April 24, 2020: Day 83 – II Kings 25

The worst happens to Judah as the city is in siege for 2 years before the walls are breached and the king of Babylon and his  men enter the city of Jerusalem.  The king of Judah, Zedekiah, escaped with his sons but they were then captured.  His sons were killed in front of him and then his eyes were poked out so that he would remember that as the last thing that he saw.  It reminds me of the myth of the architect of St. Basil’s cathedral in Russia on red square, where it is said, falsely, that Ivan the Great blinded him after it was constructed so that he would not construct any other, it was that beautiful.  None of this happened, but it is a great story.

All of the goods of the temple were destroyed and then the temple itself was destroyed as well as all the important houses of Jerusalem.  Notice the name of the person who was responsible for destroying the temple and the houses:  Nebuzaradan.  His name literally means: chief of the butchers.  How about that as a gloss?  I like the fact that they kept a remnant behind, look at vs.12 where we see that some do remain behind to till the land so that it would not go to waste.  

We find ourselves in the last chapter of this book of the Bible which laid out for us the kings that reigned in both Israel and Judah, the northern and the southern kingdoms after the reign of Solomon who was the last to rule a united kingdom.  Things did not go well once the sons of David were no longer.  The people continued to do what was evil in the sight of Lord on a much more consistent basis than those who did was was good in the sight of the Lord. 

But then we see in vs. 27  that the new king of Babylon started to become friends with the king of Israel and even invited him to his table for meals.  It should strike a bit of a familiar story to that of Joseph who found himself in a foreign land and make friends with the ruler who then eventually was able to bring salvation to the people of Israel by saving them from a famine.  Here there needs to be some hope for a remnant who will be able to go back and inhabit Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.  It will happen, but not yet.  We still have time in Scripture for that to take place, and it does…