‹ Back

2 Kings 24:19-20 "And [Zedekiah] did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. For because of the anger of the Lord it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence."

 

Upon the introduction of a new king, the Books of Kings almost always tells us whether that king did right by the Lord or was evil in His sight. It is a shorthand way of letting us know how the king and kingdom will fare under a particular king without getting into every detail of his reign. Here we learn that Zedekiah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, but not only that, we also learn that he was the last king of Judah before it fell to Babylon. There had been plenty of bad kings, but Zedekiah's reign was the point at which God let the hammer fall.

 

The fall of Judah and Jerusalem was not entirely Zedekiah's fault, it was due to the accumulation of wickedness under a series of bad kings.  Due largely to the influence of a bad leaders, by then almost all of Judah was corrupt beyond saving without severe punishment. So, unfortunately for Zedekiah and Judah, "it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that He cast them out from His presence." Although prophets had been prophesying about the coming destruction (and were not heeded), no one knew exactly when that day would come. But God knew, and it happened that Zedekiah was the last king before the fall of Judah.

 

We are citizens of the New Jerusalem, the Church. We know that the Church will have to go through her passion, her Passover. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 675-677). It will seem to the eyes of the world like she has been destroyed, much like Jerusalem, but we have God's promise that she will not be, that she will one day stand against the gates of hell and prevail. Then we will be overjoyed, like the exiles coming back to Jerusalem, having learned from suffering and deprivation the true value of the Church to us and the world. Like the citizens of Judah, we do not know exactly when the Church's "fall" will be, but God has given us Scripture and the Catechism, and gives us prophets and warnings in our own time. We would be wise to heed them all.