The Politics of Judgment Text: 2 Chronicles 36:1-4
Introduction: The Unraveling of a Kingdom
We come now to the end of the line for the kingdom of Judah. The final chapter of 2 Chronicles reads like a rapid, tragic newsreel of a nation's complete collapse. The final four kings of Judah are paraded before us in quick succession, and their reigns are measured not in decades of faithfulness, but in months of folly and years of rebellion. It is a sad and sorry spectacle. But it is not, as our modern secularists would have it, a meaningless tale of geopolitical misfortune. This is not just the story of a small buffer state being crushed between the millstones of Egypt and Babylon. That is the horizontal analysis, and it is true as far as it goes, but it misses the entire point.
The story of Judah's fall is a theological story from beginning to end. It is the story of a covenant-breaking people finally receiving the long-promised, long-delayed, and richly-deserved covenant curses. For centuries, God had warned them through Moses and the prophets. He had laid it out in excruciating detail in Deuteronomy 28. If you obey, you will have blessings in the city and in the field. Your king will triumph. But if you disobey, if you chase after other gods, then you will have curses. You will be defeated. Your king will be hauled off to a nation you do not know. Your land will be stripped bare. And here, in 2 Chronicles 36, we are watching the bill come due. The ink on the covenant was not invisible ink.
This is a hard lesson, and it is one our generation despises. We want a God who is all therapeutic affirmation, a God who would never bring judgment. We want a God who winks at sin and calls it self-expression. But that is not the God of the Bible. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is a holy God, a just God, and a God who keeps His word, both His promises of blessing and His warnings of judgment. The events here are not random. They are orchestrated. The Pharaoh of Egypt and the King of Babylon think they are acting according to their own imperial ambitions, but they are merely errand boys. They are instruments, rods of judgment, in the hand of a sovereign God who is disciplining His rebellious son.
In these first four verses, we see the political machinery of this judgment in motion. We see a desperate attempt by the people to maintain a semblance of control, only to have it swatted away by a foreign power. We see the throne of David, the most glorious throne on earth, treated like a cheap bargaining chip. This is what happens when God's people abandon their God. Their dignity is stripped, their sovereignty is removed, and their choices become meaningless.
The Text
Then the people of the land took Joahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in place of his father in Jerusalem. Joahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. Then the king of Egypt had him removed in Jerusalem and imposed on the land a fine of one hundred talents of silver and one talent of gold. Then the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took Joahaz his brother and brought him to Egypt.
(2 Chronicles 36:1-4 LSB)
A People's Choice, A Fleeting King (v. 1-2)
The story begins immediately after the shocking death of the good king Josiah, who was killed in battle against Pharaoh Neco of Egypt.
"Then the people of the land took Joahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in place of his father in Jerusalem. Joahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem." (2 Chronicles 36:1-2)
Notice the first actors on the scene: "the people of the land." This is a democratic impulse, a popular movement. They have just lost their beloved reformer king, and they move quickly to secure the succession. They choose Joahaz, a younger son of Josiah. His older brother, Eliakim, was apparently passed over, likely because Joahaz represented the anti-Egyptian faction. The people are trying to assert their national independence. They are saying, "We will not be Egypt's vassal. We will choose our own king. We will continue the legacy of Josiah."
On the surface, this seems noble. It is an act of political self-determination. But it is a futile gesture. Why? Because their true King, Yahweh, had already determined another course. Their problem was not primarily political; it was spiritual. Generations of idolatry had hollowed out the nation's spiritual core, and Josiah's reforms, though good and necessary, had not been enough to reverse the rot. You cannot put a new coat of paint on a house whose foundations have been eaten by termites and expect it to stand in a hurricane.
And so, Joahaz's reign is a blink-and-you-miss-it affair. He was twenty-three years old and reigned for three months. That's it. His entire royal career fits into one season of the year. The parallel account in 2 Kings tells us that "he did evil in the sight of the LORD" (2 Kings 23:32). The son of the great reformer immediately turns his back on his father's legacy. This demonstrates how thin the reforms really were. They were largely dependent on the force of Josiah's personality, not on a true heart-change in the people or the leadership. The moment the godly king is gone, the evil resurfaces like weeds in a neglected garden.
This is a permanent warning against placing our ultimate hope in political solutions or great-man leaders. Even the best of kings, like Josiah, cannot produce lasting righteousness. Only King Jesus can do that. The people's choice was a failure from the start because it was an attempt to fix a covenantal problem with a political patch.
The Foreign Interloper (v. 3)
The people's political maneuvering is swiftly and brutally crushed by the regional superpower.
"Then the king of Egypt had him removed in Jerusalem and imposed on the land a fine of one hundred talents of silver and one talent of gold." (2 Chronicles 36:3 LSB)
Pharaoh Neco, having defeated and killed Josiah, now asserts his authority. He marches to Jerusalem, and with what appears to be no resistance at all, he deposes the people's choice. The word "removed" is a sterile, clinical term for a profound humiliation. The throne of David is no longer sovereign. The king of Judah serves at the pleasure of a pagan ruler from Egypt.
This is God's sovereignty in action, and it is a hard providence. God is using a pagan king, an enemy of His people, to execute His own righteous judgment. Pharaoh Neco thinks he is securing his northern flank against the Babylonians. He thinks he is acting out of pure geopolitical self-interest. But Proverbs 21:1 tells us, "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will." Neco is a puppet, and God is the puppet master. God is the one deposing Joahaz. He is the one humbling Judah.
And the humiliation is not just political; it is economic. Neco imposes a massive fine on the land: one hundred talents of silver and one talent of gold. This was a crippling amount, designed to drain the nation's treasury and keep it subservient. This, too, is a direct fulfillment of the covenant curses. Deuteronomy 28:33 says, "A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually." For centuries, Judah had robbed God by giving His tithes to idols. Now, God sends a pagan tax collector to rob them. The punishment fits the crime.
The Puppet King (v. 4)
Neco's control is absolute. He not only removes a king, but he also installs and renames the next one.
"Then the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took Joahaz his brother and brought him to Egypt." (2 Chronicles 36:4 LSB)
Neco goes back to the royal family and picks the son the people had rejected, Eliakim. He is now Egypt's man in Jerusalem. He is a puppet king, a client ruler whose job is to keep the tribute flowing to Egypt. To signify his complete dominance, Neco changes his name. "Eliakim" means "God will establish." Neco changes it to "Jehoiakim," which means "Yahweh will establish." This is the height of pagan arrogance and a bitter irony. Neco is mockingly co-opting the covenant name of God for his own political purposes. He is saying, "Your God, Yahweh, establishes whom I choose."
And what of the people's choice? Joahaz is carted off to Egypt as a political prisoner, never to return. The prophet Jeremiah would later say, "Weep not for the dead, nor bemoan him; but weep bitterly for him who goes away, for he shall return no more to see his native land" (Jer. 22:10). His three-month reign ends in disgrace and exile. This is the fate of those who stand against God's decreed judgment.
The principle here is stark. When a people abandon the Lordship of Christ, they do not become free. They simply exchange a righteous Master for a cruel one. They trade the easy yoke of Jesus for the heavy yoke of a Pharaoh, a Caesar, or a godless state. Judah rejected God's authority, so God gave them over to the authority of a pagan tyrant. Our nation would do well to learn this lesson. When we tell God we do not want His laws to govern us, we are inviting the tyranny of men to fill the vacuum.
Conclusion: The King We Need
This sad little episode is a microcosm of Judah's entire problem, and indeed, of the human condition. We, like the people of the land, try to solve our problems with our own political choices. We think if we can just get the right man on the throne, the right party in power, then all will be well. But our kings always fail us. They are either evil from the start, or they are weak, or they reign for a fleeting moment before being swept away by larger forces.
The story of Joahaz and Jehoiakim is the story of failed kingship. It is meant to make us long for a true King. It is meant to show us our desperate need for a King who cannot be deposed by Pharaoh, who cannot be carried off into exile, and whose reign is not measured in months but in eternity. It is meant to point us to the true Son of Josiah, the greater David's greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Think of the contrasts. Joahaz was chosen by the people, but Jesus was chosen by the Father before the foundation of the world. Jehoiakim was a puppet king, serving a foreign master, but Jesus is the King of kings, and all earthly rulers are His puppets. Neco renamed Eliakim to show his authority, but God has given Jesus the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow (Philippians 2:9-10).
The judgment that fell on Judah was a necessary prelude to the coming of this true King. The throne of David had to be emptied of these unworthy occupants. The kingdom had to be dismantled so that God could build a new and better one, a spiritual kingdom with a perfect King. The covenant curses had to be poured out on the faithless sons of David, so that the ultimate covenant curse could be poured out on the one faithful Son of David at the cross. He was taken into the exile of death for us. He bore the fine for our sins. He was deposed and struck down, so that we could be raised up and enthroned with Him.
Therefore, we do not despair when we see the political maneuverings of our own day. We do not panic when pagan rulers seem to be in control. We know that the King's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. And we know that our King, King Jesus, is already on the throne, and of the increase of His government and of peace, there will be no end.