Short Daily Devotional For Our Day

SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 2022

TEXT: 2 Kings 25:1-12

1. So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. He encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it.

2. The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

3. By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat.

4. Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Babylonians were surrounding the city. They fled toward the Arabah,

5. but the Babylonian army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered,

6. and he was captured. He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where sentence was pronounced on him.

7. They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackels and took him to Babylon.

8. On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar commander of the imperial guard, an official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

9. He set fire to the temple of the LORD, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down.

10. The whole Babylonian army under the commander of the imperial guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.

11. Nebuchadnezzar the commander of the guard carried into exile the people who remained in the city, along with the rest of the populace and those who had gone over to the king of Babylon.

12. But the commander left behind some of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields.

(New International Version)

TOPIC: JUDAH HAS FALLEN

Soon after King Josiah was killed in battle by the Egyptians (2 Kings 23:29), Jehoahaz took over as king. Unfortunately, he was an evil king. Jehoiakim ruled after him. But, like his predecessor, he was evil and it was under his reign that Babylon began invading Judah. King Nebuchadnezzar defeated Jehoiakim and made him his puppet over Judah.

Other evil things included Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, all of whom served as puppets of Nebuchadnezzar. Since these leaders failed to live righteously and led the people further into evil, God finally “thrust them from His presence” under the reign of Zedekiah and thus fulfilled His prophetic pronouncement made to King Josiah (2 Kings 24:20).

The final blow came after Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem for over two years. Broken down by hunger, the people were easily defeated and most of them taken into captivity in Babylon.

Certainly, God is gracious and merciful to forgive and restore anyone who genuinely repents of his/her sins and returns to Him in righteousness. Unfortunately, Judah refused to return and so had to bear the consequences of their deliberate choices.

QUESTION: How often have you deceptively thought that you can escape the judgment of God in spite of your deliberate choice to live a disobedient and rebellious life?

PRAYER: Father, please forgive me and restore me to Your fellowship and safety, in Jesus name, Amen.