# Jerusalem Under Attack - The Book of Jeremiah, 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles

An episode of [Kids Bible in a Year with Julia Jeffress Sadler](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1696638708), 11 Jan 2024, 11 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/f8ddd7fd-69c6-48d0-804f-b4d6010c327c/a1d0eda7-2431-4468-9760-b4d6018925b9/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=14e8ed60-20b2-4d5c-a832-b4d6010c3283

Join Julia Jeffress Sadler as she takes us on an incredible adventure in Episode 129. Discover how Zedekiah defies the advice of Jeremiah, the wise prophet, and rebels against Babylon, mistakenly relying on Egypt's support. Nebuchadnezzar's army besieges Jerusalem, leading Zedekiah to seek divine guidance through Jeremiah. However, Jeremiah's prayers reveal a grim future: the inevitable fall of Jerusalem to Babylon. Amidst accusations of betrayal, Jeremiah is unjustly imprisoned, but King Zedekiah secretly consults him, learning of the futility of resisting Babylon. Despite better prison conditions, Jeremiah's message remains unchanged and somber: God will not intervene this time, and Jerusalem will fall. Sign up to receive Kids Bible in a Year devotionals in your inbox every weekday: https://www.kidsbibleinayear.com/ Get ready to experience the Bible designed specifically for children with the official KidsBibleinaYear.com podcast, led by Julia Jeffress Sadler. This captivating audio series presents the age-old wisdom of the Bible in an engaging format that will captivate your kids. Each episode Julia translates biblical teachings into real-life applications, making Bible comprehension a breeze for young minds. And if you want more Christian resources and content, you can download the Pray.com app. Pray.com is the digital destination for faith, offering over 5,000 daily prayers, meditations, bedtime Bible stories, and cinematic stories inspired by the Bible. For more resources on how to live a successful Christian life, visit Julia Jeffress Sadler's website at https://ptv.org/julia/. This episode is sponsored by Little Passports. Visit LittlePassports.com/blessed and use promo code BLESSED to receive 20% off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: In the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came,
[0:06] Speaker 1: he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it,
[0:11] Speaker 1: and they built forts against it, around it. 2 Kings
[0:16] Speaker 1: 25.1 Dear God, we know that life doesn't always happen
[0:20] Speaker 1: the way we want it to. But no matter what happens,
[0:24] Speaker 1: you are the Lord, and you love us. Help us
[0:27] Speaker 1: to protect others when they're hurting and teach us through
[0:31] Speaker 1: his story how we can stand up for others so
[0:35] Speaker 1: they can be safe. Thank you. We love you so much.
[0:39] Speaker 1: In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
[0:42] Speaker 2: Thank you for praying with us today. The Kids Bible
[0:45] Speaker 2: in a Year podcast is sponsored by Little Passports, delivering
[0:49] Speaker 2: monthly activity kit subscriptions that help kids explore the world,
[0:53] Speaker 2: cultivate curiosity, and discover new interests. with hands-on crafts and
[0:57] Speaker 2: activities in cooking, science, crafts, and more, all with a
[1:01] Speaker 2: unique cultural twist. Visit littlepassports.com slash blessed to learn more
[1:07] Speaker 2: and save 20% with code blessed.
[1:16] Speaker 3: Jerusalem under attack. In our last story, Jeremiah had a
[1:21] Speaker 3: vision of good and bad fruit. The good fruit are
[1:25] Speaker 3: the exiles, and the bad fruit are those who stay.
[1:29] Speaker 3: In this story, Zedekiah is appointed king by Nebuchadnezzar, and
[1:34] Speaker 3: Zedekiah will not listen to the words God spoke through Jeremiah,
[1:38] Speaker 3: and later, Jeremiah will be thrown into prison by the
[1:42] Speaker 3: city officers. As inspired by Jeremiah, 2 Kings, and 2 Chronicles.
[1:52] Speaker 1: Hi again, it's Joya Sadler with the Kids Bible in
[1:55] Speaker 1: a Year podcast. I'm so excited you're here with me.
[1:59] Speaker 1: Today we're going to hear a story about what happens
[2:02] Speaker 1: when God gives you a message, but you ignore it
[2:06] Speaker 1: again and again like King Zedekiah and the people of
[2:10] Speaker 1: Judah did. It's an important story, so let's dive in.
[2:17] Speaker 3: Zedekiah was king of Judah for nine years before he
[2:21] Speaker 3: turned against Babylon. He was sure Egypt would be on
[2:24] Speaker 3: his side. But Jeremiah, the wise prophet, said, If you
[2:29] Speaker 3: turn against Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar will destroy Jerusalem. Zedekiah didn't listen.
[2:37] Speaker 3: So Nebuchadnezzar did exactly what Jeremiah said he would do.
[2:41] Speaker 3: He brought his army to Jerusalem, and all the people
[2:45] Speaker 3: were trapped. No one could come or go. Zedekiah was
[2:49] Speaker 3: scared and he told Jeremiah to ask God for help.
[2:53] Speaker 3: Jeremiah knew God very well. God sometimes spoke to Jeremiah
[2:58] Speaker 3: and gave him dreams about the future. Jeremiah prayed for
[3:02] Speaker 3: Jerusalem and God acted powerfully. The Babylon army left Jerusalem
[3:07] Speaker 3: to fight Egypt. Zedekiah thought it was all over, but
[3:11] Speaker 3: God sent him a message. Pharaoh's army is coming back
[3:14] Speaker 3: to Egypt. Babylon will attack Jerusalem again. They are unstoppable
[3:20] Speaker 3: and will burn up everything. Jeremiah went away from the city,
[3:24] Speaker 3: but a guard spotted him and said, You're a traitor.
[3:28] Speaker 3: You're taking sides with the Babylonian army. Jeremiah shook his head. No,
[3:33] Speaker 3: I was just going to check on some of my
[3:35] Speaker 3: land outside the gates. But the guard thought he was lying.
[3:39] Speaker 3: He took Jeremiah to the officers of Jerusalem. The officers
[3:43] Speaker 3: were angry with Jeremiah and they beat him up. He
[3:46] Speaker 3: was thrown into prison. While Jeremiah was still in prison,
[3:50] Speaker 3: the Babylonians returned and trapped everyone in the city again.
[3:55] Speaker 3: Zedekiah was sneaky and helped Jeremiah escape from prison. The
[4:00] Speaker 3: king asked, Did God give you another message? Jeremiah nodded. Yes,
[4:06] Speaker 3: God said you would not win this fight. The Babylonian
[4:09] Speaker 3: army is going to win. Then Jeremiah pleaded with the king,
[4:14] Speaker 3: Don't put me back in prison. Everything God told me
[4:18] Speaker 3: has come true. Have I been wrong yet? So King
[4:22] Speaker 3: Zedekiah placed Jeremiah in the palace prison. It was much
[4:27] Speaker 3: better than the first prison Jeremiah was kept in. He
[4:30] Speaker 3: was taken care of. The city quickly ran out of
[4:33] Speaker 3: food because the Babylonians wouldn't let the people sell or
[4:36] Speaker 3: buy food. The rulers in Jerusalem cried out to Jeremiah,
[4:41] Speaker 3: Please pray to God for us. Only he can save
[4:44] Speaker 3: us now. Maybe he will do something amazing again. But
[4:48] Speaker 3: Jeremiah had terrible news for Jerusalem. God said, I won't
[4:53] Speaker 3: save you. I'm letting Babylon win. You will be punished.
[5:00] Speaker 3: If you live, the Babylonians will take you away.
[5:09] Speaker 1: Man, the people of Judah are in big trouble, aren't they?
[5:12] Speaker 1: Let's look again at what happened. God's people had promised
[5:16] Speaker 1: to worship him alone, but instead they kept worshiping worthless idols,
[5:21] Speaker 1: year after year, generation after generation. So whenever people followed
[5:28] Speaker 1: fake gods, it caused a lot of people to suffer,
[5:31] Speaker 1: and that made God angry. Now sometimes anger can be harmful,
[5:36] Speaker 1: and sometimes anger can be helpful. Let me explain. When
[5:40] Speaker 1: people get scared or hurt, they often show it by
[5:43] Speaker 1: getting angry. If something frustrating happens or someone hurts someone's feelings,
[5:49] Speaker 1: we can all get super mad super quickly. That can
[5:52] Speaker 1: cause some people to yell or even throw things around.
[5:57] Speaker 1: And that's not helpful. In fact, it can be very harmful.
[6:02] Speaker 1: But God's anger is not this kind of anger. You see,
[6:05] Speaker 1: God made us to treat each other with the kind
[6:08] Speaker 1: of love he has for us. So when people do
[6:11] Speaker 1: the opposite... When they hurt people who can't protect themselves
[6:16] Speaker 1: or are mean to others on purpose or steal from
[6:20] Speaker 1: the defenseless, it angers God. It's a righteous anger and
[6:24] Speaker 1: it should make us angry too. In fact, that anger
[6:29] Speaker 1: should inspire us. It should energize us to stand up
[6:34] Speaker 1: and tell people to stop it. When it does, it
[6:38] Speaker 1: becomes helpful anger because those who are getting hurt will
[6:41] Speaker 1: become safe again. It's also important that you don't get hurt.
[6:47] Speaker 1: So a lot of times when we're kids and we
[6:49] Speaker 1: see bad things happening, it's very important always to tell
[6:54] Speaker 1: an adult so they can help. This is the kind
[6:57] Speaker 1: of anger God was feeling because year after year, generation
[7:00] Speaker 1: after generation, people were getting hurt and he wanted them
[7:05] Speaker 1: to stop it. That's why he used Jeremiah and a
[7:08] Speaker 1: lot of other prophets to tell the people They needed
[7:12] Speaker 1: to change their behavior. If they didn't, he was going
[7:16] Speaker 1: to discipline them. Not in a super mad, super quickly way,
[7:21] Speaker 1: but in a way that would make sure those who
[7:23] Speaker 1: are getting hurt would become safe again. So Jeremiah said,
[7:29] Speaker 1: hey guys, God sees what you're doing and he said
[7:32] Speaker 1: to stop it. If you don't, King Nebuchadnezzar will take
[7:36] Speaker 1: over the city and you will not like it. But
[7:39] Speaker 1: King Zedekiah and the people said, Hmm, we don't like
[7:43] Speaker 1: that message, so we're not going to believe it. So
[7:46] Speaker 1: they didn't, and they didn't stop anything at all. And
[7:51] Speaker 1: just like Jeremiah said, King Nebuchadnezzar came with his army
[7:55] Speaker 1: and locked everyone inside Jerusalem for a while. Soon the
[7:59] Speaker 1: people ran out of food. The people didn't like that.
[8:03] Speaker 1: So they said, Hmm, maybe God was serious. We should
[8:09] Speaker 1: think about changing. But then Babylon got into a big
[8:13] Speaker 1: fight with Egypt. So Nebuchadnezzar took some people from Judah,
[8:17] Speaker 1: sent them to Babylon, and then went away with his army.
[8:22] Speaker 1: And the people in Jerusalem said, Just kidding. Everything is
[8:26] Speaker 1: fine now, so we're not changing after all. And Jeremiah said,
[8:30] Speaker 1: Hey guys, God still sees what you're doing, and he
[8:33] Speaker 1: still says to stop it. If you don't, King Nebuchadnezzar
[8:37] Speaker 1: will come back. and you won't like it. But again,
[8:41] Speaker 1: King Zedekiah and the people said, we don't like that message,
[8:47] Speaker 1: so we're not going to believe it. And again, they
[8:50] Speaker 1: didn't change anything at all. And again, King Nebuchadnezzar came
[8:55] Speaker 1: with his army and locked everyone inside Jerusalem for a while.
[8:59] Speaker 1: But this time it was worse. And King Zedekiah and
[9:03] Speaker 1: the people said, okay, we were wrong. Tell God we're
[9:07] Speaker 1: sorry so he'll take Nebuchadnezzar's army away again. But God
[9:12] Speaker 1: knew their hearts. They didn't want to stop worshiping idols.
[9:15] Speaker 1: They just didn't want to be disciplined anymore. So through Jeremiah,
[9:19] Speaker 1: he told them, It's too late. You need to learn
[9:23] Speaker 1: that you can't treat people any way you want to.
[9:25] Speaker 1: I'm giving you a long time out in Babylon to
[9:28] Speaker 1: help you really change. And because he loved him and
[9:33] Speaker 1: because God's anger was helpful, not harmful, He also promised
[9:37] Speaker 1: that while they were away, he would defend the defenseless
[9:41] Speaker 1: and protect innocent people so everyone who was getting hurt
[9:46] Speaker 1: would become safe again. I'm so happy you joined me today.
[9:50] Speaker 1: Come back next time to hear what happened when Jerusalem
[9:54] Speaker 1: finally fell. Remember, the Bible is the best story ever told.
[9:59] Speaker 1: It's God's story to you and it's all true if
[10:03] Speaker 1: this podcast brought you joy and seems like a valuable
[10:06] Speaker 1: tool for kids and parents please share it with someone
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[10:13] Speaker 1: in a year for more Bible stories and wisdom to
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[10:31] Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Kids Bible in a Year. I
[10:33] Speaker 1: want to invite our adult listeners to check out my
[10:36] Speaker 1: other show, Unapologetic, God's Truth on Today's Topics. It's unfiltered, important, inspiring,
[10:44] Speaker 1: and we have awesome conversations and amazing guests such as
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