PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: 2 Kings 25
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“The king of babylon released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison.” (2 Kings 25:27)
Jerusalem is destroyed, most people are exiled or killed, only the poor remain.
The puppet king is killed, and the remaining people flee to Egypt out of fear.
This is pretty much absolute destruction, the end of God’s Israel plan.
But the story teller knows that there is more to the story.
These stories were recorded for those who survived the exile, and returned to the land.
Imagine a beautiful garden totally bulldozed, and only a barren field remaining.
And then you see a small shoot growing up, not a weed but an oak seedling.
This is how the author reminds people of hope, through Jehoiachin’s release.
Everything may seem ruined, hopes dashed and dreams dissolved… and then hope.
“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” (Isaiah 11:1)
It was a shorter time, but the time between Jesus’s death and resurrection was like this.
Today’s reading ends with the hope that death and defeat are never the last word.
Resurrection always follows, somehow and some way, as seen in Jehoiachin and Jesus.
This is encouraging as we struggle through this pandemic – this will end one day!
PRAYER
Lord, thank you for this hope. I don’t know when or how long, but I am confident that this will end, as will all other evils in the world.
Ruined – now rubble – and many executed! The city of Jerusalem and the temple plundered and destroyed – all except some of the very poor – taken into captivity. The consequences of their disregard for the God of their fathers – their heritage – now finally and totally meted out. Yet not forgotten – a terrible lesson of conquest – also know in our own history. Even now a virus humbles us as a nation – our economy and the life especially of all our vulnerable at its mercy. Lest we forget! O Lord forgive us for our own arrogance that we think we can make it on our own! Yet in Jesus God’s mercy and grace is our hope and our joy, peace and comfort! Touched by the gift of your Holy Spirit!