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.
All the chiefs of the priests also, and the people, increased their transgressions, according to all the abominations of the nations; and they defiled the house of Jehovah which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.
Second Chronicles closes its record of Judah's kings with a verdict that spares no one: priests, leaders and people alike. Why did the rot reach inside the temple itself, the one house on earth God had set apart for Himself?
Edward Dennett asks why this verse names the priests first. His answer runs on to the trial of Jesus.
The house of Levi stands here especially for the priestly family. In setting out the causes of God's intervention in judgment in the reign of Zedekiah, the Holy Spirit says [the words of this verse]. And it was the chief priests who, to secure the condemnation of Jesus, cried out — deliberately denying their national history and their national hopes — "We have no king but Caesar."
The verse names the officers before the people. Dennett notes how such a slide usually starts.
It would seem then that the princes and rulers had first set the example, and that the others had only been too ready to follow. "One sinner destroys much good," especially when that one has a place of position and influence.
William Kelly weighs the guilt of people who know God against the guilt of outsiders.
How much more guilty were those who knew far better! They stood in national relationship with God as His own special and favoured people. They had God's own tent of testimony among them, speaking for Him and against their ways. ... There is no corruption so grievous as that of God's people, and so His discipline is in proportion: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities" (Amos 3:2).
They did not drop the Lord and take up other gods instead. Kelly weighs their mixture against plain idolatry.
What made this idolatry so offensive was the joining of the idols of the nations with Jehovah. To be a plain, outright idolater was not nearly so bad. Far worse is to show that you know the true God and still put false gods on a level with Him.
H. A. Ironside traces the same pattern past Judah to every group God has set apart.
She failed to keep the place of separation God had called her to. She mixed without restraint among her pagan neighbours. She soon proved, as all do who follow her steps, that "bad company ruins good morals." Walking with idolaters, she learned their ways; and as a result God gave her up to wander among the nations until she sickened of their practices. Has not this been the repeated history of every company which God separated from the world and owned as His people?
The defiling was deliberate. Kelly describes what Judah set up inside God's house, and where it drove Him.
It was certainly an idol which defied the God of Israel and courted the homage of all who entered the temple. Judah was so set on insulting Jehovah, and on morally forcing Him to carry out His threat to abandon His house.
Why did judgment fall at this point and not sooner? F. B. Hole points to a pattern that runs through Scripture.
This, we believe, is always God's way. He does not act in judgment until the evil has fully come out. It was so with the Amorite nations, as shown in Genesis 15:16. It was so with the kings and people in Jerusalem, as testified in 2 Chronicles 36:11-20.
- Nearness measures guilt. The priests stood closest to God, so their sin weighed heaviest: "there is no corruption so grievous as that of God's people."
- Nearness spreads. Leaders set the example and the people followed; one person in a place of influence "destroys much good."
- Nearness gets mixed. Judah did not swap the Lord for the gods of the nations. They set them beside Him, and knowing better made it worse.
- Nearness can be polluted. Judah defiled the house He had made holy, and drove God out of His own sanctuary.
- Nearness is no shield. A holy building protected nobody. God waited only until the evil had fully come out, then judged.