After King Josiah died his son Jehoahaz was made king. His reign only lasted 3 months because King Necho of Egypt took him captive, imposed tax on the land and made Jehoahaz's brother, Eliakim, king in his place. He also changed Eliakim's name to Jehoiakim.
Jehoiakim did not follow the LORD during his reign, and after 11 years King Nebuchadnezzer of Babylon invaded and took him prisoner and the temple vessels (containers/jugs/cups etc), which he put in his own Babylonian temple.
Jehoiakim's son, Jehoiachin, was next made king but after an ungodly reign of only 3 months and 10 days he too was taken captive to Babylon along with additional temple vessels.
Lastly Nebuchadnezzer put Jehoiachin's 21 year old uncle, Zedekiah, on the throne. His reign lasted 11 years during which he didn't follow the LORD and disregarded God's warnings spoken by Jeremiah the prophet. All of the priests and people likewise ignored God and the messages he sent to them.
Verse 16 reads, 'But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy'.
How sad and solemn!
This people to whom Canaan had been given - a people who God had chosen for his own special people, delivered out of Egypt, cared for in the wilderness, forgiven time after time - a people who even now God kept warning 'because he had compassion on his people' (verse 15), had tried God until they had got to a place of no return. Till there was no remedy.
We are told in Galatians 6:7 that 'whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap', and the destruction of first Israel, and now Judah and Jerusalem (in remainder of this chapter) were the results of years of disobedience to God.
This makes me think of two things:
1. Isn't it amazing how even though God knew his people would forsake him it didn't change his planned love and providential care towards them? He still saved them from the tyranny in Egypt and brought them into the land of Canaan.
Today isn't it amazing that even though God knows how confessing, repenting sinners will still go on to commit more sin that he still loves them?
God does not think like us. He tells us, 'for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts' (Isaiah 55:9). The Apostle Paul writes, 'God commendeth (demonstrates) his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us' (Romans 5:8).
2. In this time of history there was a return to Jerusalem after 70 years of exile, but at the end of time and our lives, there will be no return. We will each be as the tree in Ecclesiastes 11: 3:'... in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be'.
At the end of time men will be in such terror of God that they will say 'to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? Revelations 6:16-17
How terrible and solemn that there will come a time when there will be no remedy - it will be too late to turn to God and ask for forgiveness. As in the parable of the 10 virgins, to the 5 who did not have oil in their lamps - or grace in their hearts - the door will be shut. Forever.
As in Matthew 25:41 the Lord will say 'Depart from me, ye cursed'. How awful!
Dear reader, does this make you anxious or uncomfortable? Does it bother you if you are out of the secret of the safety found in Christ? Is it such an awful thought that you try to push it away from your mind, to think about nicer things? Or, do you tell yourself, that one day you'll really sit down and address this problem, but not right now?
Jesus, is the Great Physician. He heals us from all our sins. He provides the remedy for our disobedience and disregard of God - his own precious blood.
If you can't say that you know the remedy for your sins, that you are sheltering beneath the blood of the Lord Jesus but this is something you long to know, then tell him, and ask him for faith to lay hold on his promises.
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