Daily Old Testament: 2 Chronicles 36 and My Own Article on Friends and Scripture (Part 1)

2 Chronicles 36 – Jehoahaz, son of Josiah, is made king. He is 23 and reigns only three months. The king of Egypt deposes him and imposes a tribute on the land. He makes Jehoahaz’s  brother Eliakim king and changes his name to Jehoiakim. Jehoahaz is taken to Egypt.

Jehoiakim reigns eleven years and does what is evil. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon comes against him, binds Jehoiakim in bronze chains and takes him to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar also takes some of the treasures of the Temple too.

Jehoiachin, Jehoiachim’s son, takes his father’s place when he is only eight years old and he reigns only ten days. He does what was evil too (at age 8??).

In the spring, King Nebuchadnezzar sends to have him brought to Babylon too. His older brother Zedekiah (36:22) is made king. He reigns 11 years but also does what is evil. He “refused to humble himself when the prophet Jeremiah spoke to him directly from the Lord” (36:12). He also rebels against Nebuchadnezzar “even though he had taken an oath of loyalty in God’s name. Zedekiah was a hard and stubborn man, refusing to turn to the Lord, the God of Israel” (36:13).

The leading priests and people also are unfaithful. “The Lord, the God of their ancestors, repeatedly sent his prophets to warn them, for he had compassion on his people and his Temple. But the people mocked these messengers of God and despised their words. They scoffed at the prophets until the Lord’s anger could no longer be restrained and nothing could be dome” (36:15-16).

The Lord brings the king of the Chaldeans against them. He kills their youths in the sanctuary and has no compassion on anyone. All the Temple treasures are taken. They burn the house of God down, break down the walls of the city and burn all the palaces. “The few who survived were taken as exiles to Babylon, and they became servants to the king and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power” (36:20).

“So the message of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah was fulfilled. The land finally enjoyed its Sabbath rest, lying desolate until the seventy years were fulfilled, just as the prophet had said” (36:21).

It is King Cyrus of Persia who will rebuild the Temple. Jeremiah’s prophesy is again fulfilled when King Cyrus when he permits the Lord’s people to return to Jerusalem.

“Friends and Scripture”

Introduction: This article is one I wrote some years ago and it was eventually part of the book I wrote called Leadings: A Catholic’s Journey Through Quakerism. My plan here is just to include a few paragraphs of the chapter each day.

Part 1

When modern liberal Friends talk about the how the scriptures are not the “Word of God” but only the words, they do so, I think, with an eye to justifying the space they believe Quakers put between themselves and scripture, to distinguishing themselves from those benighted Christians who take a more literal or authoritative view of scripture or those who believe that the scripture is an essential element in the learning of truth.  The space they believe early Friends put between themselves and scripture justifies the even greater space they have put between themselves and the Bible, a space they believe is healthy because of the limitations they see in it—its “primitive,” warlike aspects, its historical unreliability, its cultural baggage (the exclusivity of its claims and the patriarchal elements that feminists find so irritating) and its authority in other Christian denominations that Friends find hard to take.

But the view that early Friends put any kind of distance between themselves and scripture is simply not true.  Early Friends questioned the prevailing approaches to scripture mainly to get people to erase the distance they put between themselves and scripture by seeing it too outwardly, by setting it up as an artifact rather than as something to be entered into and viewed from within.  One of the most moving and profound parts of the testimony and writings of early Friends is the way they internalized what they read in scripture, the way they entered into the spirit of it and saw the world in its terms.

I think this is something I always knew about 17^th century Friends, but I could never find “outward” words in Friends’ writings that were clear enough to keep other Friends from insisting that Quakers had always viewed the book as less authoritative than other Christians of their day had seen it.  Their statements about it being the words, not the Word of God; their (or at least Fox’s) insistence that he had come to his inward revelation without “the help of man” and without the help of “the letter” by which he meant the letter of scripture (Journal 34) all seemed to justify the claim modern Friends made that Quakers did not view the scriptures as central.  But when I read the testimonies of early Friends or read their pamphlets or catechism or debates with others, the one thing I could not understand was why they always couched their ideas in scripture quotations.  And if they did not think the scriptures were authoritative, why were they seemingly the most literal of Christians in refusing to take oaths, in refusing to use any term that was not biblical, or in making sure that people understood that they believed Jesus’s teachings on simplicity and non-violence were normative for Christians, not merely ideals he set.

Daily Bible Reading: 2 Kings 24-25 and Luke 17

2 Kings 24 – King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Jerusalem Bible calls Nabu-kudur-usur founder of the Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean Empire, which succeeded Assyria from 605-562. The expedition to Palestine described here took place around 602. He defeated Pharaoh at Carchemish in 605. He comes to dominate Judah. Jehoiakim “became his servant for three years,” but then Jehoiakim rebels. “The Lord” sent against them bands of Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites and Ammonites “to destroy” Judah “for the sins of Manasseh, for all that he had committed, and also for the innocent blood that he had shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was not willing to pardon” (24:4).

When Jehoiakim dies, his son Jehoiachin (598-597) succeeds him. He was 18 and reigns three months; he did what was evil as his father had done.  The King of Babylon takes him prisoner, carries off all the treasure of the king’s house, cuts up the vessels of gold in the temple and carries off “all the officials, all the warriors, ten thousand captives, all the artisans and the smiths; no one remained, except the poorest people of the land” (24:14). He made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah. He reigned 11 years (597-587). Apparently he was Jehoahaz’ brother or half-brother.

2 Kings 25 – Zedekiah rebels against Babylon in the 9^th year of his reign (589). The city is besieged for 3 years. There is severe famine. When a breach is made in the city wall, the king and his soldiers flee in the direction of the Arabah; but the army of the Chaldeans overtakes him in the plains of Jericho. All his army is scattered. They capture the king and bring him to the king of Babylon at Riblah. “They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, then put out the eyes of Zedekiah; they bound him in fetters and took him to Babylon” (25:6-7). In 587, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, servant of Nebuchadnezzar, comes and burns all the great houses of Jerusalem; they break down all the walls of the city and carry into exile everyone except the poorest people “to be vinedressers and tillers of the soil?” (25:12) They take the chief priest Seraiah and the second priest, Zephaniah and the three guardians of the threshold. They were put to death at Riblah in the land of Manath. He appointed Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan as governor. He tries to get people to cooperate but he is struck down by someone in the royal family, and they flee to Egypt. Meanwhile, in Babylon, Jehoiachin lives well, having been released from prison.

Luke 17 – Do not cause others to stumble. “It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck. . .” (17:2). If a believer sins, you must rebuke him, and if there is repentance, you must forgive—even if the sins are repeated. The disciples beg Jesus to increase their faith.  He says if it is the size of a mustard seed, they could do anything.

Jesus is just teaching them what it is their duty to do.  Who among them would welcome their own servants back from the fields with a banquet?  Rather, they would tell the servant to serve them first and then satisfy themselves later.

On the way to Jerusalem, in the region of Samaria and Galilee, Jesus is approached by ten lepers. He heals them and tells them to show themselves to the priests.  But only one turns back to thank Jesus—a Samaritan leper.

Jesus is asked about the coming kingdom and the “last days.”  He tells the Pharisees, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed . . .the kingdom of God is within you” [another translation is “among you”](17:21). To the disciples, however, he goes into other things.  He says they will look for “one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it” (17:22).  Do not pursue it. “For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day” (17:24). He must endure much suffering and be rejected “by this generation” (17:25—the 2^nd prediction of his passion). As in the days of Noah, there will be eating and drinking until the floods come.  You must be ready to follow and not look back when the time comes.  When the time does come, people will be plucked away and some will be left.  Where to? He says, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather” (17:37).