In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, Evil-merodach ascended to the Babylonian throne. He was kind to Jehoiachin and released him from prison on April 2 of that year. He spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a higher place than all the other exiled kings in Babylon. 2 Kings 25:27-28 NLT
If there is yet a tenth of it remaining, then it will be burned; like a terebinth or an oak leaves a stump when it is cut down, its stump is a holy seed. Isaiah 6:13 (Author)
There is a fascinating similarity between the ending of 2 Kings and that of Isaiah 6. In both cases, there is a relentless march of destruction as the material comes to its end. But then, there is the briefest – in comparison to what has preceded – hint that destruction is not the end of the story. In 2 Kings, the downward spiral begins with the terrible 52-year reign of Manasseh (chap. 21) and ends (chap. 25) with the temple burned, the city in ruins, and the leadership exiled to Babylon.,
Isaiah 6 shows the same pattern although in a shorter compass. The people will reject Isaiah’s call to repent and when Isaiah asks how long that message must be preached, Yahweh says it must be preached until the nation looks like a field of burned-out stumps.
But with both pieces of literature, there is a terse, mysterious conclusion. In Kings we hear that after the last legitimate king of Judah had spent thirty-seven years (!) in prison, the new king of Babylon released him and gave him the top seat at his own table. What? And in Isaiah, after that relentless tale of destruction, there are three Hebrew words that pull us up short: “seed holy its stump”. What?
What’s going on? Why the long narration of destruction, and then the sudden hint (but no more), that destruction is not the end of the story? I think God is saying three things: 1) I do not have a hair-trigger temper; I will not destroy you the first moment you sin; I will give you a long rope; 2) But sin has consequences and they are inescapable; 3) Nevertheless, my intended last word is never destruction; when all is said and done, I will find a way to refine and redeem whatever remains, even if it is just the tiniest fragment. I will not be defeated! Praise his name.
Called To Be Transformed 