Jerusalem’s Fall

International Sunday School Lesson November 9, 2025

Background

Hello, I’m Donnie Bryson. Welcome to another edition of the International Sunday School Lesson. Today’s lesson is for November 9, 2025, Fall Quarter Lesson #10. It’s taken from 2 Kings 24:18-20 and 2 Kings 25:1-9. The title of today’s lesson is “Jerusalem’s Fall”. The lesson is about the final destruction of Judea by the Babylonians. Josiah was the last righteous king in Jerusalem. The last three kings of Judea were evil. Jehoikim ruled from 609 BC to 597 BC. Jehoiachin reigned shortly during 597 BC. Zedekiah reigned from 597 BC to 586 BC. Two of the last three were the sons of the righteous Josiah. That is Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. Jehoachin was the grandson of Josiah. The big lesson we should all take from the lesson today is that we can’t lazily depend on the righteousness and wisdom of our family to see us through. Living right is a personal experience that we must do ourselves.

2 Kings 24:18 ESV
Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking this Jeremiah is the same person as the prophet. The prophet Jeremiah was from Anathoth and he had a lot of interaction with Zedekiah. There would certainly have been discussion of it if Zedekiah were his grandson. They were not kin. Zedekiah, who’s original name was Mattaniah, replaced his nephew, Jehoiachin. Jehoiachin served only one year as king in Judea. Jehoiachin led a minor revolt against Babylon in 597 BC. He was deposed and served 37 years of imprisonment but was released when he was fifty-five years old to enjoy his later years being treated as royalty. He still did not rule but was treated well.

2 Kings 24:19–20 ESV
And he 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.

And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

Zedekiah was warned repeatedly by Jeremiah about his evil actions. He’s repeatedly told that his repentance would’ve avoided the coming destruction. But, his 11 year reign was full of sin and rebellion against God.

2 Kings 25:1 ESV
And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem and laid siege to it. And they built siegeworks all around it.

Most likely this siege used what was called a “siege wall”. This was a wall that the attackers built outside the walls of a city that was higher than the city wall. The attackers could then climb over the city walls. This siege lasted a grueling 18 months.

2 Kings 25:2–3 ESV
So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

The famine was horrible in Jerusalem. This famine was foretold. God gave Jeremiah a prophecy of this famine in Jeremiah 44:12-14 “12 I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to come to the land of Egypt to live, and they shall all be consumed. In the land of Egypt they shall fall; by the sword and by famine they shall be consumed. From the least to the greatest, they shall die by the sword and by famine, and they shall become an oath, a horror, a curse, and a taunt. 13 I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, 14 so that none of the remnant of Judah who have come to live in the land of Egypt shall escape or survive or return to the land of Judah, to which they desire to return to dwell there. For they shall not return, except some fugitives.”

2 Kings 25:4 ESV
Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by the king’s garden, and the Chaldeans were around the city. And they went in the direction of the Arabah.

The walls of Jerusalem and the friendly armies of Egypt could not prevent the destruction. That is the way it always IS. The consequences of sin bring destruction no matter how safe you feel.

2 Kings 25:5–7 ESV
But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him. Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him. They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains and took him to Babylon.

Here we see the king and the military had deserted their post. They were charged with protecting the folks of Jerusalem. They were the defenders. The folks that they had encouraged to live a life of sin were left to face the consequences at the hands of the army of Babylon. The cowardice of the king and the military was not rewarded. The Babylonians caught them trying to escape.

2 Kings 25:8–9 ESV
In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. And he burned the house of the LORD and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down.

The first revolt under Jehoiachin was treated much lighter than this one. Judea became a vassal state after the first revolt under Jehoiachin. The second revolt was treated very harshly. It resulted in Jerusalem being completely destroyed.

Concluding Thoughts

I want to leave you with one major concluding thought. Granted, coming from a good family does have advantages. However, that good family does not negate the consequences of rebelling against God. Josiah was considered the most righteous king of ancient Judea by most of us. His two sons and grandson lived ungodly lives and suffered the consequences of that rebellion along with the entire country. You can’t depend on momma’s religion to see you through. You have to accept Jesus for yourself and walk that valley with your own feet. Well friends, good Lord willing, I’ll be back with you next weekend.