Theological Commentary: Click Here
The last
chapter in the book of Chronicles is the final chapter in the saga of the kings
of Judah. After the events of this
chapter, it would be several thousand years before the Hebrew people are their
own nation again. In this respect, it is
a sad chapter.
What is the
point of this chapter? The kings are
rebellious. They rebel against the Lord
and He punished them. They rebelled
against other human leaders and they punished the Hebrew people. Rebellion, when it is not ordained as proper
by the hand of the Lord, ends in punishment.
The sad
thing is that there isn’t any need for the rebellion. The king of Egypt is content to have them as
a vassal. The Lord seems to be content
to have them in that position. The
people, though, don’t want to be underneath someone else’s authority. They rebel.
The same is true under the Babylonian king. The people rebel because they are underneath
a ruler that they don’t want.
What does
their rebellion ultimately grant? The
people are deported. The people are sent
into captivity. Rebellion can only be
tolerated for so long before it must be crushed. God sends His own people into exile because
rebellion lives in their heart.
The
Chronicler doesn’t end his story on a poor note, however. After 70 years, the people are allowed to go
back and rebuild. Like the generation
after the rebellious generation of the exodus, a new generation arises and is
allowed to come back to the Promised Land.
With God, there is always hope.
God is a God of forgiveness. He
is always willing to forgive and try again.
We’ve seen
it time and time again in this book. Evil
king follows evil king until there is a resurgence of faith. Then the spiral of decline comes again until
there is a resurgence of faith. God is
always open to trying again when our rebellion sinks us low enough that we are
able to repent and try again in earnest.
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