AP

2 Kings 24:17-20  [Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon] made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah.  Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years.  His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.  He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done. It was because of the LORD’s anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end he thrust them from his presence.  Now Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

It is interesting from our point of view in God’s Salvation History to read through how things worked out for God’s people under the rule of their various Kings, especially when the Prophet/Judge Samuel had expressed such displeasure at the beginning that they had even wanted a King instead of submitting to their LORD’s rule (1 Samuel 8:6-8b).

The Sovereign LORD, of course, remained in control during all this time (cf verses 2-4), and the people suffered the consequences of the wickedness and disobedience of various Kings, among whom were Jehoiachin and Zedekiah (Mattaniah).  It is significant that the given name, Mattaniah, means ‘Gift of the LORD’, and there is irony in the fact that Nebuchadnezzar, the conquering King, changed it to ‘Zedekiah’, ‘the LORD is Righteous’.  Did wicked, ruthless Nebuchadnezzar have an inkling that he was to be the ‘instrument’ of the LORD’s righteous judgement against the inexcusable apostasy of Jerusalem and Judah?

For us, it is in the context of all this that we gain a clearer picture of why our loving God finally had to send his own Son to be the Perfect Sacrifice for sin, and the True King of his people, and the One in whom alone he could fulfil all the eternal Covenant Promises he had given to Abraham, Moses and David.  We might well ask, with Dora Greenwell,  “And was there then no other way for God to take?  I cannot say, I only bless him, day by day, who saved me through my Saviour.  That he would leave his place on high and come for sinful man to die; you count it strange?  So once did I before I knew my Saviour.  And O that he fulfilled might see the travail of his soul in me, and with his work contented be, as I with my dear Saviour.  Yes, living, dying: let me bring my strength, my solace from this spring: that he who lives to be my King once died to be my Saviour.”  This is the only way God could show himself to be both loving and just, and still fulfil his promises.

We feel for the Apostle Paul, a Jew, when he wrote to the Christians in Rome: “Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.  For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.  Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. (Romans 10:1-4)

– Bruce Christian