Bible Commentaries

9. The Final Decline and Apostasy

CHAPTER 36:1-14

1. Jehoahaz’s reign (2 Chronicles 36:1-7)

2. Jehoiachin’s brief reign (2 Chronicles 36:8-10)

3. Zedekiah (2 Chronicles 36:11-14)

As the complete record of these three final rulers is given in the second book of Kings, the annotations are made there. Nothing needs to be added. It was the final plunge before the awful judgment overtook Jerusalem and Judah. And there will be a final plunge into apostasy in connection with the professing Church, before the predicted judgment with the coming of our blessed Lord will end this present evil age and usher in His glorious kingdom.

IV. THE CAPTIVITY AND THE EPILOGUE

CHAPTER 36:15-23

1. The captivity (2 Chronicles 36:15-21)

2. The epilogue (2 Chronicles 36:22-23)

In infinite patience the Lord still waited for the return of His people. Judgment is His strange work, but He delighteth in mercy. He sent them messengers who exhorted them and brought the messages of God, because He had compassion. But they mocked the messengers, despised God’s gracious offers and misused His prophets, till there was no remedy. An awful statement. Apostasy and defiance of God increased to such an extent, till there was no remedy. The threatening clouds of judgment broke at last and the people were carried away into the captivity. “To fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths, for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath to fulfill three-score and ten years.” And this age too is, with its rejection of God’s best, approaching a day when there will be no remedy and the judgment will fall.

The epilogue takes us after the seventy year captivity. Cyrus had been named by Isaiah almost two hundred years before he was born (Isaiah 44:28). God accomplished His purpose through this Persian king. We shall follow his history in Ezra and his work and what it foreshadows in Isaiah.