Year 2, Week 15, Day 3 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 15, Day 3

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of 2 Chronicles 36; Habakkuk 1-2.

Today’s reading completes the Book of Chronicles as it concludes with the fall of Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 36 provides a quick and fast record of the disastrous reigns of Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah before the destruction of Jerusalem is recorded. The abruptness of description of the fall of Jerusalem is explained: “The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD rose against his people, until there was no remedy” (2 Chronicles 36:15-16). The heartbreak would not be so much over the destruction of Jerusalem, but the tragedy of the persistent refusal heed God’s prophets. Judah’s penchant to reject God’s Word is the real tragedy. Today’s reading also introduces us to the prophet Habakkuk. Habakkuk was deployed by the LORD in the years leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem. Habakkuk 1 expresses his struggles, not only in grasping why the LORD had not intervened during the years of Judah’s political and moral decline, also in grasping why the LORD would use the Babylonians to accomplish His purposes: “Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?” (Habakkuk 1:12-13). Habakkuk 2 declares the LORD’s admonition to trust Him: “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was the connection between the length of the Babylonian captivity and the failure to provide a Sabbath rest for the land: “He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years” (2 Chronicles 36:20-21). The captivity would last for seventy years as the Prophet Jeremiah declared: “This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years” (Jeremiah 25:11). The LORD required that every seventh year the land would be rested: “When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the LORD. For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the LORD” (Leviticus 25:2b-4a). The LORD had warned that failure to give the land a Sabbath rest would result in the LORD removing His people from the land so that it would have its rest: “And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. “Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it” (Leviticus 26:33-35). The duration of seventy years suggests that Israel did not practice a Sabbath rest for over 490 years, going all the way back to the era of Samuel and Eli. Over that period they had missed giving the land rest seventy times.

But the Chronicler ends his book on a note of hope: “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up” (2 Chronicles 36:22-23). After some seventy years of captivity in Babylon, the Persians overtake the Babylonians and emerge as the key nation in the region. Just as the seventy year captivity announced by Jeremiah, so was the day that the captivity would end and there would be a return to Jerusalem: “For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place” (Jeremiah 25:10). The LORD implemented this return through the decree of Cyrus, king of Persia, just as Isaiah had announced: “I am the LORD, who made all things…who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid” (Isaiah 44:24b,28). The LORD’s purposes were not thwarted by the captivity; in fact, the captivity leading to a restoration was carried out by the purposes of the LORD. Through the judgment of captivity, the LORD brought about a restoration for His people.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe