Teens in the Bible - Jehoiachin

Chapter 20 teen Jehoiachin

Jehoiachin? Ever heard of this king in the Bible? His father was Jehoiakim. Okay, that doesn't help. Biblical names and events scurry across the pages of 1st and 2nd Kings and Chronicles so quickly it’s terribly difficult to keep track.

Jehoiachin was just a teen when he became king. He doesn't get too many verses in the Bible so we have to pay close attention. I think that Jehoiachin’s story gives us a lesson that we can throw a number of clichés at: “like father, like son”, “the apple doesn't fall far from the tree”, “you reap what you sow”, and so on. 

Jehoiachin’s father “did evil in the eyes of the Lord” and the Lord sent raiders against him to destroy Judah.

When Jehoiachin became king at the tender age of eighteen the Bible tells us that he only reigned for three months. Why? Because “he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father had done.”  He was taken prisoner by the Babylonians who also removed all the treasures from the temple and the palace and then carried ten thousand people off into exile.

Our teen king spent 37 years in captivity before he was finally beheaded. All because he followed in his father’s evil footsteps. Lesson: don’t do what is evil in the eyes of the Lord.

Next Saturday 3 teens: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego