Q. The Last Four Kings 36:1-21

The sovereignty of the Davidic kings over Judah had ended. Instead of working throughthem as His instruments Yahweh was now working onthem in discipline. He used other more powerful kings and kingdoms to punish His people. The temple motif in Chronicles also climaxes in this section with its destruction.

 1. Jehoahaz 36:1-4

In these few verses the will of the king of Egypt contrasts with the will of Judah's people. Whereas the people still held out hope that a descendant of David would lead them to the great glories predicted for David's greatest Son (e.g., Ps. 2), such was not to be the case then. Other empires now dominated Judah's affairs. God had given His people over into their hands in discipline (cf. Deut. 28:32-57). This king of Judah rather than lifting the Davidic dynasty to its greatest glories ended his life as a prisoner in Egypt, the original prison-house of Israel.

 2. Jehoiakim 36:5-8

Not only did the Babylonians take Jehoiakim captive to Babylon, but they also took some of the glory of the temple and of the God it represented with him.

"Taking temple objects was common in times such as this, as it represented the complete military and religious conquest of a city (cf. Dan 1:1-2; Ezra 1:7)."¹⁰²

Jehoiakim's wickedness did nothing to retard the inevitable conquest of Jerusalem. Judah's captivity was one step closer as Babylon replaced Egypt as the controller of God's people.

 3. Jehoiachin 36:9-10

Like his father Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin was under Nebuchadnezzar's thumb. He too suffered deportation to Babylon, and with him went more of the glory of Israel.

 4. Zedekiah 36:11-21

In Zedekiah's reign Judah bottomed out spiritually. The king refused to humble himself before either Yahweh or Nebuchadnezzar even though God repeatedly sent messages and messengers urging him to do so. Hardness of heart now characterized the Davidic king as it had characterized the Pharaoh of the Exodus. God humbled this king against his will as He had previously humbled that Pharaoh.

The last verses of this section are very sermonic (vv. 14-21). Yet the Chronicler did not set them off as a sermon but caused them to flow out of what he had said about Zedekiah. The writer gave reasons for the conquest of Jerusalem and the exile of the Israelites. The burning of the temple symbolized the end of God's glory and presence among His people in the land that He had given them to occupy.

"What constitutes the greatest evil for the Chronicler--and it is a theme that is taken up elsewhere in the Bible--is not wrongdoing in and of itself, but wrongdoing in defiance of the clear knowledge of what is right (Mark 12:1-2; Luke 16:31; Isa. 1:2f.)."¹⁰³

"The real tragedy of the exile was not the removal of the people nor even the utter destruction of the city and the temple. It was the departure of their God from their midst, an absence symbolized in one of Ezekiel's visions by the movement of the Shekinah from the temple to the summit of the Mount of Olives (Ezek. 11:23)."¹⁰⁴

God had descended on the temple in a cloud. Now He left it in smoke. Had the Chronicler ended here there would have been little hope for the future. He justified God's treatment of His vice-regent amply. The returned exiles could not accuse Yahweh of being unfair or impatient. Rather His grace stands out, though it had now run out.

"The fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. meant the loss of the three major mainstays of Israelite life: temple, monarchy, and land."¹⁰⁵