Fall of a Kingdom

 

    Every powerful kingdom thinks there is no way they will ever fall.  However, history has proven that every kingdom looses their status at one point or another.  It doesn't mean that they will not regain their power, but for a while everyone looses it.  No one or nation is invincible.  

    The so called king Zedekiah rebelled against the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar.  Israel was no longer the strongest nation.  Once the twelve tribes had separated, they had lost their full strength.  They just did not see that yet.  After generations of living in sin with an unrepentant heart, God was letting them see just how far they had fallen.  He used Nebuchadnezzar as His tool to crush Judah's spirit and show them just how far they had fallen.

    King Nebuchadnezzar laid siege on Jerusalem for two years.  When the famine came it broke the soldier's strength.  The enemy broke through the once strong walls of the City of David.  The once strong people were now fleeing for their lives.  Babylon pursued them and King Zedekiah was overtaken in the plains of Jericho.  

    King Zedekiah's men fled leaving him to face his rebellion on his own.  His punishment was that he had to watch the Babylonians kill his sons in front of him, then they took his eyes.  His sons deaths would the permanently burned into his mind as the last thing he saw.  

    King Nebuchadnezzar then burned Jerusalem and finished breaking down all the city's walls.  It left the city itself in destitute and the remaining people vulnerable for whomever may come with no way to defend themselves.  The Babylonians gathered all the Hebrews they found and exiled all of them, but the poorest who would stay to be their laborers (slaves).  

    The Babylonians appoint Gedaliah to be the governor over what remained of Jerusalem and it's people.  He only survived seven months in his role before being assassinated.  King Jehoiachin was released after 37 years in his exiled prison.  He lived pretty well for the remainder of his life.

1 Kings 25