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2CHRONICLES
CHAPTER 36

36:1 Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father's stead in Jerusalem. 2 Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. 3 And the king of Egypt put him down at Jerusalem, and condemned the land in an hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 4 And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and turned his name to Jehoiakim. And Necho took Jehoahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt.

My, my, my! The nation of Judah is now a bouncing ball between Egypt and Babylon! Whatever these two nations decide to do with Judah, they are able to do it.
The people made Jehoahaz king, then the king of Egypt came and stripped him of power, and carried him away to Egypt. Then he made Eliakim, Jehoahaz's brother, a vassal king.
Why was this happening? Well, I think this is where God's WORD shows the TRUTH of the matter.
2Kings 23:32 says that Jehoahaz "did evil in the sight of the Lord."
Josiah had worked hard for revival and reform in Judah. God had BLESSED that work. Now the very next king, and Josiah's son, decided to go against God! And God had ENOUGH! It was time to take away the hand of blessing.
When God removes His hand of protection and blessing, a nation is at the mercy of other nations!

5 Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God. 6 Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon. 7 Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of the LORD to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon. 8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found in him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.

Jehoiakim (Eliakim) reigned for 11 years, and again, may I point out that God's Word says, "...he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God.." (verse 5).
God allowed the king of Babylon to come and capture him and carry him away. The king of Babylon also stripped the temple of the gold.
Nebuchadnezzar carried the "vessels" of the temple (made of gold) to his own idolatrous temple.
Later, these vessels would be used by Belshazzar (Nebuchadnezzar's son) to drink wine at a drunken party. Then God sent the famous "hand" which wrote on the wall (Daniel 5) to tell him that this act would cost him his kingdom.

9 Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. 10 And when the year was expired, king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of the LORD, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.

As a young king, having seen all the problems before by evil kings, you'd think this young boy would want godly counselors to teach him RIGHT decisions.
But he didn't.
Do you see the pattern here? The kings which do "evil" in God's sight are put down quickly!

11 Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 12 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the LORD. 13 And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the LORD God of Israel. 14 Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.

Zedekiah was 21, and reigned for 11 years. Again, here was a wicked king.
God sent one of the more able and astute prophets to him, but he "rebelled" against God and put Jeremiah in prison.
Zedekiah also "rebelled" against the king of Babylon. The Babylonians came and set Jerusalem under seige. Zedekiah called on Jeremiah several times, but never would "hearken" to the Lord's Word.
Finally, the Babylonians broke into the city. Zedekiah escaped and then was captured. His sons were brought before him and slain. Then his eyes were put out. The last thing he saw was his own sons dying because of his rebellion! (2Kings 25:6-7)
When men rebel against God they influence their children to die spiritually to God.

15 And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: 16 But 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. 17 Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand. 18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. 19 And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. 20 And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: 21 To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.

Zedekiah was actually the last king, even though he was only a "vassal" of the king of Babylon. After that Gedaliah was made "governor" by the king of Babylon. And Gedaliah was killed.
When the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem they destroyed Solomon's temple. They carried all the "good stuff" from the temple to Babylon.
God had ordained it, because the people were rebellious and would not worship Him. He had sent prophet after prophet to tell them this would happen, but they would not listen.
Now it was too late. Thousands were carried off to Babylon.
One would think that this would END Jehovah worship! But it didn't! There were still many devout priests and Levites and others who truthfully worshipped God.
To these, God was gracious and allowed them to live, even if they lived in bondage. And the worship went on.

22 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, 23 Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.

True to His Word, as always, God ended the Babylonian captivity and slavery after the designated 70 years.
God moved upon Cyrus, who had become king of Babylon's empire by overpowering it. He was the king of Persia, and the leader of the Persian empire, which ruled the whole world.
Cyrus may not have been a believer in Jehovah, but he claimed that God had ordained him to return the captives and to build a temple in Jerusalem.
As such, then, he became Israel's DELIVERER for the moment.

As we end the book of 2Chronicles, I hope you have seen that God is SOVEREIGN. He is in complete control of all the world powers. And he orchestrates the movement of each according to His Divine Providential care for His chosen people.
This is true in the Old Testament, and it is still true today.

Rom 8:28 28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. KJV