There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them executed. So Judah went into captivity, away from her land. – 2 Kings 25:21

Today's Scripture Reading (August 17, 2026): 2 Kings 25

The story is told of the early days of Abraham Lincoln's first term as President. In an unusual picture of humility, a common sight in Springfield was of the President-elect making his daily trip to the local post office to pick up his mail. Finally, Lincoln concluded that he needed help, and, with that determination in mind, early in 1861, he hired a young immigrant named John Nicolay as his private secretary. Nicolay would hold the office until Lincoln's assassination in 1865.

Nicolay was alarmed as he began reading the letters the President was receiving; many were threats against the newly elected President. Lincoln seemed to be unperturbed. Lincoln was unable to imagine how it could be that political hatred could ever be transformed into an attack that would cause physical harm. Yet, on the evening of his first inauguration, the president-elect found himself sneaking into Washington. At the same time, citizens who had planned the first assassination attempt on President Lincoln's life waited for him in Baltimore.

The strategy of killing the leaders is an ancient one. And as the saga of the Kingdom of Judah ends, that is exactly what happens. In all fairness to Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar had tried other avenues, but the nation had repeatedly rebelled against his rule. And so, as he closes this chapter, he expels the people and kills the leaders, both political and religious, of the nation.

There is an almost eerie lack of emotion as the writer of 2 Kings announces the demise of the nation. A nation that began with acts of dependence on God and the faith of the people, first with the crossing of the Jordan at its flood stage when the water of the Jordan was the deepest and the swiftest, and then with the miraculous fall of the walled city of Jericho, over eight hundred years later ends with consecutive acts of idolatry, a dependence on other gods, and rebellion. It is with these acts of rebellion that the story of the nation ends. It had started as the story of a people given the honor of reaching the world and making it a better place. It ends as the people are scattered and driven from the land that God had promised to them, all because of their failure to fulfill that very responsibility that had been given to them by the God who had brought them out of Egypt in the first place.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 21