T H E K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S wanderings is given us as a never-failing proof of the truth of God’s unfailing Word. We know why the Jews are scattered abroad in every nation. We know why- they are now being gathered back into Palestine, and we know what fearful times yet await them in that land, and best of all, we know what God’s eternal purpose is concerning their final victory and the restoration of the temple, the rule, of our Lord Jesus Christ over them, and of the joy that is to be ours who are His own heavenly people, when He comes and we come with Him to rule and reign for a thousand years. PRACTICAL POINTS (1) God is slow to anger, but sure in wrath (Rom. '2:5). (2) A city’s sins will crumble the city’s walls. (3) Zedekiah ran a short course which ended in the curse upon his city and upon him. (4) The famine in Jerusalem was due to a famine of the word of God. (5) to flee to Him. (6) A minister makes a mistake who fails to break the Bread of Life to the people. (7) No prophecy of Scripture will ever fail of fulfillment. v. 1. It came to pass. Incensed by the revolt of Zedekiah, the Assyrian despot determined to put an end to the inconstant monarchy of Judah. This is his third COMMENTS FROM and last .*inva- MANY SOURCES sion, which he Keith L. Brooks conducted in per son, at the head of an immense army. Having overrun the northern parts of the country and taken almost all the fenced cities, (Jer. 34:7) he marched direct to Jerusalem to invest it.— J. F. & . B. Came against Jerusalem. From Ezek. 24:1, 2 we gather that on the very day when the foe made his appearance before Jeru salem, the fact was revealed to Ezekiel in Babylon and the fate of the city made clear. Jeremiah besought Zedekiah to submit, but to no purpose (Jer. 38:17).
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A third of the population perished of hunger and plague (Ezek. 5:12).— Devo. Com. v. 2. City was besieged. Those who have by sin provoked God to leave them, may expect ultimately to be encompass ed about with innumerable evils.— Sum. Bible. v. 3. The famine prevailed. In con sequence of the protracted blockade the inhabitants were reduced to dreadful extremities, and under the maddening influence of hunger the most inhuman atrocities were perpetrated (Lam. 2:20, 22; 4:9, 10; Ezek. 5:10). This was the fulfillment of the prophetic denunci ation threatened on the apostasy of the chosen people (Lev. 26:29; Deut. 28: 53-57; Jer. 15:2; 27:13; Ezek. 4:16). — Brown. v. 4. City was broken up. Of the horrors of that time Jeremiah has left a record in Lam. 1:19; 2:11, 12, 20; 4:3-10.— Edersheim. v. 6. They gave judgment upon him. Zedekiah was doomed to witness with his own eyes the massacre of his two sons and of his attendants. After he had endured this anguish worse than death, his eyes were put out and, bound in double fetters, he was sent to Babylon where he en’ded his miserable days. To blind a king deprived him of all hope of recovering the throne and therefore was in ancient days a common punish ment.-^—Exp. Bible. The blinding was sometimes done by passing a red hot rod of silver or brass over the open eyes, sometimes ’by plucking out the eyes.— Rawlinson. v. 7. Carried him to/Babylon. Jere miah had said, “ Thine eyes shall be hold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon” (Jer. 34:3). Ezekiel had said, “ I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there” (Ezek. 12: 13). We can only hope that in his blindness and solitude he was happier than he had been on the throne of Ju dah, and that before death came to end his miseries he found peace with God.— Farrar. Notice how in putting out the eyes of Zedekiah, two proph ecies which appeared to be contradict ory were reconciled and fulfilled (Jer. 32:5; 34:3; Ezek. 12:13).—Devo. Com. v. 8. In the nineteenth year. Cf. verse 1. This space God evidently gave them to repent, after all the foregoing
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