Lessons from Judah’s Last Kings
THE readings for the first four days of the week conclude Second Chronicles, beginning with chapter 24, and dealing wholly with Judah, covering the reigns of Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. Then come the destruction of Jerusalem and the fulness of the captivity to Babylon. THESE chapters are filled with wonderful lessons of the awfulness of sin; the sure judgments which sooner or later follow, as well as God’s wonderful mercy in pardoning His people when they return to Him. A striking example of wickedness is given us in Manasseh, and a marvelous manifestation of God’s mercy in the pardon of the repentant king. DURING the reigns of these last kings from Josiah onward God’s faithful prophet in Jerusalem was Jeremiah. His home was in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, who belonged to the tribe of Levi and to the priestly family. The scope of his priesthood is outlined in the first three verses of his prophecy. The time of his prophecy was from about 629 before Christ to 588. He was called to the prophetic office when a young man. Unlike some of our modern prophets, he did not feel himself qualified to do the work that God gave him to do, and by expressions which he uses he shrank from it all the way through. It was an awful task to which God called him, pointing out the sins of Judah and continually giving them reproof after reproof until his own heart seemed to be constantly immersed in a fountain of tears. He is well called the weeping prophet. The reader who sees in the Old Testament Scriptures what the Lord in the New Testament teaches is there,—that they were written for our learning,—will notice again and again that some of the prophecies of Israel in those days apply to the professed people of God now, and that the judgments pronounced against sin then are applicable in larger measure now. It is good to know also that the same God who was willing to pardon then is as willing to pardon now.