2 Kings 21-25 (Nahum / Jeremiah / Zephaniah / Habakkuk)
Introduction: Leaning into God’s Word
If you have your Bibles, open them to 2 Kings. We are going to start in chapter 21 and wrap up the book of 2 Kings together tonight.
It is fascinating to me that people are beginning to come new in the midst of this series. I met a guy this week who has only been to church three times in the last three weeks. He came here today, and he’s learning his Bible. I said, “Bro, it’s a perfect time to come,” because we are covering overviews of entire books of the Old Testament in our Generation series, and we’re doing it in chart form. I highly recommend downloading or printing the charts.
The best way to go through this series is to have your Bible in your lap, the chart in your lap, and a pen in your hand. Here is why: the Spirit of God that inspired this text—and the Bible says of itself that it is indeed inspired by God—is the same Spirit sealed within you when you place your faith in Christ. That means as we teach the Bible, God is going to show you things from His Word that He wants you to hear. There might be something where you go, “Hey, wow, I needed that.” You write that down. Nobody else heard it, and it didn’t mean anything to anybody else, but for you, that was exactly what God wanted.
It also changes how you interact with the message. Instead of just chilling passively and watching it happen like it’s some sort of movie, hoping it’s funny, you lean into it and say, “God, what do you have for me? What do You want me to glean from Your Word?” That is the best way to go through it.
The Fall of Manasseh and the Cost of Selfishness
We find ourselves now dealing with the southern kings after the divided kingdom. Remember, King Saul took over as the first monarch, gave his reign to David, and David to Solomon. After Solomon, the kingdom split. A guy named Rehoboam took the South (Judah), and a guy named Jeroboam took the North (Israel). The Northern Kingdom was a downward spiral—a giant swirly straight to the bottom with awful kings. A terrible king was followed by a terrible king, who was followed by an even worse king, until the Assyrians came in, wiped out the men, and brought in foreign men to repopulate the area with Jewish women in Samaria.
The Southern Kingdom came from Rehoboam, and there were a few kings who did well. One of them we studied last week was King Hezekiah. He started off really well with incredible reforms, but right at the end, he swung and missed. He whiffed terribly because he made the comment that he would rather have peace in his own day than reach the next generation. He forsook his children, abandoned future generations, and said, “I just want what I want. I want to be comfortable. I don’t care what happens to the children or the future.”
Tonight, we begin in 2 Kings 21 and look at his son. What is the result of a generation that gives the peace sign to the next generation, tells them to figure it out, and focuses entirely on their own preference? It happens right here.
2 Kings 21:2 (NASB)
He did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD dispossessed before the sons of Israel.
Manasseh, Hezekiah’s boy, did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He rebuilt the high places that his father had destroyed, erected altars for Baal, and made Asherah poles—big cult totem poles to worship around.
2 Kings 21:4 (NASB)
He built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, ‘In Jerusalem I will put My name.’
Inside the actual temple of the Lord, he built altars for male cult prostitutes. In verse 6, he burned his sons alive as sacrifices. In verse 9, he simply refused to listen to the Lord. This guy was a complete mess. That is what happens when you forsake the next generation for the sake of your own personal comfort. He not only disobeyed God; he dragged all those pagan worship elements right back into the temple.
Now, what happened to Isaiah? Isaiah was the prophet who got in Hezekiah’s face. He had what the Hebrews call chutzpah—passion and courage. The Bible doesn’t explicitly describe his death, but Jewish tradition records that Manasseh was confronted so many times by Isaiah that he finally got fed up, arrested him, and sawed him in half. The author of Hebrews references this when speaking of the great prophets of old.
Hebrews 11:37 (NASB)
They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated
If the idolatry of the Northern Kingdom brought judgment, and that same idolatry is now rampant in the South, judgment is inevitable.
2 Kings 21:13 (NASB)
’I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
God says He will drop the measuring line of Samaria and the plumb line of Ahab over Jerusalem. Ahab was the worst of the worst in the North. God is declaring that the same judgment that fell on Israel is now coming to Judah.
The Message of Nahum
In this context, keep your finger in 2 Kings 21 and flip over to the tiny book of Nahum. Most people have never even read Nahum. What are you going to say in heaven when you show up and Nahum says, “Hey, what did you think about my book?” and you never read it? If you don’t know where it is, use your table of contents—it’s your friend!
Nahum lived in a village on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee called Capernaum, which literally means “the village of Nahum.” During the reign of Manasseh, Nahum began to prophesy the fall of Assyria.
At this time, there were three major world powers: Assyria (who had just wiped out the Northern Kingdom), Babylon (who was on the rise), and Egypt (who had been a thorn in Israel’s side for centuries). Nahum prophesied against Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. Years earlier, Jonah went to Nineveh with a message of repentance, and they repented. But now, Nahum brings a message of final judgment for their ongoing cruelty and sin.
The Assyrians were absolute terrors in battle, especially with their chariots. Their chariots held two to four warriors—drivers, archers, spearmen—and could decimate an opposing army in minutes. In chapters 2 and 3, Nahum uses vivid battlefield imagery to describe how their charioteers, their mighty “lions,” their horsemen, and their military strength would completely fail. God used Assyria to discipline the Northern Kingdom, but now God was going to destroy Assyria. That is the message of Nahum.
Josiah: The King Who Read the Book
Flipping back to 2 Kings, Manasseh passes his throne to Amon, who is a chip off the old block and quickly gets assassinated. But in chapter 22, another king takes the throne.
If I asked you to give me a list of people in the Bible who started well, finished well, and didn’t make a total mess of things in the middle, the list would be very short. But the man in chapter 22 is on that list: Josiah.
2 Kings 22:1 (NASB)
Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name [was] Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.
He was eight years old when he became king. That’s a third grader! What is a third grader doing? Eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and running a country! And he did a bang-up job.
2 Kings 22:2 (NASB)
He did right in the sight of the LORD and walked in all the way of his father David, nor did he turn aside to the right or to the left.
He walked in all the ways of David his father and did not turn aside to the right or to the left. Josiah was an absolute stud. In verses 3 through 7, he initiates a major renovation project on the neglected temple.
In chapter 23, he launches radical national reforms. He drags the vessels made for Baal, the Asherah poles, and the idolatrous items out of the temple and burns them in the Kidron Valley. He tears down the quarters of the male cult prostitutes inside the house of the Lord and defiles the high places. He makes a covenant before God to walk faithfully, and he restores the Passover celebration.
2 Kings 23:25 (NASB)
Before him there was no king like him who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.
Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart, soul, and might, nor did any arise like him afterward. When this young man set his heart on God, he pursued Him with everything he had.
During Josiah’s reign, the prophet Zephaniah ministered.
Zephaniah 1:1 (NASB)
The word of the LORD which came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah:
Zephaniah, like Nahum, declared that the untouchable Assyrian empire would fall. Calling that shot was unbelievable at the time because the Assyrian army showed zero cracks in its foundation. Yet Zephaniah accurately prophesied their destruction, the coming judgment on Judah, and the future hope of restoration.
2 Kings 23:26 (NASB)
However, the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath with which His anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him.
Even with Josiah’s incredible reforms, it was too little, too late. The deep-seated wickedness provoked by Manasseh had sealed Judah’s judgment.
Eventually, Babylon crushed Assyria. Feeling emboldened, Josiah made an unwise military move and went out to confront Pharaoh Neco of Egypt at Megiddo. He was shot by archers, died, and was buried in Jerusalem. A good king made a bad decision, and his life was cut short.
The Downward Spiral to Exile
Josiah was succeeded by his son Jehoahaz, but Pharaoh marched into Jerusalem, deposed him, and dragged him off to Egypt, where he died in captivity. Egypt placed another son of Josiah, Eliakim (renamed Jehoiakim), on the throne as a puppet king.
During this time, the prophet Jeremiah was calling the nation back to God. Geographically, Israel sits on the narrow land bridge connecting Africa, Asia, and Europe. Caught between Egypt in the south and Babylon in the north, Judah kept trying to play political games, debating which superpower to align with. Jeremiah told them, “Why do you need to pick a side? Just trust God!”
Jehoiakim hated Jeremiah’s message. In Jeremiah 36, he took Jeremiah’s scroll, sliced it up, and threw it into the fire. He had Jeremiah arrested and thrown into a muddy cistern where he sank into the mire. Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet—not because he cried all the time, but because he had the hardest assignment in scripture. Nobody listened to him, yet he remained completely faithful.
In chapter 24, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon marches on Jerusalem.
2 Kings 24:1 (NASB)
In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant [for] three years; then he turned and rebelled against him.
Unlike the Assyrians, who intermarried with conquered peoples, the Babylonians deported entire populations.
Daniel 1:1-2 (NASB)
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god.
During this first deportation, Daniel and his three friends—Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego)—were taken captive to Babylon.
Habakkuk’s Question and God’s Silence
It is during this turbulent season that the prophet Habakkuk writes. Habakkuk is essentially a three-chapter dialogue between a questioning prophet and God. Much like Job, Habakkuk asks the hard question we have all asked: “God, why do the wicked prosper while the righteous suffer? Why are You using an ungodly nation like Babylon to discipline us?”
Habakkuk 1:5 (NASB)
’Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because [I am] doing something in your days– You would not believe if you were told.
God tells him, “Look among the nations and wonder! I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe even if you were told.” God was saying, “You have such a myopic view. I am doing something in your midst that must be done. By doing it, I will do something in you, so that later I can do something through you. Let Me be God.”
Habakkuk continues to wrestle, and in chapter 2, God gently “shushes” him.
Habakkuk 2:20 (NASB)
‘But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.’
When we constantly challenge God’s ways, we subtly imply that our plan is better than His. God reminds Habakkuk that the Lord is in His holy temple, and the whole earth needs to be silent before Him.
The Fall of Jerusalem
Back in 2 Kings 24, Jehoiakim dies and his son Jehoiachin takes over. By this point, Babylon has defeated Egypt, leaving Babylon as the sole superpower. Nebuchadnezzar’s forces besiege Jerusalem again, and Jehoiachin surrenders.
Jeremiah had prophesied directly to Jehoiachin that he would be taken to Babylon and none of his sons would sit on the throne, which is exactly what happened.
Nebuchadnezzar then installs Zedekiah as his puppet king. Zedekiah eventually rebels, prompting Nebuchadnezzar to return with his entire army.
2 Kings 25:1 (NASB)
Now in the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, camped against it and built a siege wall all around it.
Jeremiah told the people the exile would last seventy years, even buying a field in Anathoth to demonstrate his certainty that God’s people would return. Years later, Daniel would read Jeremiah’s words while in Babylon, do the math, and know the time of return was near.
For Zedekiah, the end was brutal. The prophet Ezekiel had spoken an unusual prophecy concerning him: he would be taken to Babylon and die there, yet he would not see it.
2 Kings 25:7 (NASB)
They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, then put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him in bronze chains, and dragged him to Babylon. He went to Babylon, and he died there, but he never saw it—just as scripture foretold.
2 Kings 25:12 (NASB)
But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.
The city walls were torn down, the temple was burned to the ground, and only the poorest of the land—the vinedressers and the plowmen—were left behind. The Southern Kingdom was crushed. A heap of rubble and regret.
Hearing the Word and Doing It
What is our takeaway from this entire account? It takes us straight back to King Josiah in chapter 22.
When Josiah sent workers to repair the temple, the high priest found the Book of the Law hidden away in a storage room. They brought the scroll to the young king and read it aloud.
2 Kings 22:11 (NASB)
When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes.
When Josiah heard the Word of God, he tore his clothes in deep repentance. He realized their lives, and the lives of their fathers, were not aligned with God’s Word. He did not just acknowledge the text; he wept, he sought God, and he put what was written into practice.
Josiah stood out because he found the Bible, read it, and did what it said. Most of the other kings started well and crashed, or suffered massive moral failures. Josiah nailed it because he submitted his life to the Scriptures.
How is your time in the Word?
If we are candid, many of us are biblically illiterate. We simply do not read the text, and we miss out on the vital spiritual nourishment we desperately need. Imagine going to a massive buffet on Sunday afternoon and eating until you can barely move. But then you eat nothing on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. Would you survive? Technically, yes. Would you thrive? Absolutely not. You would be exhausted, irritable, unfocused, and weak.
That is exactly what happens to us spiritually. We come to church on Sunday, get fed a good meal, put our Bible in the car, and never open it all week. Then we wonder why we struggle with moral failure, why we lose our temper, why we can’t break sinful habits, and why we feel spiritually drained. We are spiritually starving.
It is not enough to simply know trivia or locate a minor prophet quickly. Nobody is transformed by mere Bible trivia. What is powerful is when the Bible says, “Do not let any unwholesome word come out of your mouth,” and you actually guard your speech. What is powerful is taking every thought captive when temptation enters your mind. What is powerful is treating others with pure honor and walking in self-control because God’s Word calls you to it.
The real revolution starts when we take what the Word of God says and obey it. When you feed on the Scriptures daily, your spiritual strength grows. Conviction turns into alignment, and faith becomes alive and active.
Remembering the Covenant
Josiah also restored the Passover, calling the people back to remember God’s deliverance when the blood of the lamb marked their doorposts in Egypt.
On the night He was betrayed, Jesus took that Passover meal and revealed its ultimate meaning. He took the bread, broke it, and said, “This is My body, broken for you.” He took the cup and said, “This is the blood of the new covenant, poured out for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of Me.”
Tonight, we have the privilege of responding to God’s Word by sharing in communion together. As the worship team comes up, we invite believers to come forward, take the bread, dip it in the cup, and remember the finished work of Christ. It is a moment to examine our hearts, confess our need for Him, and celebrate His grace.
If you are visiting with us and have not yet placed your faith in Jesus, you can simply watch. Observe a room full of people worshiping their Savior, and ask yourself what makes Jesus worthy of such deep devotion.
Let’s follow the example of Josiah—listening to God’s Word, turning our hearts fully toward Him, and walking in joyful obedience.
Let’s pray.
Father, thank You for Your Word and for the example of Josiah. Thank You that age does not limit how You can use someone whose heart is fully surrendered to You. Make us men and women of the Book—people who read our Bibles, love Your truth, and faithfully put it into practice. As we take communion tonight, receive our worship. May Christ be lifted up and glorified in our midst. In Jesus’ name, Amen.