Break and Burn

8 On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, an official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 9 He set fire to the temple of the LORD, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down. 10 The whole Babylonian army, under the commander of the imperial guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.

11 Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard carried into exile the people who remained in the city, along with the rest of the populace and those who had gone over to the king of Babylon. 12 But the commander left behind some of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields.

13 The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the movable stands and the bronze Sea that were at the temple of the LORD and they carried the bronze to Babylon. 14 They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. 15 The commander of the imperial guard took away the censers and sprinkling bowls–all that were made of pure gold or silver.

16 The bronze from the two pillars, the Sea and the movable stands, which Solomon had made for the temple of the LORD, was more than could be weighed. 17 Each pillar was twenty-seven feet high. The bronze capital on top of one pillar was four and a half feet high and was decorated with a network and pomegranates of bronze all around. The other pillar, with its network, was similar. (2 Kings 25:8-17)

After Zedekiah, king of Judah, had been blinded and his sons killed, there was still the question of what to do with the city of Jerusalem. It was possible that Nebuchadnezzar would keep the city intact and use it as a center for his own power. After all, a city takes time to build. But Nebuchadnezzar had a different plan.
Four weeks after the city had fallen to the Babylonians, the commander of Nebuchadnezzar’s imperial guard arrived in Jerusalem (2 Kings 25:3-4, 8). Under his orders, the city was burned: the temple, the royal palace, all the houses, every important building (2 Kings 25:9).

Wood and fabric burns, but what about stone and metal? They are hard and strong and don’t burn. It was the stone walls that the people relied on to protect Jerusalem. Even more so, they looked to the temple with its bronze pillars and Bronze Sea. It was the temple of the Lord. How could anything harm them when they had the temple?
But the stone walls were broken down and the bronze pillars and Bronze Sea of the temple were broken up into pieces small enough to carry back to Babylon (2 Kings 25:13).
The people in Jerusalem had made a terrible mistake. Stone is hard and metal is strong, but these things could not protect them. Not even the temple building could do that. Things are never strong enough that they cannot be broken.

The only sure protection comes not from things, not even from the temple of the Lord, but only from the Lord Himself. He is the one who protects. He is the one we must rely on.

Prayer:
• What things are you relying on for your safety and protection? Money? Education? Position? God is the only one you can really rely on.
Pray that God will give you wisdom and strength to trust in Him.