In Second Kings, chapter twenty-five, verse seven, Zedekiah, the youngest son of Josiah, reigned for eleven years. He departed from the faith of his righteous father and often persecuted the prophet Jeremiah. Zedekiah could have avoided the tragedies that overtook him if he had listened to Jeremiah. The Chaldeans slew the children of Zedekiah that he experienced, which was the last he was to behold, might leave a deep and durable impression of grief and horror upon his spirit. And in slaying his sons, they declared that the kingdom was no more and that neither he nor any of his breed were fit to be trusted: therefore not suitable to live. The fulfillment of the two prophecies in Jeremiah thirty-two through thirty-three came to pass, and Zedekiah did not choose to listen but cater to the advice of the false prophets instead.
The seeming contradiction that Zedekiah, the false prophet, could not reconcile and concluded that both prophecies were wrong. Zedekiah, the king, stumbled at this difficulty. Both, however, were accomplished. This example convinces even the ignorant of the power and wisdom of God: The constancy of His counsels through all the various ways of His operations. It may likewise show us that God’s foreknowledge of things is sure. His providence is regular in the ordering of events and the exemplary instance of the danger of giving way to the motions of sin and infidelity, which deprive us of the means of discerning God’s judgments.
Likewise, if a church and its people do not listen to a godly pastor, the church risks finding itself destroyed and its children captivated by the evil of the world. However, a growing relationship with God avoids the tragedies of being deceived. The temptation of following the world and wrong advice leads to destruction.