Captivity of Judah

    Jehoiakim was, for his sins and the sins of the kingdom, subjected providentially to the king of Babylon. But the sins of Israel called for greater vengeance. The king rebelled, and the nations are let loose on his people. "And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by his servants the prophets. Surely at the commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did; and also for all the innocent blood that he shed: (for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood;) which the Lord would not pardon." The assailing nations are all urged on by ambition and selfish motives. Yet they are all going at the bidding of the Lord, though he had given them no express command. Why are they now excited? Why are they all excited at once? Why now more than formerly? Why were they now successful, when they had so often failed? Jehoiakim succeeds to the throne, and sins like his father: Nebuchadnezzar comes and carries him, with the principal part of the people, to Babylon. Zedekiah succeeds, madly rebels, and the captivity is completed. "For through the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon." All this is effected by the Lord in a way of Providence. He works here as he is every day working in the kingdoms of the world. Zedekiah's rebellion, and madly persevering obstinacy, was his own work, yet it was "through the anger of the Lord."