Daily Reading
Daily Thought
A siege is slow relentless death, and, in the original Hebrew, the fall of Jerusalem is told in one long methodical twelve-verse sentence, 2Kings 25:1-12. (English adds periods to ease the read.) “The ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month” stretches “till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah, on the ninth day of the fourth month” and in eighteen months all is done. The wall is breached, the Chaldean army rushes in, and the last king of Judah is chased into the plains of Jericho, the same place where it all began when Joshua fought the battle of Jericho and the people shouted and the trumpets blew and the walls came tumbling down (Joshua 6).
There is no emotion in this account. God’s prophet Jeremiah weeps over the fall of Jerusalem in his book of Lamentations, but here in 2Kings is the dispassionate voice of a court reporter recounting the execution of judgment. Judah had her good kings, but not enough, and the country is judged for the whole of her sins. Josiah’s reign (2Kings 22-23) had been a brief righteous reprieve, but he was followed by Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin and Zedekiah and a nation cannot endure evil upon evil upon evil. So Judah was taken into exile out of its land (2Kings 25:21).
“The wages of sin is death” (Romans 3:23) for nations, as well as for you and me. The story seems over, but fairy tales are not the only stories that end with “they lived happily ever after.” “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). There will come to Israel and the world a new king, a righteous one whose reign will not be brief, but forever, bringing with him “the free gift of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
Daily Prayer
My God, You are righteous and good and holy and just. I am not. Created in Your image, I chose my own way rather than yours, and my sin led to judgment and that judgment is death. There was such hopelessness in life without You. Thank You for rescuing me, for delivering me from death, returning me to hope, and giving me a life that overflows with Your love.
May my thankfulness be evident in a life changed by Your love. May I walk in Your truth, full of grace, sharing Your goodness by word and deed with all who cross my path. May I seek opportunities to share Your love in the same way You sought me. Thank You for so great a salvation, such a wonderful Savior.
Amen