2 Chronicles 36
McGeeCHAPTER 36THEME: The captivity of JudahThe days were numbered for the southern kingdom of Judah. Josiah was the last good king of the nation. All the kings who followed him were bad. There was not a good one in the lot. Their evil reigns hastened the judgment of God upon the kingdom of Judah. We are given only a brief word about their attitude toward God and a statement of the main events that brought about the ruin of the nation.
2 Chronicles 36:1
REIGN OF JEHOAHAZThis son of Josiah was deposed by the king of Egypt. He was a rascal and was on the throne only three months. Things are beginning to move quickly now.
2 Chronicles 36:5
REIGN OF JEHOIAKIMDuring his reign the king of Babylon comes against the land.
2 Chronicles 36:9
REIGN OF JEHOIACHINHe didn’t last very longhe hardly got the throne warm.
2 Chronicles 36:11
REIGN OF ZEDEKIAHZedekiah is Judah’s last king.
2 Chronicles 36:15
CAPTIVITYNebuchadnezzar now does more than knock at the door. He pushes over the wall and burns Jerusalem and takes Judah into captivity. Here is God’s explanation: Now the next verse cites another reason for God’s judgment. This is most interesting.
2 Chronicles 36:21
You see, God accomplished a twofold purpose. God always has many things in mind in everything that He does. First of all, they had rejected the prophets. They were living on borrowed time; God would have been justified to have sent them into captivity one hundred years before this time. It makes me wonder if our nation is not living on borrowed time. How much longer will God put up with our sins? For the nation of Judah, their time had come. There was no more remedy. There is a time when a nation reaches this point. I wonder how close our nation is to this time. Secondly, for 490 years Israel had not observed the sabbatic years. They had been breaking God’s law of the land, which He had given them even before they set foot upon it: “And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land” (Lev_25:1-5). Because of their greed, they have not allowed the land to enjoy its sabbaths. In other words, they had not allowed it to remain fallow every seventh year as God had commanded.
They thought they had gotten by with it. For 490 years they had been doing it, then God said, “I’ll put you out of the land for seventy years so the land can enjoy its sabbaths.” That is the reason the captivity lasted for seventy years. This is quite remarkable. You see, my friend, God is not mocked. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal_6:7). Notice that the seventy years in exile are passed over entirely. The people are out of the land and out of the will of God. God’s clock is not spelled B-U-L-O-V-A or G-R-U-E-N; God’s clock is spelled I-S-R-A-E-L, and it runs only while Israel is in the land. We have seen in this book that although there was a general decline of the nation, there were five periods of revival, renewal, and reformation. There is a striking feature which characterizes each period: AsaReturn and obedience to the Word of God JehoshaphatReturn and obedience to the Word of God JoashReturn and obedience to the Word of God HezekiahReturn and obedience to the Word of God JosiahReturn and obedience to the Word of God In each instance, return to the Word of God led to the repentance of the people and the temporary reformation of the nation.
2 Chronicles 36:22
DECREE TO REBUILD THE TEMPLESecond Chronicles concludes with a bright hope for the future. This is repeated in the introduction to the Book of Ezra which continues the historical record from this point. It is wonderful to see that although God had sent His people into captivity, He had not forgotten them. How gracious He is!