1. Josiah¡Çs death and the devastation of Judah
Today is the last session of the trimestrial series of the Books of Kings and the reading passage is 2 Kings 23 of which theme is the death of Josiah. However we had already reflected on the subject so we concentrate today rather on chapter 25 to make a summery of the series.

2 Kings 25 is the last chapter of the Books and it tells how the history moved forward after Josiah¡Çs death. Josiah, the king of Judah, was killed in 609 BC in the middle of a battle against Egypt and his nation was made one of Egyptian satellite nations. Then ; - The people of Judah chose Josiah’s son Jehoahaz and poured olive oil on him to make him king in his father’s place.(2 Kings 23:30)

But the king of Egypt Neco (Necho) II *1 deposed Jehoahaz 3 months later. Besides ; - Neco took Jehoahaz to Egypt, where he died.(2 Kings 23:34)

Then Neco II made Jehoiakim, the elder brother of Jehoahaz, as the new king. However Neco II lost the battle against Babylonia at Karchemish*2, in the north Syria, in 605 BC (or 607 BC by some sources). As a result, all Palestine entered under domination of Babylonia.

Jehoiakim was obedient to Babylonia at first but afterwards rose up. Consequently, Jerusalem was seized by the Babylonian army and Jehoiakim died then. His son Jehoiachin ( also known as Jeconiah*3 ) succeeded to the throne. During the reign of Jehoiachin, Judah was occupied by Babylonia. Jehoiachin himself was brought to Babylon as a captive with Jewish priests and aristocrats. The incident is now called the fist Babylonian Captivity. ; - Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he was king three months in Jerusalem. … At that time the officers of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem. … . Jehoiachin king of Judah surrendered to the king of Babylon, along with Jehoiachin’s mother, servants, nobles, and officers. So Nebuchadnezzar made Jehoiachin a prisoner in the eighth year he was king of Babylon. …Nebuchadnezzar took away all the people of Jerusalem, including all the leaders, all the wealthy people, and all the craftsmen and metal workers. There were ten thousand prisoners in all. Only the poorest people in the land were left.(see 2 Kings 24:8-14)

Ezekiel, the future prophet of God, was among those captives. After dethroning Jehoiachin, the king of Babylonia made Zedekiah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, the king in his place. (see 2 Kings 24:17) Thus the House of David itself was spared and the Temple of Jerusalem could remain. God postponed the devastation of Judah in that way. Jeremiah, the prophet of the time, appealed repeatedly to the people for obeying Babylonia to survive because that enemy country was a whip of God. Nonetheless, the people refused to listen to him. They persuaded Zedekiah to revolt against the suzerain. But the uprising failed and Zedekiah was killed. Moreover, the king¡Çs palace and the Temple in Jerusalem were destructed and burned.

Prior to the incident, the North kingdom of Israel also perished. In other words, the Jewish people lost the national unit entirely. And the writers of the Book indicated the reason. ; −All this happened in Jerusalem and Judah because the Lord was angry with them. Finally, he threw them out of his presence.(2 Kings 24:20)

Judah was also ruined and ¡ÈOnly the poorest people in the land were left.(2 Kings 24:8-14)¡É The future of Jewish people seemed completely hopeless. From 2 Kings 25:22, the book tells what happened afterwards. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylonia appointed Gedaliah as governor of Judah. But Jewish antagonists killed Gedaliah and ran away to Egypt. Though their ancestors had been emancipated from Egypt and led to the Canaan to build a new nation, descendants annulled fruits of the past. It means that they threw out the standing point of the nation. Besides, Jeremiah who had kept giving prophecies in Jerusalem after the first Captivity is said to be brought by force to Egypt and died there. Hope for the Jewish future seemed lost for the time being.

*1 Neco II http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neco_II
*2 Battle of Karchemish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carchemish
*3 Jeconiah http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeconiah

2. Jehoiachine was set free
But the Book finishes the record with a very happy event. It happened 37 years after the second Babylonian Captivity. ; - Jehoiachin king of Judah was held in Babylon for thirty-seven years. In the thirty-seventh year Evil-Merodach became king of Babylon, and he let Jehoiachin out of prison on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month. Evil-Merodach spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a seat of honor above the seats of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. So Jehoiachin put away his prison clothes. For the rest of his life, he ate at the king’s table. 30 Every day, for as long as Jehoiachin lived, the king gave him an allowance.(2 Kings 25:27-30)

That article has a very important feature: the writers still believed that God had not abandoned the people definitively. The stand point of the record is the recognition of sin of the people who were punished severely by God. But they also expressed positive vision in future. As a matter of fact, Jehoiachine was set free from prison and, moreover invited to the table of Babylonian king. In other words, the House of David survived. The history proved that their faith wasn¡Çt baseless. 23 years after the emancipation of Jehoiachine, Babylon was defeated by Persia, an emerging superpower. The event allowed the Jewish people to go back to the homeland. The leader of the returning journey was Sheshbazzar*1, the fourth son of Jehoiachin ( considered to be the same person as that in Ezra 1:8).

Arriving at their homeland, the people began to restore the Temple in Jerusalem. The leader of the reconstruction project was Zerubbabel*2, one of Jehoiachin¡Çs grand-sons and son of Shealtiel (see Ezra 3:2). The facts shows again that the House of David was preserved.

And Matthew, a Gospel writer, presented the family tree of Jesus to tell that he was born as a descendent of Jehoiachin. ; - After they were taken to Babylon: Jehoiachin was the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel was the grandfather of Zerubbabel…. Matthan was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Joseph. Joseph was the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus. Jesus is called the Christ.(Matthew 1:12-26)

*1 Sheshbazzar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheshbazzar
*2 Zerubbabel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zerubbabel

3. Beyond the desolation
Today¡Çs invocation verse is Jeremiah 31:33 ; - ¡ÈThis is the agreement I will make with the people of Israel at that time,¡É says the Lord: ¡ÈI will put my teachings in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.¡É

As I said previously, Jeremiah was the prophet raised by God when Israel was on the way to desolation. He received the calling in the 13th year of Josiah¡Çs reign. Josiah attempted to restore the faith in Yahweh but failed. As a result, Jeremiah must witness bitterly the domination of Egypt then of Babylonia over the Jewish people, and furthermore the Babylonian Captivity. He had appealed to Jews for repentance and obedience to Babylonia because God chose it as a whip to the faithless people. But thy rejected Jeremiah¡Çs appeal. Instead they arrested and imprisoned him. Nonetheless encouraging words of God came to Jeremiah in jail. ; - ¡ÈPeople of Israel, I will build you up again, and you will be rebuilt. You will pick up your tambourines again and dance with those who are joyful.You will plant vineyards again on the hills around Samaria. The farmers will plant them and enjoy their fruit.(Jeremiah 31:4-5 )

Jeremiah predicted the desolation of the nation at first. He never had intention to give the people falsely comfortable prophecies. He transmitted messages of God authentically even though they were very harsh. And he said that Babylonia would capture Jerusalem and destruct the Temple, then the House of David would temporary collapse. He tried to make the people face the fate given by God. It was the only way to kneel before God and repent. Indeed, there was no means to receive the mercy but to cry for God.

But the people didn¡Çt listened to him and relied on the alliance with Egypt to fight against Babylonia. But Babylonian forces invaded in Judah and seized Jerusalem successfully. The Holy City was destructed and burned entirely. Streets in the City were filled with dead bodies, as the prophet predicted.

After all, the whole Israel perished and Jerusalem turned into a ruin. The reign of the House of David was interrupted. The people were driven to despair of the future. But at that very moment, God gave a new and hopeful message to Jeremiah, today¡Çs invocation verse. God promised them a new agreement or covenant in it, which shouldn¡Çt be a reinstatement of the old one. The old agreement was ultimately abolished because ; - ¡ÈMore than anything else, a person’s mind is evil and cannot be healed.¡É (Jeremiah 17:9)

Restoration of the old one must be meaningless because humans were too sinful to respect it. The salvation was possible only by the mercy of God. And for the new one, God declared, ; - ¡ÈI will put my teachings in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.(Jeremiah 31:33)

Hearts and minds of human beings will be reborn in order that the promise realizes. Then it came true in Jesus Christ, as the New Testament. Jesus declared that to the Twelves at the table of the Last Supper, ; - ¡ÈThis cup is the new agreement that God makes with his people. This new agreement begins with my blood which is poured out for you.¡É(Luke 22:20)

The new agreement was singed with Jesus¡Ç blood shed on the Cross. But it must come only after the total abolishment of sinful human entity. To reach at the Cross, we must look at courageously our real nature.

A Japanese Pastor Yoshio Enomono said in his commentary on 2 Kings 25 * (ISBN-10: 4079329407 / ISBN-13: 978-4079329408):
— The most important thing for our life is to understand correctly what happen in this real world around us. For that purpose, we need to keep our eyes on God who leads the history. Only in that way, we can keep having hope in any hard circumstances. —

After the earth quake and tsunami in the north-eastern region of Japan, we are living in difficult conditions. Many of secondary problems were also generated by excessive purchase of necessities or deformed and exaggerated informations about radiations. In that disastrous time, it is very helpful to read Jeremiah and Ezekiel which teach us to keep hope despite the fear of national calamity. The faith of the prophets remained stable regardless of crisis of the nation. Now we give thanks to God especially for giving the chance to read this Book of Kings.