The Revolving Door of Rebellion Text: 2 Kings 24:6-9
Introduction: The Illusions of Autonomy
We come now to a grim and dreary section of Judah's history. The nation is on its last legs, gasping for air, and the kings are little more than temporary placeholders in a kingdom that is already under the sentence of death. The narrative moves quickly, like a stone rolling downhill, picking up speed as it nears the bottom. We see kings rise and fall in a matter of months. The great geopolitical tectonic plates are shifting, with the Babylonian empire grinding the Egyptian empire into dust, and Judah is caught right in the middle, a small, rebellious vassal state trying to play the great powers off one another.
This is a story of political maneuvering, of international relations, of military strategy. But that is all on the surface. Underneath, this is a story about the covenant. It is a story about a holy God and His unholy people. It is a story about the consequences of sin, which are as reliable and predictable as the law of gravity. What we are witnessing here is the final, pathetic death rattle of a nation that had for centuries determined to write its own story, define its own good, and worship its own gods. They wanted autonomy. And God, in His terrible judgment, is giving it to them. He is showing them what true autonomy, what life apart from Him, actually looks like. It looks like a revolving door of wicked kings, a three-month reign of futility, and the tramp of Babylonian boots on the horizon.
Our secular age believes that history is driven by impersonal economic forces or the grand ambitions of powerful men. But the Bible teaches us that history is a story, and God is the author. Kings and emperors are characters He writes into the script to accomplish His purposes. Nebuchadnezzar is not the ultimate power here; he is a tool, an axe in the hand of the Lord. The real conflict is not between Jerusalem and Babylon, but between Jerusalem and Yahweh. And when you go to war with God, you will always lose.
This short passage is a case study in the futility of generational sin. It shows us how rebellion becomes a family tradition, passed down from father to son like a cursed inheritance. It is a stark reminder that God's scales are just, His patience, while long, is not infinite, and His judgments are always righteous.
The Text
So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son became king in his place. And the king of Egypt did not go out of his land again, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates. Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. And he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that his father had done.
(2 Kings 24:6-9 LSB)
The Unceremonious Exit (v. 6)
The passage begins with the end of a king, recorded in a formula that can be deceptively placid.
"So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son became king in his place." (2 Kings 24:6)
The phrase "slept with his fathers" is a standard biblical euphemism for death, particularly for the kings of Israel and Judah. It speaks of a continuity, a gathering to one's people. But we must be careful not to read it as a statement of final salvation. It is a historical formula, not a theological verdict on his eternal state. The prophet Jeremiah gives us the grim details that the writer of Kings omits. Jeremiah prophesied that Jehoiakim would have the burial of a donkey, dragged and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem, unlamented (Jer. 22:18-19). He was a man who burned the word of God, and so God burned up his legacy. He dies, and the kingdom simply moves on. The crown passes from one head to another, but the rebellion against God remains firmly seated on the throne.
His son, Jehoiachin, takes his place. Here we see the principle of covenant succession. God established a dynastic succession through David, a promise that He would never lack a man to sit on the throne. But that promise was conditional on obedience. And what is being passed down here is not faithfulness, but a legacy of apostasy. The son steps into the father's shoes, and they are shoes that are walking on the broad path to destruction.
The Geopolitical Straightjacket (v. 7)
Verse 7 gives us the international context, and it shows us how God uses the nations to execute His purposes. He is the grand chess master, moving the kings and queens of the earth at His will.
"And the king of Egypt did not go out of his land again, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates." (2 Kings 24:7 LSB)
For decades, Judah had played a foolish and faithless game of triangulation. They were caught between two superpowers, Egypt to the south and whatever Mesopotamian power was dominant to the north, in this case, Babylon. Instead of trusting in Yahweh, their covenant Lord, they tried to secure their safety through political alliances. They would lean toward Egypt when Babylon seemed threatening, and then feign loyalty to Babylon when Egypt seemed weak. This is the essence of practical atheism. It is to confess faith in God on the Sabbath and then live the rest of the week as though the Egyptian army is more real and more powerful than the host of heaven.
But God has now checkmated them. The king of Egypt is neutered. Nebuchadnezzar had decisively defeated Pharaoh Neco at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 B.C., and this verse summarizes the result. Babylon now controls the entire Levant. There is no one to run to. Judah's political options have been stripped away. God has providentially removed their favorite idol, their political security blanket. When God means to discipline His people, He will often begin by kicking out the props they lean on instead of Him. He will wreck their economy, or expose their political saviors as frauds, or allow their military might to be humiliated. He does this to corner them, to leave them with no one to turn to but Him. But Judah's heart is so hard that even now, they will not turn.
A Blink of a Reign (v. 8)
Next, we are introduced to the new king, and his reign is notable only for its brevity.
"Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem." (2 Kings 24:8 LSB)
Jehoiachin comes to the throne at eighteen, a young man inheriting a kingdom on the brink of collapse. And he lasts a mere three months. This is not a reign; it is an internship in disaster. His brief tenure is a flashing red light, a divine exclamation point on the instability and futility of Judah's rebellion. God is demonstrating that He can raise up and put down kings with breathtaking speed. Their thrones are not secure; their crowns are loose. They are entirely at His mercy.
The text also makes a point of naming his mother, Nehushta. In the Davidic monarchy, the Queen Mother, the Gebirah, was an official and powerful position. She was often a key advisor to the king. By naming her, the text implicates her in the policies of her son's reign. It reminds us that sin is not just an individual affair; it is corporate. It is familial. This was a family business, and the family business was rebellion. Nehushta, daughter of Elnathan, a notable man from Jerusalem, was part of the corrupt establishment that was steering the nation into the abyss.
The Family Tradition (v. 9)
Finally, we get the divine evaluation of this short-lived king, and it is a damning and familiar refrain.
"And he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that his father had done." (2 Kings 24:9 LSB)
This is the spiritual epitaph for so many of Judah's kings. "He did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh." God is the one who evaluates. Public opinion does not matter. The king's self-assessment is irrelevant. History's judgment is secondary. The only thing that counts is what the Lord sees. And what He saw was evil.
But notice the standard of comparison: "according to all that his father had done." This is generational sin in its purest form. Jehoiachin had a choice. He could have seen the disaster of his father's reign, the failed rebellion, the looming threat of Babylon, and he could have repented. He could have turned back to the law of God, as his great-grandfather Josiah had done. But he did not. He simply continued the family tradition. He kept the business going.
This is a profound warning to us. Sins, when left unrepented, become patterns. They become habits. They become traditions. A father's private compromise becomes the son's public policy. A father's flirtation with idolatry becomes the son's official state religion. Jehoiachin did not have to invent new ways to be wicked; he just had to fail to repent of the old ways. He inherited his father's crown, and he inherited his father's sin. And he would soon inherit his father's judgment, only in a more severe and final form.
Conclusion: The Unraveling
What is the lesson for us in this dismal account of a three-month king? It is this: rebellion against God has a long fuse, but the explosion is certain. For generations, Judah had been stuffing gunpowder into the cracks of the covenant. They thought they were getting away with it. But the bill always comes due.
This is a picture of what happens when a people, a family, or a nation refuses to deal with its sin. The problems compound. The options narrow. The hole gets deeper. Jehoiakim passed his sin to Jehoiachin, and the result was not a stable continuation of rebellion, but an acceleration of judgment. The three-month reign shows us how quickly things can unravel when God removes His hand of blessing.
But even here, in this dark corner of history, there is a glimmer of the gospel. The line of David is not extinguished. Jehoiachin will be taken into exile, but he will live, and the royal line will continue through him, all the way down to a young virgin in Nazareth. God's judgment on these wicked kings is severe, but His covenant promise to David is more stubborn than their sin. He is judging the faithless shepherds in order to preserve the lineage of the one true Shepherd who was to come.
This passage forces us to ask what traditions we are passing down. Are we, like Jehoiakim, handing our children a legacy of compromise, of political trust instead of covenant faithfulness, of doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord? Or are we, by grace, breaking the cycle? We must see that every choice to continue in unrepentant sin is not just a personal failure; it is the act of handing a lit torch to the next generation. May God give us the grace to repent, to turn from the wicked ways of our fathers where necessary, and to build on a foundation of faithfulness, for the glory of the one true King, Jesus Christ.