the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 2 of 5
2 Chronicles 36:1-14
As a whole, the people of Judah had not followed Josiah’s example. Many signs indicated this. They had been forced to obey the law. At the time of the Passover, they had shown far less joy and spontaneity than at Hezekiah’s Passover. It was the king and the leaders who had to provide the sacrifices (2 Chronicles 35:7-9). Now that the faithful Josiah has been taken away, now that the righteous one has been "taken away from the evil to come" (Isaiah 57:1), there is no longer anything to stop the LORD from carrying out His judgment against Judah. And things happen thick and fast – four kings succeed each other: Jehaohaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah; each one was worse than the former. Their rebellious attitude gave first the Egyptians then the Babylonians the opportunity to intervene in the affairs of the small kingdom. This is how on three occasions both the objects from the temple and the people suffer the same fate, being carried off in part to Babylon. The verses from v. 14 onwards underline the fact that the priests and the people share the responsibility of their kings in the judgment which they receive.
