Some battles we lose because the enemy is strong; some are lost because we simply run away.
The siege of Jerusalem was over. The walls had been breached, and the royal family decimated. Now “in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month (which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard…came to Jerusalem” (2 Ki 25:8). It seems his task was to make sure that Jerusalem would never again rise from its ashes to threaten rebellion against Babylon. He did a thorough job! Not so long ago, we were reading with excitement of the magnificent building projects of Solomon. Now “He burned the house of the Lord and the king’s house;…all the houses of the great, he burned with fire” (v 9). Meanwhile, his army broke down the city walls, chopped up the holy furniture, and “carried away captive the rest of the people” (v 11). We later learn that about 4,600 were transported to Babylon. They only “left some of the poor of the land as vinedressers and farmers” (v 12). Then whatever leaders they could locate were also taken to Riblah, where they “put them to death” (v 21). It wouldn’t be the last time a conqueror thought that was the end of Jerusalem! There still needed to be some minimal rule, and “Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan” (v 22) was made governor over those left. Remember Shaphan was the court scribe under Josiah. Headquartered at Mizpah, he encouraged the locals: “Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you” (v 24). But “Ishmael the son of Nethaniah,…of the royal family, came with ten men and struck and killed Gedaliah” (v 25) and his courtiers. Then for fear of the coming reprisals, “all the people, small and great” (v 26) escaped to Egypt, the land from which they had long before been delivered.