https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/The-Fall-of-Zedekiah.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n\tby Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
Text: Jeremiah 52:1-11<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I. The fall of Jerusalem and the end of the kingdom of Judah was a sad time period.<\/p>\n A. Josiah was the last good king of Israel, but the kings that ruled after him did evil\nin the sight of God.\n B. King Jehoiachin began his reign at the age of 18. He lasted 3 months before\nNebuchadnezzar came, besieged Jerusalem for 8 years, and then led all the elite\ninto captivity – II Kings 24:8-12\n C. Zedekiah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, was placed on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar – II\nKings 24:17-20\n 1. Yet Zedekiah rebelled against God and against the king who gave him the\nthrone.\n
2. II Chronicles 36:11-17 lists the sins of Zedekiah<\/p>\n
II. Zedekiah refused to accept the pronouncements of God<\/p>\n A. God warned him from the beginning of his reign that his only hope was in\nsubmitting to Nebuchadnezzar – Jeremiah 27:1-11\n
B. Jeremiah pleaded with the king to listen to God and ignore the false prophets.<\/p>\n 1. There were many prophets willing to tell the king that he would succeed in\nthrowing off the yoke of Babylon.\n
2. Zedekiah preferred their message.<\/p>\n 3. Even when one of the more vocal false prophets, Hananiah, died in\nfulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy, proving that Jeremiah spoke for God,\nstill Zedekiah did not listen. (Jeremiah 28)\n C. There was no rational reason for listening to the false prophets, but this is what\nZedekiah did. \n
D. Eventually, Nebuchadnezzar came to collect against his rebellious king<\/p>\n
III. Zedekiah hoped for a miracle – Jeremiah 21:1-10<\/p>\n A. It is interesting that Zedekiah’s messenger are Pashhur and Zephaniah, the priest.\nPashhur is differ person from the priest who earlier had Jeremiah beaten for\nprophesying the fall of Jerusalem – Jeremiah 19:14-20:2\n B. I wonder if Zedekiah was trying to intimidate Jeremiah by sending another priest\nor simply was unthinking.\n C. Jeremiah’s message was that Zedekiah’s only hope was to surrender to\nNebuchadnezzar.\n D. Zedekiah made a show of pleasing God. The law required the release of all slaves\non the year of Jubilee. This Zedekiah commanded, but then had all the slaves put\nback into slavery – Jeremiah 34:8-16.\n
1. The Lord, of course, was not pleased by this shallow display of contempt.<\/p>\n
2. What a mockery of obedience!<\/p>\n
3. We see that Zedekiah was not a man of his word.<\/p>\n E. Zedekiah made a deal with the Egyptians to rescue Judah, but God would not let it\nsucceed – Jeremiah 37:1-10\n
1. The Egyptians retreated.<\/p>\n 2. The Israelites did get a small reprieve while the Babylonians drove off the\nEgyptians – Jeremiah 37:11\n F. Jeremiah, though, was arrested as he was about to leave the city on charges of\ntreason – Jeremiah 37:13-16\n
IV. Zedekiah looked for a way out, but he wanted it on his terms<\/p>\n A. Jeremiah 37:17-21 – Zedekiah brings Jeremiah to him and we learn that\nJeremiah’s imprisonment was no chance occurrence. It appears Zedekiah is trying\nto pressure Jeremiah to give him the answer he wanted.\n
B. He later allowed men to attempt to kill Jeremiah – Jeremiah 38:1-6<\/p>\n
C. He then “rescued” Jeremiah at the urging of a good man – Jeremiah 38:7-13<\/p>\n
D. Zedekiah again calls Jeremiah in for a private word – Jeremiah 38:14-23<\/p>\nV. The final siege of Jerusalem began in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign. It lasted for over\ntwo years.\n A. After the first year, Zedekiah has Jeremiah thrown back into prison – Jeremiah\n32:1-5\n B. He still refused to believe the message of Jeremiah. He wanted a different\nprophecy.\n C. The siege became so severe that people were eating their own children – Jeremiah\n52:6\n D. During the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign, the outer wall of Jerusalem was\nbreeched.\n E. Even after all the warnings, Zedekiah did a cowardly thing. He took a select group\nof armed men and sneaked out of the city. – Jeremiah 52:7\n
1. Because of his stubbornness, Jerusalem was sieged. People died.<\/p>\n 2. Now when it was certain the city would fall, Zedekiah was going to leave\nthe city to the enemies!\n
F. He did not get very far, only about 15 miles – Jeremiah 52:8-11<\/p>\n
1. Thus he fulfilled the prophecy of Ezekiel – Ezekiel 12:12-13<\/p>\n
VI. What do we learn?<\/p>\n A. Man cannot change the will of God. The intimation of God’s messengers did not\nchange the message.\n
B. They mocked the message, but the result remained – II Peter 3:3-12<\/p>\n
C. You see the judgment of God has been pronounced on this world.<\/p>\n 1. People have tried to legislate religion out of their lives so they and their\nchildren do not need to hear the message.\n
2. Christianity has become a point of derision in many areas of our country.<\/p>\n 3. Denominations are changing their message to soothe the people – there is\nno hell. God won’t judge you. We are all going to heaven.\n 4. They only play at religion, much like Zedekiah, but it doesn’t change their\nlives.\n
5. But nothing has changed. The end is fixed and we know the outcome.<\/p>\n D. Are you going to be like Zedekiah? Trying to force the answer you want or will\nyou humble yourself before God and submit to his will?\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Jeremiah 52:1-11 I. The fall of Jerusalem and the end of the kingdom of Judah was a sad time period. A. Josiah was the last good king of Israel, but the kings that ruled after him did evil in the sight of God. B. King Jehoiachin began his reign at the age…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,32],"tags":[992,279,410,349,991],"class_list":["post-12234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-sermon","tag-disobedience","tag-history","tag-judgment","tag-stubbornness","tag-zedekiah"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":22793,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/dont-go-into-egypt\/","url_meta":{"origin":12234,"position":0},"title":"Don’t Go Into Egypt","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 24, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: Jeremiah 42:1-6 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Imagine living during the last days of Judah \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Josiah was a wonderful king - II Kings 23:25 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But he was killed by the king of Egypt - II Kings 23:28-29 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But Jehoahaz, the king who succeeded him, only lasted three months - II Kings 23:31-33 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0D.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0His\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89397,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-man-who-would-not-listen\/","url_meta":{"origin":12234,"position":1},"title":"The Man Who Would Not Listen","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 13, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Gibson In spite of ... King Zedekiah had at least two positive influences in his life that should have prompted him to make wiser choices. His father, Josiah, was one of the most godly kings Judah ever had. And Jeremiah, God's prophet, tried repeatedly to persuade Zedekiah to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94776,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-man-who-would-not-listen-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":12234,"position":2},"title":"The Man Who Would Not Listen","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 26, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Gibson In Spite of ... King Zedekiah had at least two positive influences in his life that should have prompted him to make wiser choices. His father Josiah was one of the most godly kings Judah ever had. And Jeremiah, God's prophet, tried repeatedly to persuade Zedekiah to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Not-Listening-300x201.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":26557,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-rule-of-fear\/","url_meta":{"origin":12234,"position":3},"title":"The Rule of Fear","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford I suspect that the longer a preacher works with a congregation, the more the congregation gets used to the preacher and can identify his particular hobbyhorses. That being the case, I\u2019m sure that some of you, at least, have figured out that I\u2019m particularly interested in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15176,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-imagery-in-revelation-do-you-find-does-not-fit-the-destruction-of-jerusalem\/","url_meta":{"origin":12234,"position":4},"title":"What imagery in Revelation do you find does not fit the destruction of Jerusalem?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You\u00a0wrote: \"As I studied the book, I found that the imagery does not fit well with the destruction of Jerusalem, so I lean toward the later date.\" Which imagery, in particular, do you find not fitting with the destruction of Jerusalem? Answer: This is not an attempt at a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":95306,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/extrabiblical-mentions-of-biblical-characters\/","url_meta":{"origin":12234,"position":5},"title":"Extrabiblical Mentions of Biblical Characters","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Stuart Steinberg Here is a list of inscriptions discovered that mention various figures in the Hebrew Bible. There are several dozen inscriptions-mostly seals, ostraca, plaques, and royal stelae-that mention individuals named in the Hebrew Bible. 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