The God Who Gives You Up Text: 2 Kings 24:17-20
Introduction: The End of the Line
We come now to the end of a long and sordid business. The kingdom of Judah, the last remaining vestige of David's line, is circling the drain. The northern kingdom of Israel was carted off by the Assyrians over a century before this, and now Judah's time has come. The Babylonians are God's instrument of judgment, and the final scene is playing out. We are witnessing the death rattle of a nation.
It is important for us to understand that this did not happen overnight. This was not a sudden calamity that befell an otherwise faithful people. This was the end result of a long, slow, and deliberate apostasy. For centuries, God had sent prophet after prophet to warn them, to plead with them, to call them back to the covenant. But they stopped their ears, hardened their hearts, and chased after every god on the Mesopotamian menu. They had broken the covenant in every way imaginable. They had become, as God says through Jeremiah, treacherous.
What we are reading here is not just ancient history. It is a case study in the deconstruction of a nation. It is a lesson in the unwavering justice of God. Our generation has a very sentimental, syrupy view of God. We like to imagine Him as a celestial grandfather who pats us on the head and says, "Boys will be boys." But the God of the Bible is a consuming fire. His love is a holy love, which means His justice is an inflexible justice. He will not be mocked. A nation that sows the wind will reap the whirlwind, and Judah was about to reap a hurricane.
The man on the throne during this final implosion is a man named Zedekiah. He is the last king of Judah, a puppet king installed by a foreign power, and his story is a tragic illustration of what happens when God finally gives a people over to their own foolish rebellion.
The Text
Then the king of Babylon made his uncle Mattaniah king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah. Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. And he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. For through the anger of Yahweh this came about in Jerusalem and Judah until He cast them out from His presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
(2 Kings 24:17-20 LSB)
A Vassal King with a Pious Name (v. 17-18)
We begin with the political situation on the ground.
"Then the king of Babylon made his uncle Mattaniah king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah. Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah." (2 Kings 24:17-18)
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has just sacked Jerusalem and carried off the previous king, Jehoiachin, along with the best and brightest of the land. Now he needs someone to manage what's left, to collect the taxes and keep the peace. He chooses the deposed king's uncle, a man named Mattaniah, and installs him as a puppet. To seal the deal, Nebuchadnezzar gives him a new name: Zedekiah.
This is a classic power move by an imperial conqueror. Changing a man's name is an assertion of ownership. Pharaoh did it to Joseph. The Babylonian official did it to Daniel and his friends. But the name itself is dripping with irony. "Mattaniah" means "Gift of Yahweh." Nebuchadnezzar changes it to "Zedekiah," which means "Righteousness of Yahweh." Here is a faithless king, a vassal to a pagan emperor, installed on a throne that is under the judgment of God, and he is walking around with a name that means "The Lord is my Righteousness."
This is a picture of what all false religion is. It is an attempt to keep the outward forms, the pious names, and the religious vocabulary, while gutting it of all substance. Zedekiah is a hollow man, a placeholder. He has the title of king, but not the authority. He has a righteous name, but not a righteous character. He is the perfect leader for a people who have a form of godliness but deny its power.
He is young, just twenty-one, and he will reign for eleven years. Eleven years of sitting on a time bomb. Eleven years of pretending to be in charge while the ground crumbled beneath his feet.
The Path of Least Resistance (v. 19)
Verse 19 gives us the spiritual assessment of his reign, and it is a grim and familiar refrain.
"And he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that Jehoiakim had done." (2 Kings 24:19 LSB)
This phrase, "he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh," is the standard epitaph for most of the kings of Israel and Judah. It is a covenantal indictment. It means he broke the law of God, led the people into idolatry, and violated the terms of their relationship with their divine King. The standard of measurement is not a Gallup poll or the opinion of the surrounding nations. The standard is "the sight of Yahweh." God is the ultimate reality, the ultimate judge, and His evaluation is the only one that matters.
Notice the specific comparison: "according to all that Jehoiakim had done." Jehoiakim was Zedekiah's older brother, a previous king who was notoriously wicked. He was the one who took Jeremiah's scroll, the written Word of God, cut it up with a penknife, and threw it in the fire (Jeremiah 36). This is the man Zedekiah chose to imitate. He didn't have to. He could have looked to his father, Josiah, who was the last righteous king, a great reformer who brought the nation back to God, however briefly. But he didn't. He chose the path of apostasy.
This is how sin works. It is often easier to continue in the well-worn ruts of rebellion than it is to strike out on the hard path of repentance. Zedekiah was a weak man, a follower. He followed the wicked nobles, he followed the false prophets, and he followed the rebellious spirit of the age. He did not have the backbone to stand for what was right. He simply managed the decline.
Sovereign Abandonment (v. 20a)
Now we come to the most terrifying verse in this passage. It pulls back the curtain and shows us the divine reality behind the political and moral decay.
"For through the anger of Yahweh this came about in Jerusalem and Judah until He cast them out from His presence." (2 Kings 24:20a LSB)
Let that sink in. All of this, the wickedness of the kings, the rebellion of the people, the impending destruction, "came about" because of the anger of Yahweh. This is a staggering statement of God's sovereignty in judgment. This is not to say that God forced Zedekiah to sin, or that Zedekiah is not responsible for his own evil actions. Not at all. Zedekiah did what he wanted to do. But the text tells us that God's holy wrath was the ultimate cause behind the historical situation.
What does this mean? It means that God's judgment does not always take the form of lightning bolts from a clear blue sky. Often, God's most severe judgment is simply to give people what they want. It is the judgment of abandonment. The apostle Paul describes this very thing in Romans 1. Because men "did not see fit to acknowledge God," what did God do? "God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done" (Romans 1:28). He gave them over to their lusts, to their foolishness, to their own self-destructive desires.
This is what happened to Judah. They had been stiff-arming God for centuries. They insisted on their idols, their immorality, their rebellion. And so, in His anger, God finally said, "Alright. Have it your way." He gave them a weak, vacillating king. He gave them counselors who told them what they wanted to hear. He gave them over to a spirit of political delusion. The ultimate purpose of this divine anger was clear: "until He cast them out from His presence." The covenant blessings had been presence with God. The ultimate covenant curse was exile from that presence. The lights were about to go out in Jerusalem.
The Final, Foolish Act (v. 20b)
The verse ends with the predictable result of this divine abandonment. Given enough rope, Zedekiah hangs himself and his entire nation.
"And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon." (2 Kings 24:20b LSB)
On the surface, this might sound like a noble, patriotic act. But in the context, it was sheer madness. The prophet Jeremiah, who was God's mouthpiece in Jerusalem at this very time, had been telling Zedekiah and the people one thing over and over again: submit to Babylon. Jeremiah told them that Babylon was God's instrument of judgment and that resisting them was tantamount to resisting God Himself (Jeremiah 27). To rebel was to commit national suicide.
But Zedekiah, prodded by his arrogant princes and the lying prophets, chose to listen to the voices of rebellion. He made an alliance with Egypt, breaking his oath to Nebuchadnezzar, and in so doing, sealed his nation's doom. This was the final act of defiance, the last twitch of a dying kingdom.
This rebellion was not an act of faith; it was an act of faithlessness. He was trusting in the arm of the flesh, in the chariots of Egypt, rather than in the word of the Lord through Jeremiah. When God has determined to judge a people, He often gives them leaders who make catastrophically foolish decisions. Their political calculations are unhinged from reality because they have first become unhinged from God.
Conclusion: The Presence and the Promise
The story of Zedekiah is a dark one. It ends with Jerusalem in flames, the temple destroyed, and the people dragged off into exile. It ends with God casting them out of His presence. And if that were the end of the story, it would be nothing but despair.
But this is precisely why the gospel is such glorious news. The story does not end in exile. God's judgment is real, but it is not His final word. Through the same prophet Jeremiah who warned of the exile, God also promised a New Covenant. He promised a day when He would write His law on their hearts and be their God, and they would be His people (Jeremiah 31:33).
The curse of the old covenant was being cast out of God's presence. But Jesus Christ, the true and final king, came to bear that curse for us. On the cross, He cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He was cast out from the Father's presence so that we, who deserved eternal exile, might be brought near. He endured the ultimate judgment so that we might receive the ultimate grace.
We live in a nation that is, in many ways, recapitulating the sins of Judah. We have abandoned God's law, we celebrate what He calls abomination, and we are led by foolish and vacillating men. The judgment of divine abandonment is not just something that happened in the Old Testament. When God gives a nation over to rampant sexual confusion, to political insanity, and to a complete loss of common sense, we are seeing Romans 1 play out in real time.
The temptation for us is to be like Zedekiah, to trust in political solutions, to make alliances with Egypt, to think that one more election or one more Supreme Court justice will save us. But our only hope is the same hope that the faithful remnant had in Jeremiah's day. Our hope is not in princes or in political maneuvering. Our hope is in the promise of God.
The Lord is our Righteousness. That is not just a name; it is our reality in Christ. He is the righteous king who did not do evil, but only good. And because of His perfect obedience, God will not cast us out of His presence. He has promised, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." The story of Zedekiah is a warning. But the story of Jesus is our salvation. Let us therefore heed the warning, and cling to the savior.