Second deportation.

We're gonna look at the last one next week. So many details, so many facts, so many important things to touch on. For the sake of not overwhelming us, I wanna look at verse 14, and I wanna ask this question. Out of the thousands that were taken into captivity, And if you were there a couple nights ago at prayer meeting, you can't answer this question. For those who are not there, is there anyone who is a notable figure in the Bible that was taken during the second wave of exile that we find here?

And if you know the answer, you're free to share it. Oh, you hear the the chirping? Real chirping? Somebody said it. Good.

Ezekiel. Go to Ezekiel chapter one. Look at Ezekiel one verse one. In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Hebar Canal, the heavens were open and I saw visions of god. On the fifth day of the month, it was the fifth year of the exile of king Jehoiachin.

The word of the lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Himbar Canal, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there. Do you see that in the middle there? The last part of verse two, it was the fifth year of the exile of king Jehoiachin. So Daniel was taken in the first wave, Ezekiel was brought out in the second. And this is me earlier today, being reminded of this truth in this study, sitting back and meditating, and I thought, this is I think this is a good place to end.

I think there are at least two wonderful truths to learn with Ezekiel as it connects to this wider story. The first one is this. Look at this detail in verse one. In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month. What year is he referring to?

What time stamp? The common view? His own age. In other words, he's saying, when I was 30. When I was 30 years old, the fourth month, the fifth day of the month, in the thirtieth year.

Now, why would Ezekiel wanna tell us that he was 30 when he was exiled? Any idea? Very good. Read on here and what do you discover? Look at verse three.

The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, the what? The priest. Numbers four tells us that a priest would begin his ministry in the temple at the age of 30. Ezekiel clearly didn't get the chance to do that, did he? So this is a milestone in his personal life, but it says something about, really, the nation.

In the thirtieth year, he is now allowed to technically enter into the temple and serve as a mediator between God's people and God himself. The temple is destroyed. Well, it's about to be soon. Not during this deportation and the next one. The temple is surrounded.

It's stripped of its glory. It's later going to be brought down to rubble. And so now instead of Ezekiel being called into the priesthood, he's being called into what office? Prophethood. So this is a this is a major change in many ways, but I couldn't help but meditate on how this made Ezekiel potentially feel and how he can teach us some wonderful things.

Here's the first thing that we can learn. Be mindful that your life may not fit the mold or follow the common trajectory that others expect of you or experience themselves. Ezekiel, at the thirtieth year of his life, looked nothing like the average Levite, did it? Now, he came from a lineage of others who studied their whole young lives and were being prepared to enter into this wonderful office of the priesthood. Now, he's next in line.

And what happens? He's taken. Not just taken from his office, he's he's taken from his home. And I wonder what it made him feel like at first. As he was chained, perhaps, and led into the wilderness and ultimately into a brand new pagan land thinking I was supposed to be a priest.

I was supposed to serve my God. I was supposed to come close to the things of God and serve the people of God. And I don't know about you, but I know many who feel the same way when they contemplate where they are at life and more than that, compare themselves to others and wonder, I don't fit the common script for life. I thought I would be somewhere else at this point in my life. I thought I would be doing something else by this time in my life.

I did not see any of this coming, even if that looks like delay. I thought I would be somewhere else. I thought I'd be doing something else. Ezekiel was supposed to serve God. It was actually inscribed in the scriptures how he was supposed to serve God, and it didn't happen.

But the most important thing about Ezekiel is not if he served in the temple, is not if he fulfilled his lifelong training to be a priest, is not if he even if he even raised his family in the holy land and trained his children to love god. The most important thing about Ezekiel is what we read in the introductory verses of his book. The hand of the Lord was upon him. That's the most important thing. You see, Ezekiel is an anomaly.

Ezekiel doesn't fit the mold, but that doesn't mean that Ezekiel is outside of God's will. I can't tell you the amount of people who are frustrated because they look at themselves, they look at the time stamp of their lives, they look at others and they think, well, I didn't think this would happen to me. I didn't think that this would be my portion. And worse than that, they think, maybe God doesn't cherish me, have a plan like he does for others for me. You're dead wrong as long as you serve the Lord.

This man loved God. He was waiting to serve God. God just had a different plan for him. The most important thing is that God's hand was on him, not what he was doing precisely, who he's with, where he lived. The second and final thing I'd love to learn about Ezekiel, and there are many other things that we can meditate on, is how God is very able to turn tragedy into ministry.

Exile is no easy thing, as you can imagine. But this exile was not the end for Ezekiel. It was actually the beginning of a very challenging yet thrilling chapter in his life. God sends the people away in judgment, but he don't know you know who he also sends with them? A prophet.

And more than just one. To me, those are droplets of God's grace in the fiercest demonstration of his wrath towards his people. I'm kicking you out of the promised land, but all my heart wants to send with you voices that will represent me. I'm gonna send Daniel in the first wave. The second wave, I'm gonna send Ezekiel.

Don't you see God's mercy in this? I see it. Well, let's let's just zoom in on Ezekiel. God is going to put his hand on him and God is going to speak through him to a dejected people who are at the lowest point in their nation's history. But you know what it required for Ezekiel for him to be an effective minister?

He had to suffer alongside them. In fact, if you read Ezekiel's prophecies, they're they're some of the strangest. You know why? Because so many of them demanded physical display and physical acts. Some of them hard to imagine.

Ezekiel, for x amount of days, I want you to lay on one side. Once you're done doing that, lay on the next side. Like, can't you just have me preach it? Do I have to actually lay here? Ezekiel, I want you to make this kind of food with this kind of material, and all these unthinkable things for a Jew.

Do you know why God did that for Ezekiel? Because he wanted Ezekiel to feel the message before he preached the message. And in many cases, when God ordained suffering in our lives, it does many things, including adding authority to your ministry. The the greatest men of God suffered in one way or another. Or whenever they suffered, it took their ministry to a whole new level.

Ezekiel, I'm going to make you a prophet. You thought you were gonna be a priest. I have something else in store for you. But it's gonna require you to go into exile. And you need to suffer alongside these people.

Though it may seem unfair, though it may seem like it ruined your dreams to be a priest in Jerusalem, Trust me. And if you serve God, let's end this bible study here. Trust that every ounce of difficulty that is permitted in your life has a redemptive purpose. All you need to do is remain close close to your sovereign father, and eventually you'll see it. Let me give you the last few verses of second Kings 24, and we'll close this study.

Verse 18 of chapter 24, Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutel, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah, and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. For because of the anger of the Lord, it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. Father, we thank you for this study.

We thank you for every cross reference. We thank you that even the weakness of delivering the study, your word prevails, your truth pierces. And we yet again behold the brilliance of the scriptures and the author behind these truths. Lord, we ask that these things would not be easily forgotten. Etch them on our hearts.

Tie them in our memory, and use them as means to fan into flame our adoration for who you are. Lord, who knew that time stamps can touch us so deeply? And for this, we rejoice together as your church. In Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen. Let's stand.

Let's give God thanks for this study.