And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah his God; he humbled not himself before the prophet Jeremiah speaking from the mouth of Jehovah.
Judah's last king ruled for eleven years. All through those years Jeremiah, a prophet living in the city, told him what God was doing and what he should do. This verse sums up the reign not with a list of crimes but with a refusal: he would not bow to a word that came from the mouth of the LORD.
Zedekiah came to the throne as the son of a good father, which makes the verdict on him sharper.
Zedekiah was the last of the kings ruling in Judah before their complete captivity. He became king at age 21 and reigned 11 years. In that time he proved as evil as the kings before him, even though he was a son of Josiah. So, following Josiah's good reign, the condition of Judah went downhill fast.
His evil was not the loud kind. He asked for God's word and then would not act on it. People judged him kindly; God did not.
Zedekiah has been rightly described as "weak, wavering, and treacherous." … He was hypocritical too. He pretended to want the prophet's prayers, saying, "Please pray for us to the LORD our God" (Jer. 37:3). At times he also pretended to trust Jeremiah's prophecies ("Inquire of the LORD for us," Jer. 21:2). Then, when they came, he refused to heed or believe them. He was perhaps not as openly wicked as his three predecessors, and not one who willingly persecuted. That is probably why the historian Josephus, judging by human standards, speaks of "his gentle and righteous disposition." But the LORD does not see as man sees. His thoughts are not man's thoughts.
The verse ties the refusal to a man who spoke from the mouth of the LORD. Zedekiah half sensed that, and still would not act. In that he matched the nation he led.
The king was a moral picture of the people; for they, like him, had a dim, feeble, ineffective sense that Jeremiah had the mind of Jehovah. But neither of them had the energy of faith that resists what seems to serve their own interest right now… The same spirit that rebelled against Jehovah was bound to refuse to bow to His discipline and to their own humbling. But this is the only path of godly feeling and repentance.
By this point what God asked had changed. Bowing no longer meant escaping the disaster; it meant accepting it.
More than once the prophet did not shrink back from speaking directly to King Zedekiah. His message was not like the one given in the time of the earlier kings. Back then, repentance would have held judgment back. More than one had already been exiled; God now commanded the people to submit to discipline. They were not to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar, but to accept the yoke, to surrender, and to serve the king of Babylon. Instead of humbling themselves, Zedekiah and the rest of the people kept resisting the Lord's command.
What kept him from bowing was not argument but other people's opinion. He asked Jeremiah in secret, then did what his officials wanted.
The Book of Jeremiah speaks at length of God's warnings to Zedekiah through Jeremiah (Jer. 34:2, 21). It also shows Zedekiah's fear of men. He spoke with Jeremiah in secret, concerned about what God had said, but he gave in to his nobles in fear and so disobeyed the word of the Lord (Jer. 37:16-21; 38:4-27).
God deals with His people in a settled way. Other kings bowed under His hand, and their stories show what Zedekiah gave up.
We may well trace God's ways in grace, but His ways in government too. God must be glorified. If His people fail in this, He must act against them; but if they humble themselves, He can show mercy, and He surely will. … "Who has hardened himself against Him, and succeeded?" asked Job. Shall a sinner humble himself before God without receiving mercy at His hand? Let Rehoboam, Ahab, and Manasseh answer.
- The word came. God kept a prophet in Jerusalem to the very end. Jeremiah spoke from the mouth of the LORD, not from himself.
- The bow refused. Zedekiah's sin was not open cruelty. It was a will that would not bend to a message he half believed.
- Half-faith failed. He asked for prayer and for God's word, then did what looked safest. The whole nation shared that weakness.
- Fear decided. He feared his officials more than God. A belief that folds under pressure is disobedience.
- Mercy waited. Rehoboam, Ahab and Manasseh show that God gives mercy to anyone who humbles himself under His hand. Zedekiah shows the cost of refusing to bend.
And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him take oath by God; and he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from returning to Jehovah the God of Israel.
A foreign conqueror put Judah's last king on the throne and sealed the deal with an oath sworn in God's own name. This verse shows Zedekiah breaking that oath, and then names the hard heart behind it.
Nebuchadnezzar did not ask for a political promise alone. He made Zedekiah swear "by God."
This king made Zedekiah swear by the LORD. By that oath Zedekiah acknowledged the authority of that Name over his conscience. In this he was more sinful than Nebuchadnezzar. He despised his oath and the name of the LORD. He resisted for a time, but it was useless, and he kept going despite Jeremiah's testimony. Then he fell into the hands of the king of Babylon, who completely destroyed the city and the sanctuary.
Zedekiah's rank made the offence worse, not lighter.
The LORD charges the son of David then on the throne with treachery against Himself as well as against Nebuchadnezzar. He had violated his covenant with the Chaldeans, and this when it was sealed with the name of the LORD. Had it come to this, that the heathen king Nebuchadnezzar had more respect for the oath of the LORD than David's son, the king of Judah?... Sin is always sin, but it is least excusable where His word is known and His name is held up before men.
Read with the verse before it, this record lists specific charges.
Chronicles registers four reasons for the judgment of this king: He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke to him on behalf of the LORD; this was rebellion against the word of the Spirit of God. He revolted against Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear by God. He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against returning to the LORD.
Babylon's rule over Judah was not an accident of politics.
Zedekiah's revolt might have looked politically reasonable in the eyes of the world. As happens today too, it won the sympathy of all those who chafed under Babylon's yoke. But this yoke was according to God. The Lord showed this in a visible way through the prophet Jeremiah, who walked through the city carrying a wooden yoke on his neck. The king of Judah should have known and remembered this, if he had any concern at all to serve the Lord.
Courage was not what moved him to break the oath.
Fear of his servants moved Zedekiah to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar. He had already sworn an oath by God, an oath of allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar. This was plain dishonesty, and God could not excuse it because of his fear of men. In fact, God says that Zedekiah stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against all God's gracious advances.
Zedekiah was not the most openly scandalous of Judah's kings. That is what makes God's verdict on him so searching.
Zedekiah has been rightly described as "weak, wavering, and treacherous." He was weak and gave way to his princes. That marks him as a man completely unfit to wear a crown or sit on a throne... He was not so openly wicked as his three predecessors, perhaps, and he did not persecute willingly. This is probably why Josephus, judging by human standards, speaks of "his gentle and righteous disposition." But the Lord does not see as man sees, and His thoughts are not man's thoughts. He says, "He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel." So God took him away in His anger.
Hardening the heart has an end result.
To harden the heart against God and His wonderful mercy can only end in a harvest of sorrow, because whoever refuses God's gift must receive the wages of sin. "Whoever is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing."
(Mawson quotes Proverbs 29:1 in an older wording: "cut off, and that without remedy.")
- Sworn. Zedekiah swore his loyalty "by God." Breaking that oath was treachery against God before it was treachery against Babylon.
- Shamed. A pagan king honoured that oath more than David's own son did. Sin is least excusable where people know God's word and carry His name before others.
- Scared. The rebellion looked bold, but fear of his own princes drove it. Fear of men never excuses dishonesty before God.
- Stiffened. Chronicles lists four counts against him. He did evil in God's sight. He would not humble himself before Jeremiah. He broke his oath. He hardened his heart against returning to God.
- Sealed. Zedekiah was not the most scandalous of Judah's kings. But God reads the heart, not the reputation. A neck stiffened under repeated warnings breaks beyond healing.