What I find remarkable about this is how good these men were but this was still not enough to save Judah. These were good leaders, great men, godly men, men who understood the covenant Moses made with God and how obeying it would bring good to their people. They both did everything they could to save their people and it was not enough, the nation still fell.
I cannot help but observe that this is a common trend in history. Once decline is set in then there is not really much that even the best leaders can do to stop it. At best they can delay the collapse.
This might sound like I am black pilling, but I am not. Israel did not end with the exile. The Judean people went into exile and came back out the other side refined. They learnt from their mistakes and their society lasted for many centuries after the return from exile. This teaches us some important things.
God obviously wants nations to repent and turn back to him. He is gracious and even though Judah deserved to be judged way sooner he gave them a lot of chances, and some good kings stemmed the tide of decline. But eventually God will allow the collapse to happen and this process refines a nation. Australia has never been through this process, neither has the US, which means it is in our futures. We can learn from God’s word about how to delay the decline, how to ride it out and how to come through it a stronger more godly people.
Once societies decline and fall they never get back to their former glory. But this is not a bad thing. A nation’s greatness is not determined by how many nations it can dominate. A nation’s greatness is found in how well it can steward its people in faith towards God, and in maintaining its dignity as a nation. Sometimes peoples have to learn this the hard way.
