The Captivity of Judah

(2 Chron. xxxvi:11-21.)

I. The Analysis.

1. The Wicked King (verses 11-14).--Note that the rejection of the words of Jeremiah was in reality the rejection of God's words.

2. The Wicked Priests (verse 14).--The priests were, equally with the king, rejectors of the word of the Lord. In all history priests side with kings against prophets.

3. Warning and Judgment (verses 15-20).--This is ever the divine way--warning precedes judgment.

II. The Heart of the Lesson.

''Till there was no remedy"--that awful phrase opens the deepest heart of this lesson. It is not, observe that man had no remedy as against the king of the Chaldees, but that God had no remedy for His people--"till there was no remedy." There had been a remedy. Jeremiah and Isaiah and all the pre-exile prophets had published abroad the divine and perfect remedy. Isaiah had said, "Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged." "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land."

Jeremiah had cried: ''O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved." "The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Stand in the gate of the Lord's house, and proclaim there this word, and say. Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place."

In Jehovah was a perfect remedy for all the evil of Judah, 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, and there was no remedy."

In other words, when God's remedy is rejected, "there is no remedy."

Doubtless the majority called Jeremiah a "gloomy pessimist." The times were good, the comfort of life constantly increased, men spoke of the ruder times of their fathers and boasted of progress. The priests would be ready to point out the improbability, even the absurdity, of the notion that Jehovah would permit His city and temple to be overthrown. Had not Israel a great mission yet unaccomplished so long as all peoples did not recognize the unity of God? To say that He would destroy the religion which He had Himself planted would be to say that the purposes of God were thwarted.

Just so men reason in this Gospel age. To speak of coming judgments of an apostate church, of another advent of Christ, is to say that the Gospel has failed.

The answer both then and now is that neither the ultimate purposes of God through Israel nor through the Gospel will fail. It is men who fail; men who become apostate, whether in Israel or the church and then ''there is no remedy," so far as men are concerned. But God remains, and in other ways He accomplishes His purposes.

Judah was judged and sent into captivity. ''There was no remedy" for that. Judah, after seventy years, was restored and held in the land till Christ came and was rejected. Then again "there was no remedy," and Judah was sent into a dispersion which still continues. But Israel will be restored, and then, that people will not fail.