2 Kings 25:1

2 Kings 25:1 says, And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.  In the tenth year of his reign in Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar came with all his troops and besieged Jerusalem.  He came to stay as long as necessary it seems, since he had forts built around Jerusalem.  Those who oppose God and His people today are still willing to dig in and stay for as long as necessary to defeat them, but unlike Jerusalem, spiritually they never will.  Of course, we must remain faithful to God for this to be true, and the people of Jerusalem hadn't. Verse two adds, And the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.  Jerusalem was besieged for about two years.  I have to wonder if the people inside had turned to God in true repentance and asked Him for deliverance if the siege would have gone on this long, but since they had rejected Him so many times, we will never know.  If we as followers of Christ are besieged by sinful forces in the world today, all we can do is repent of any sin in our life and ask God to deliver us.  Of course, spiritually, He already has.  Verse three continues, And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.  After being besieged for so long, the people of Jerusalem ran out of bread.  These were God's Chosen People that He had fed with bread from heaven in the wilderness, and now in the land flowing with milk and honey that He had given them, due to their disobedience they were starving.  We as Christians should never find ourselves spiritually starving because we have access to the Living Bread.  Verse four states, And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king's garden: (now the Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king went the way toward the plain.  The people inside, starting with all the men of war, slipped out of the city and Zedekiah the king did as well.  If we find ourselves spiritually starving because of being besieged by the power of evil in the world, we don't need to try and slip away, but we must stand firm in our faith in God.  Our King will never desert us.  Verse five adds, And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were scattered from him.  Zedekiah and his army were not successful in getting away.  The army of the Chaldeans overtook the king in the plains of Jerico.  We are never going to be successful in trying to escape from the forces of evil by our own strength, but we must always look to God for deliverance.  Verse six adds, So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him.  Zedekiah was brought to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, and judgment was passed on him.  The only judgment we should ever be concerned about as followers of Christ is God's judgment, and if we have truly accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, we have already been pronounced not guilty.  Verse seven states, And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.  All of Zedekiah's sons were killed as he watched, then his eyes were put out, and he was put in brass fetters and carried to Babylon.  Think about the last thing that you see being your children put to death, and then you are left alive to remember it.  Zedekiah, due to his disobedience to God, was about as far removed from being a king as he could be and still be alive.  We need to acknowledge that the world can be a cruel place, sometimes especially to Christians, but we must never lose our faith in Jesus Christ.