Remedies Rejected in Jerusalem

The last king to rule over an independent kingdom of Judah was Josiah. Even he was mortally wounded in battle with the Egyptians (2 Chronicles 35:20-24). But after his death, kings rose and fell in quick succession, under the shadow of Egyptian and then Babylonian domination.

• Josiah’s son Jehoahaz reigned three months before being taken to Egypt (2 Chronicles 36:1-4).
• Another son, Eliakim, ruled for eleven years. The king of Egypt changed his name to Jehoiakim. The king of Babylon ended his reign (2 Chronicles 36:5-8).
• His son Jehoiachin (age 8) reigned for three months and ten days, before being taken to Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:9-10).
• His uncle (another son of Josiah), Mattaniah, reigned eleven years. The king of Babylon changed his name to Zedekiah. His reign ended when the king of Babylon destroyed the city and carried the remaining people into captivity (2 Chronicles 36:11-21; see also 2 Kings 24:17-20; 25:1-21).

Things might have seemed hopeless by the time Zedekiah began to reign, but the Lord hadn’t given up on His people. Chronicles tells us that the king “humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 36:12; see also Jeremiah 37:16-21; 38:14-28). Additionally, “the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers.” Why? “Because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place” (2 Chronicles 36:15). God wanted to save the inhabitants of Judah and their home: the city of Jerusalem. But such was not to be:

They mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy.

2 Chronicles 36:16

Who were these messengers, and what message was so soundly rejected? To learn more about it, we turn to the first chapter in the Book of Mormon.

In “the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah,” a man named Lehi, who had lived in Jerusalem his entire life, saw in a vision the impending destruction of his city (1 Nephi 1:4-13). In response to this vision, Lehi began to warn his neighbors (1 Nephi 1:18). He also testified of:

1. “Their wickedness and their abominations”
2. “The coming of a Messiah”
3. “The redemption of the world”

(1 Nephi 1:19)

First they mocked him, then they tried to kill him (1 Nephi 1:19-20). Why did they react so violently? No one likes to be told they’re wrong, and perhaps it’s as simple as that. They were also following the example of their king, who had rejected the words of Jeremiah. And they were treating Lehi exactly the same as the other messengers, whom they had also “mocked” and “misused.”

But the Book of Mormon account opens a crack in the Chronicler’s verdict that there was “no remedy.” Perhaps that was true for the city collectively, but not for individuals within it. As Nephi testifies and then demonstrates through his own family’s escape, “the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance” (1 Nephi 1:20).

Today I will listen to God’s messengers. I will remember that He sends them out of compassion for me, but that they can only benefit me if I heed their message. I will remember that God is always ready to bless me with “tender mercies,” as soon as I exercise faith in Him.