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banished from his presence

2 Kings 24:18-25:21 (JDV).

2 Kings 24:18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.
2 Kings 24:19 Zedekiah did what was evil in Yahveh’s sight just as Jehoiakim had done.
2 Kings 24:20 Because of Yahveh’s anger, it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he finally banished them from his presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
2 Kings 25:1 In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army. They laid siege to the city and built a siege wall against it all around.
2 Kings 25:2 The city was under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.
2 Kings 25:3 By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that the common people had no food.
2 Kings 25:4 Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors fled at night by way of the city gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. As the king made his way along the route to the Arabah,
2 Kings 25:5 the Chaldean army pursued him and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah’s entire army left him and scattered.
2 Kings 25:6 The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him.
2 Kings 25:7 They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes. Finally, the king of Babylon blinded Zedekiah, bound him in bronze chains, and took him to Babylon.
2 Kings 25:8 On the seventh day of the fifth month– which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon– Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, a servant of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem.
2 Kings 25:9 He burned Yahveh’s temple, the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down all the great houses.
2 Kings 25:10 The whole Chaldean army with the captain of the guards tore down the walls surrounding Jerusalem.
2 Kings 25:11 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, deported the rest of the people who remained in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the population.
2 Kings 25:12 But the captain of the guards left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.
2 Kings 25:13 Now the Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars of Yahveh’s temple, the water carts, and the bronze basin, which were in Yahveh’s temple, and carried the bronze to Babylon.
2 Kings 25:14 They also took the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes, and all the bronze articles used in the priests’ service.
2 Kings 25:15 The captain of the guards took away the firepans and sprinkling basins– whatever was gold or silver.
2 Kings 25:16 As for the two pillars, the one basin, and the water carts that Solomon had made for Yahveh’s temple, the weight of the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure.
2 Kings 25:17 One pillar was twenty-seven feet tall and had a bronze capital on top of it. The capital, encircled by a grating and pomegranates of bronze, stood five feet high. The second pillar was the same, with its own grating.
2 Kings 25:18 The captain of the guards also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest of the second rank, and the three doorkeepers.
2 Kings 25:19 From the city he took a court official who had been appointed over the warriors; five trusted royal aides found in the city; the secretary of the commander of the army, who enlisted the people of the land for military duty; and sixty men from the common people who were found within the city.
2 Kings 25:20 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
2 Kings 25:21 The king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So, Judah went into exile from its land.

banished from his presence

Judah had presumed upon the LORD’s favor too often and for too long. It was time for the consequences of their rebellion to visit them. God had an interest in preserving Judah because of his plan to save the world through Jesus. But he is God. He does not need anyone. He does not need you or me. We should think about that the next time we are tempted to transgress his will. God is real, and his anger is not to be trifled with. Just ask Zedekiah.

LORD, we surrender to your sovereignty. We thank you for your preservation by grace. Give us wisdom not to take it for granted.