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Show Zedekiah was the twenty-third king of Judah, an irresolute, vacillating va-cillating character in a position of authority. Apparently helpless help-less to change the tendency of affairs, Zedekiah lacked even the courage to try and one of his few decisive actions, breaking with Babylon, led to the utter destruction of his knigdom. Judah had previously felt the sting of the Babylonian lash and at first Zedekiah submitted completely com-pletely to the power of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuch-adnezzar. He even wrote to some of the Jews already in exile to submit peaceably, and become good citizens. As the years passed, pass-ed, however, a powerful group in Judah began to flirt with the idea of overthrowing the Babylonian Baby-lonian yoke. Moab, Edom, Tyre and other countries wanted to arrange a general uprising, against which Jeremiah warned, but when the King secured the promise of Egyptian help, he was willing to defy Babylon; It so happened that the king against whom Zedekiah was rebelling re-belling was one of the ablest rulers yet produced by any country, coun-try, Navolassar had restored the Babylonian Empire and his son, Nebuchadnezzar, had been one of his capable generals, having defeated the Egyptians in the battle of Carhemish. Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchad-nezzar ruled Babylon for 43 years and his fame rests more upon his statesmanlike and constructive con-structive ability than upon military mili-tary achievements, although in that regard he is entitled to rank as a great leader. Nebuchadnezzar enlarged and rebuilt Babylon, surrounded it with a gigantic wall which is said to have been more than 300 feet high, and then within, the city constructed a costly and magnificent temple to the God of Bel. He had designed and constructed, con-structed, for his wife, the famous fa-mous hanging gardens which ranked as one of the seven wonders won-ders of the ancient world. In addition, he constructed a vast reservoir to contain a water supply sup-ply and for the purposes of irrigation, ir-rigation, with canals, etc. Notwithstanding Not-withstanding all this, however, the city of ancient Babylon is buried under fifty feet of accumulated ac-cumulated earth and its onetime one-time glories pre only brought to light through excavations by the archeologists. When Zedekiah rebelled, Nebuchadnezzar Ne-buchadnezzar promptly came at the head of a large army which 1 divided to besiege several cities simultaneously, In those ancient days, the walls of a city were its defense against destruction, and so the subjects of Zedekiah de fended Jerusalem for 18 months, i Notwithstanding every effort to provide the necessary supplies, it was inevitable sooner or later that the horrors of famine would bring about destruction unless some relief came. An Egyptian army marched to the assistance of the Jews and this brought diversion, di-version, but it was only temporary, tempor-ary, and in the closing months of the siege, famine and plague took a dreadful toll of the people of the Jews. Eventually, the battering rams j and offensive power of Babylon j made a breach in the walls of Jerusalem, whereupon the king and the army fled, hotly pur-sued pur-sued by the Babylonians. This was in the year 586 B. C. Zedekiah Zede-kiah was captured as he endeavored endea-vored to escape and was led before be-fore the Babylonian monarch in chains. Here he was condemned by a court for treachery and suffered suf-fered a painful and life-long punishment. pun-ishment. Many of the prominent leaders of the Jews were executed exe-cuted and the king's children were killed in his presence just before Zedekiah was permanently permanent-ly blinded and carried cap've to Babylon, where he died. Thus, two prophecies, apparently contradictory, con-tradictory, were fulfilled, that he would be taken prisoner to Babylon Baby-lon and that he would never see Babylon. A month or so later, the city 'of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonian army; The protective pro-tective walls were torn down so as to render further defense impossible im-possible and a large number of the better class of the survivors were carried prisoners to Babylon. Baby-lon. Solomon's marvelous temple, another of the ancient wonders, which had been admired and revered re-vered for more than 400 years, was entirely sacked and destroyed. des-troyed. The King's palace, upon which .Solomon spent thirteen years in building, the Armory and Treasury of the Royal Hoi;se with its magnificent reception hall, throne room and other apartment, were likewise razed to the ground. Only a limited portion of the inhabitants of Judah were allowed" to remain in the land. The history of Judah has a value for all modern nations. The Jews prospered and grew in strength as long as they were moderately obedient to Gpd's laws, but when the moral fibre of the nation had been shattered, all of the glory and power of Jerusalem passed forever. This experience has not been unique for Judah alone, for the record of history is nothing but the countless repetition of peoples and cities growing in wealth and power to domination, when leisure lei-sure and luxury and selfishness brings about disaster. Syria, Assyria, As-syria, Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome and others furnish the same illustration. Our country has grown to power and influence influ-ence throughout the world will our people profit by the lessons of history? |