Bible In One Year Day 190 (2 Kings 24, 2 Chronicles 35, Proverbs 8:22-36)

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Day 190: Judah is Overrun 

Agape Bible Study 
2 Kings 2 

2 Kings 23:36-24:6 ~ The reign of Jehoiakim in Judah (c. 609-598 BC) and the taking of royal prisoners

Without King Josiah's godly influence, the Kingdom of Judah was again caught up in pagan worship and Jeremiah, who found himself without political support, began to be persecuted by his own people (Jer 26:1-8). Nevertheless, he continued to speak against the evil practices of both the king and the people, even though such speech brought about the death of a fellow prophet (Jer 26:20-24). But Jeremiah remembered God's promise of His divine protection (Jer 1:18-19). He was, however, not alone. The ministry of the prophet Habakkuk is dated within the reign of King Jehoiakim.

Question: What is the significance of the innocent blood and Yahweh's resolve not to forgive such an offense? See Gen 4:10.
Answer: The blood of the innocent cries out to God for justice from the ground upon which it has been spilt and God, in His justice, will answer the cry until justice is satisfied.

It was in the third year of the reign of Josiah's son Jehoiakim that the Babylonians sent their army into the region and made Judah a vassal state. Jehoiakim raised taxes and made use of forced labor to raise the tribute the Babylonians demanded and to further his own interests, which Jeremiah criticized (Jer 22:13-19). It was the Babylonian incursion into territory that the Egyptians believed belonged to them that led the Egyptians to challenge the Babylonians at Carchemish in 605 BC. The Egyptians only maintained their control of Judah until their defeat by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. Jeremiah provided political commentary to the event in Jeremiah chapter 46:1-12.

Woodcut depicting Nebuchadnezzar II by 16th-century German engraver, painter and printmaker Georg Pencz, from a series of woodcuts titled Tyrants of the Old Testament

Nebuchadnezzar was the son of Nabopolassar, the dynasty founder who ruled Babylon from 626-605 BC. Dynasty XI of Babylon (Neo-Babylonian):

• Nabopolassar (dynasty founder) ruler 626-605 BC
• Nebuchadnezzar II ruler 605-562 BC
• Evil->Merodach ruled 562-560 BC
• Neriglissar ruled 560-556 BC
• Labasi-Merodach, a boy king who was placed on the throne in 556 BC and was murdered and replaced by Nabonidus who ruled 556-539 BC (the prophet Daniel served all these kings as a royal minister from Nebuchadnezzar to the new dynasty founder, Nabonidus).

Jehoiakim was forced to become a vassal for the Babylonians led by King Nebuchadnezzar II.

2 Kings 24:7 ~ The Ascendance of Babylon over the entire Near East

The defeat of the Egyptians at Carchemish in the late spring of 605 made Nebuchadnezzar the master of Syria and the entire Levant down to the border with Egypt. A capable leader, Nebuchadnezzar II, conducted successful military campaigns in Syria and Phoenicia, forcing tribute from the Aramaeans at Damascus and the Phoenicians at Tyre and Sidon. He also conducted numerous campaigns in Asia Minor. Like the Assyrians, the Babylonians had to campaign yearly in order to control their colonies and vassal states.

2 Kings 24:8-9 ~ The Reign of Jehoiachin in Judah (c. 598-579 BC)

In 601 BC Nebuchadnezzar's army invaded Egypt. His failed attempt to conquer Egypt was probably the reason Jehoiakim unwisely stopped paying to tribute to Babylon (24:1b-2). At first local Babylonian garrisons and vassal troops harassed Judah, but later the Babylonian army was sent to punish Judah and Jerusalem came under siege. It was at this point that Jehoiakim died and his son Jehoiachin took the throne in time to surrender to Nebuchadnezzar three months later.

2 Kings 24:10-17 ~ Another Babylonian deportation

In 599 BC, Nebuchadnezzar invaded Arabia and defeated the Arab kings at Qedar. In 598 BC, he invaded Judah and captured Jerusalem, deposing king Jehoiachin and replacing him with his uncle. Jeremiah wrote a scathing rebuke of Jehoiachin, prophesizing his death and his mother's death in Babylon (Jer 22:20-30). There was also another great deportation in 597 BC. Note that Jehoiachin is called Jechoniah in 1 Chronicles 3:16. It is by that name that he will be identified in Matthew's genealogy in 1:11.

2 Kings 24:18-20 ~ Introduction to the reign of Zedekiah in Judah (c. 598-587 BC)

Egyptian and Babylonian armies fought each other for control of the Near East throughout much of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, and this may have encouraged king Zedekiah to revolt. Nebuchadnezzar invaded Egypt in 568-567 BC during the reign of Pharaoh Amasis. The prophecy of the invasion was made by Jeremiah in Jeremiah 43:8-13 and his commentary is in 46:13-28. The Book of Jeremiah lists three deportations out of Judah.

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A Daily Defense

DAY 190 The Whore of Babylon

CHALLENGE: “The Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon.”

DEFENSE: The whore of Babylon is described in detail in Revelation 16:19–19:4.

Babylon was a city in ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), but scholars recognize the use of “Babylon” in Revelation as a symbolic designation of another city (cf. 11:8; also cf. 1 Peter 5:13, where Peter, who is known to have been in Rome, refers to being in “Babylon”):

• The whore is depicted persecuting Christians (cf. 17:6, 14).

• She is seated on a beast with seven heads, which are identified as seven hills (17:9) and seven kings (17:10).

• The beast also has ten horns, which hate the whore, attack her, and burn her with fire (17:16).

• The whore is said to be “the great city which has dominion over the kings of the earth” (17:18).

Most scholars see these as pointing to the ancient, pagan city of Rome, which persecuted Christians, which was built on seven hills, which had a line of emperors plausibly identified with the beast (see Day 203), and which was the capital of the major empire of the day.

Some scholars have seen the clues as pointing to another city—Jerusalem—which also persecuted Christians in the first century, whose authorities were allied with and supported by the Roman empire (and thus “seated” on the beast), and which was attacked and burned by an alliance of Roman and other troops in A.D. 70, as Jesus predicted (Mark 13). Further, Revelation 11:8 speaks of “the great city” where the “Lord was crucified,” the Old Testament speaks of Jerusalem as a whore (Isa. 1:21; Ezek. 16:1, 15–35), and the whore is the antithesis of the bride of Christ, the “New Jerusalem” (Rev. 21:2–22:5), suggesting the old Jerusalem.

Both identifications are possible, but neither fits the Catholic Church. Indeed, according to the standard anti-Catholic theory, the Catholic Church did not exist in the first century and thus could not persecute the apostles, as the whore did (Rev. 18:20).

More fundamentally, Revelation was meant to be understood by the original audience as describing what would happen soon (Rev. 1:1). The audience would have no way of understanding the whore as a future Church rather than one of the persecuting cities of their own day.

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist