Here’s an interesting detail in the history of Judah’s
captivity. In 2 Kings 25:27–30 (NIV), we read:
27 In the thirty-seventh year of the
exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of
Babylon, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. He did this on the
twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month. 28 He spoke
kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings
who were with him in Babylon. 29 So Jehoiachin
put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the
king’s table. 30 Day by day
the king gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived.
This king came to the throne at the age of 18. He reigned
100 days! He was the last direct heir to
the Jewish crown. He was taken captive
to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. After 37 years in a Babylonian prison he was
liberated as noted above. He was “permitted to occupy a place in the king’s household and sit at his
table, receiving “every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days
of his life” (Jeremiah 52:32–34).[1]
Fast
forward to Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus and there we read:
“and
Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to
Babylon. After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,” (Matthew 1:11–12, NIV)
Jehoiachin
is called “Jechoniah” in Jesus’ genealogy.
“His release of the Judean king from prison in 561 b.c. gives the reader
some hope that there is still a future for the Davidic line—that the words of 2
Sam. 7:15–16 are still true: “my steadfast love will not depart from him.… your
kingdom shall be made sure forever.”[2] So even after the captivity of
Judah, God kept for Himself the royal line, the godly seed that would bring
forth a Savior.
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