Second Chronicles opens telling how the temple was built. It closes telling how and why the temple of God was destroyed.
First the enemy robbed the temple (vv. 7, 19), taking the treasures of the Lord to their pagan temple in Babylon. You expect an enemy to do this, but you do not expect the priests and people to defile their own temple (v. 14)! While Nebuchadnezzar was taking Jerusalem to Babylon, the Jewish leaders were bringing Babylon to Jerusalem! Do we ever learn?
The next step was death in the temple (v. 17). God had shown compassion to His people (v. 15), but the enemy showed no compassion at all. The people fled to the temple, hoping for God’s protection, but it was too late. The house of prayer had become a den of thieves.
Finally, the temple was destroyed, just as Jeremiah had warned (Jer. 25–26). The nation had disobeyed the Word of God in many ways, including ignoring the Sabbatical Years (Lev. 25:1–7; 26:27–35). The only thing left was judgment.
But the book closes with an announcement of the rebuilding of the temple, something that Jeremiah also prophesied (29:10). Even in wrath, God remembers mercy (Hab. 3:2).
