Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20070902.htm

1 AND 2 CHRONICLES: GAINING DIRECTION OUT OF THE AIMLESSNESS OF APOSTASY
Part V: Gaining Direction From God's Work In The Rest Of Judah's Dynasty, 2 Chronicles 13-36
V. Learning SERIOUSLY To Heed Our Ancestors' True God In YOUNG ADULTHOOD
(2 Chronicles 36:9-10 et al.)
  1. Introduction
    1. In our culture, we often view the "teenage years" as a time where we are allowed to blow off all of the foolishness within ourselves so that we can settle down later and be good citizens or Christians for God!
    2. That may be acceptable in our culture, but it is certainly an unacceptable view to God! He holds people even in young adulthood highly accountable to heed Him with what they KNOW (as follows):
  2. Learning SERIOUSLY To Heed Our Ancestors' True God In YOUNG ADULTHOOD.
    1. The Hebrew text holds that Jehoiachin was either eight years old or eighteen years old when he began to reign, a variation due to different readings in the Hebrew manuscripts, Bible Know. Com., O. T. , p. 648.
    2. Yet, as 2 Kings 24:15 with 2 Chron. 36:9-10 report Jehoiachin had wives when he was taken to Babylon 3 months and 10 days after starting to rule, he was doubtless 18 years old at the start of his reign! (Ibid.)
    3. Although he was only eighteen when he started to rule, since he ruled wickedly, God judged him to be captured and taken with his mother and young wives to Babylon, 2 Chron. 36:9-10 with 2 Kings 24:15.
    4. In fact, God was severe with Jehoiachin (alias Coniah), judging him never to have a descendant of his ever again prosperously to rule on David's throne; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., ftn. to Jer . 22:28-30!
    5. To understand why God was so quick and severe in judging this young adult king, a man no older than today's typical high school graduate, we note young Jeconiah had ample illustrations of divine blessing or judgment in his ancestors to which God had expected him to pay heed and learn for his own reign:
      1. From the timeline offered in 2 Chronicles 36:1-2, 5 and 9, we know that Jehoiachin would have been seven years of age when his grandfather, good king Josiah, had stepped out of God's will in fighting Necho of Egypt only to lose his life prematurely of God's will for him, 2 Chron. 35:20-27 with 34:28.
      2. Jehoiachin would also have witnessed how his uncle, king Jehoahaz had been taken captive to Egypt due to his sin after only three months of ruling, 2 Chronicles 36:1-3.
      3. He also would have seen his own father, Eliakim, have his name changed by the Egyptian ruler to that of Jehoiakim and placed on Jersualem's Davidic throne, 2 Chronicles 36:4.
      4. Jehoiachin would then have seen God judge his father, Jehoiakim after 11 years of rule after he had rebelliously cut up Jeremiah's scroll as it was read to him, 2 Chron. 36:5-6 with Jer. 36:1-3, 22-24.
      5. Jehoiachin was probably aware of the evil of this scroll-burning act even via his maternal grandfather:
        1. Jehoiachin's mother was Nehushta, "the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem," 2 Kings 24:8.
        2. Since this seems to identify to a predominant official of the city of Jerusalem, Judah's capital, this may well have been the same Elnathan who with Delaiah and Gemariah, other court officials, asked king Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin's father, to cease destroying Jeremiah's scroll as it was being read to him in Jeremiah 36:25; cf. Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, vol. Two, p. 294.
        3. If that be so, this may also have been the same Elnathan, son of Achbor who heeded Jehoiakim's call to capture a prophet who had given Jeremiah's same message, but who had faithlessly fled to Egypt for his life, and which capture led to the faithless prophet's execution, Jeremiah 26:20-23.
        4. Accordingly, king Jehoiachin would have known from his maternal grandfather's testimony of the futility of not heeding God, or failing to live by faith in Him and His word, and that as seen in his own awareness of the events in the lives of these various people with whom his father had dealings!
      6. So, for failing to heed these extensive evidences to the way of blessing versus judgment, for choosing to do evil, Jehoiachin was quickly, severely judged of God even as a young adult, 2 Chron. 36:9-10!
    6. God finally let Jehoiachin be released from bondage when he was 55 years old and be given a pension for life possibly due to the influence of the godly prophet Daniel, 2 Kings 25:27-30; Ibid., B. K. C., O. T.
Lesson: Even though he was just eighteen years of age, for not heeding the clear lessons he knew from the lives of his forefathers, Jehoiachin was very quickly, severely judged by God!

Application: (1) May we inform our children that THEY THEMSELVES have a STRICT accounting to make before GOD for their OWN choices! (2) If WE are YOUNG, may we SERIOUSLY HEED GOD!