How very sad it is to see the sons of Josiah bring back to Israel the dreadful evils that been so thoroughly destroyed by their father. Josiah had not only destroyed the idolatrous altars of Ahaz and Manasseh, his forefathers, but had also dealt with the evil brought in by Jeroboam, and had even removed from the land what Solomon had introduced at the instigation of his foreign wives. In addition to repairing and cleansing the house of Jehovah, the good king Josiah had restored the worship of the Lord in his great passover feast, that priests, Levites and people all joining in the celebrations of that memorable time.
The godly influence of Josiah had affected for the time the priests, the Levites and the people, but his own sons do not seem to have been impressed by the life and deeds of their father. Had Josiah been able to foresee the evil ways of his sons he would have been compelled to say with David, “My house is not so with God.” The evil ways of the sons of Aaron, the sons of Eli, the sons of Samuel, and the sons of Josiah, give a solemn warning to every godly father to give special attention to his own house, lest the evils he abhors and condemns in others should arise in the members of his own family.
Jehoahaz
When Josiah died “the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s stead” (2 Kings 23:30). Jehoahaz was not the eldest son of Josiah, Eliakim was older, but Jehoahaz was the popular choice, and although he only reigned for three months, this short space of time sufficed to manifest what was in the heart of the king, for the Scripture says, “And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.” Did not the choice of the king by the people show what was in the hearts of the people? It seems plain that even in the latter days of Josiah they had departed in heart from following the Lord their God, and in the language of the New Testament they had left their first love.
Jehoahaz was twenty three years old when his father died, so was old enough to understand what he was doing in departing from what had marked the reign of his father. Although only about ten years old when the great work of cleansing and repairing the temple was undertaken, and the great passover celebrated, Jehoahaz could not but have been aware of these great events, and of all that his father had done for the honour of the Name of Jehovah, and whatever departure there may have been with the people, it is expressly said of Josiah, he “turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.”
It is hardly to be supposed that the decision to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord was a sudden one, and it certainly suggests that there were evil influences at work even in the royal household before Josiah died. We are not told who were responsible for this evil influence upon the princes, but it seems certain that as soon as the godly influence of Josiah was removed the evil at once reared its head. The presence of godly Josiah had kept the evil in check, but it was evidently there in the hearts of the people, and in the hearts of the royal princes, ready to take control whenever the opportunity presented itself.
The Lord was not slow to make His displeasure of the evil of Jehoahaz, for “Pharaoh-nechoh put him in bands at Riblah…and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there” (verses 33, 34). Josiah’s last act in opposing Pharaoh-nechoh gave that monarch the occasion to interfere with the affairs of Israel, but the Lord used it for the chastisement of the king and of His wayward people. God often uses the very failures of His people to bring about their ultimate blessing, but He can also use their failures in discipline to rebuke their waywardness.
Jehoiakim
When Pharaoh deposed Jehoahaz, he put his elder brother Eliakim on the throne, and changed his name to Jehoiakim, the former meaning “God is setting up,” and the latter “Jah sets up.” The king did not live up to either name, for it was not the Lord who had set him on his throne, it was the king of Egypt to whom he was subject, and, like his brother “he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done” (verse 37).
Being two years older than Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim would be somewhat more aware of what had taken place in the reign of his father, but his father’s piety had evidently left no impression on his wilful son. Was it possible that he was unaware of what his father had done when the book of the law was read to him? Josiah, on hearing the words of the book which had been discovered in the house of the Lord, rent his clothes, and sent to enquire of the Lord, saying, “for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book” (2 Kings 22:11–13).
How very different was the attitude of Jehoiakim to the words of the roll of Jeremiah that proclaimed anew the judgment that would befall His unfaithful people. Instead of rending his garments as Josiah had done, after three or four leaves had been read, the king “cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed” (Jer. 36:23). The foolish and profane king might cut the roll, but he could not set aside the divine judgments that were written on it. Little did he think that the very words of the roll, and his wicked action, would be read by millions of people throughout the world thousands of years after he was dead.
About a hundred years before Jehoiakim came to the throne, the good king Hezekiah very unwisely showed to the ambassadors of Babylon the treasures of his house, and Isaiah the prophet came to him and said, “Hear the word of the Lord. Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left, says the Lord” (2 Kings 20:16-17). The time was rapidly approaching for the fulfilment of this prophecy, for in the days of Jehoiakim “came up Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon,” and “carried of the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon,” having put the king “in fetters, to carry him to Babylon” (2 Chr. 36:6-7).
Although Jehoiakim was put in fetters to be taken to Babylon, it would seem that he died before he reached Babylon, or it may be even before he left the land, but there is no mention of his burial. Within a year of his death the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled, for the king of Babylon came and besieged Jerusalem, “and he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and all the treasures of the king’s house” (2 Kings 24:10–13).
God’s judgment on the profane Jehoiakim was not only carried out by the king of Babylon, for “the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon” (2 Kings 24:2). This divine judgment was not only for the sins of Jehoiakim, but for the sins of earlier generations, even as it is written in verse 3, “Surely at the commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah, to remove them out of His sight, for the sins of Manasseh…which the Lord would not pardon.” The piety of Josiah had delayed the divine judgment (2 Kings 22:15–20), but the impiety of his sons brought it on swiftly.
Zedekiah
The reign of Jehoiachin the son of Jehoiakim was a very short one, for after three months on the throne he was carried away to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, and “the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father’s brother king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah” (2 Kings 24:17). The name Mattaniah means “gift of the Lord,” but the king did not answer to his name, for “he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done” (verse 19). Zedekiah means “The Lord is might,” and the king proved that his evil doing, and the evil of his fathers, could not escape from the might of the God of Israel.
God used the very wickedness of king Zedekiah to carry out His will, “For through the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until He had cast them out from His presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon” (verse 20). How very wonderful are the ways of God! In this case He uses the evil of Israel, and especially that of their king, as the means of the executing of the judgment foretold. Another most wonderful case comes before us yet in an entirely different way, when God used the dreadful wickedness of Israel, and the rulers of the Jews, to secure His will and counsels for the blessing of the nation under the new covenant, and for the blessing of millions of the Gentiles, even as it is written in Acts 2:23, “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.”
The awful judgment upon Zedekiah and his sons, and upon the nation, is given to us at the end of 2nd Kings, 2 Chronicles and Jeremiah, the threefold account making crystal clear the importance of these solemn events. It must have been dreadful for Zedekiah to see his sons slaughtered, and then to have his eyes put out before being carried in chains as a prisoner to Babylon. God had long delayed His judgments on the guilty nation and its rulers, but in the end He made a short and speedy end of the wickedness that had for so long despised His longsuffering and ignored His pleadings and solemn warnings by His prophets.
Moses, in Deuteronomy 32:15–26 had foreseen by the Spirit of God what would happen to Israel, and had written it in his Song before the people entered into the land of promise. Isaiah too, in speaking the word of the Lord to king Hezekiah had foretold what would happen (Isa. 39:6-7), and Jeremiah too, prophesying and warning Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, became the witness of these sorrowful events. Ezekiel, “among the captives by the river of Chebar” (Ezek. 1:1), although away from the land of Israel, in the visions of God saw the glory departing from the temple and the city, and the awful wickedness that brought at last the righteous judgment of God upon the guilty nation (Ezek. 8 – 9).
As the curtain falls upon the captivity of the nation, a ray of divine light and grace is revealed, for “Evil-merodach king of Babylon in the first year of his reign lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison, and spake kindly unto him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon” (Jer. 52:31-32), a sure indication of what the last end of Israel would be. Moreover, Ezekiel having in vision witnessed the reluctant departure of the divine glory from God’s house (Ezek. 43:1–5; 44:4).
The contemplation of God’s ways with His people Israel enables us to apprehend something of the meaning of the words of Paul, “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God” (Rom. 11:22), and also of what is written in verses 33, 34, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been His counsellor?”
R. 27.5.69