The Exile

Introduction

Following the nation splitting into two separate nations, Israel and Judah, for the most part spiraled downward both spiritually and morally.Israel was a sovereign nation for 200 years. The nation 19 kings but none of them led the nation to follow God; all 19 were evil.

The most famous “king & queen combo” was Ahab and his Jezebel. Their level of depravity was unmatched. 1 Kings 21:25 says, “There was never a man like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, urged on by Jezebel his wife.” Jezebel is considered to be the most wicked woman in the Bible. She developed a massive religious system to promote her gods, Baal and Asherah. She had almost 1,000 prophets in Israel to her gods while he systematically killed the prophets of God. The show-down came on Mt. Carmel between the Prophet Elijah and Jezabel’s prophets. Elijah won and her prophets were put to death. (see 1 Kings 18-19).

The nation of Israel was on a confirmed trajectory down and finally in 722 B.C. God judged Israel using the world power of that day, Assyria. 2 Kings 17:5-24 tells the story of why God did this, “The king of Assyria invaded the entire land, marched against Samaria (the capital of Israel) and laid siege to it for three years. The king of Assyria (Shalmaneser) captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods and followed the practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced. The Israelites secretly did things against the LORD their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city they built themselves high places in all their towns. They set up sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the LORD had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that provoked the LORD to anger. They worshiped idols, though the LORD had said, “You shall not do this.” The LORD warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: “Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your fathers to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.” But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their fathers, who did not trust in the LORD their God. They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their fathers and the warnings he had given them. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the LORD had ordered them, “Do not do as they do,” and they did the things the LORD had forbidden them to do. They forsook all the commands of the LORD their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal. They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sorcery and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger. So the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left, and even Judah did not keep the commands of the LORD their God. They followed the practices Israel had introduced. Therefore the LORD rejected all the people of Israel; he afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until he thrust them from his presence. When he tore Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat their king. Jeroboam enticed Israel away from following the LORD and caused them to commit a great sin. The Israelites persisted in all the sins of Jeroboam and did not turn away from them until the LORD removed them from his presence, as he had warned through all his servants the prophets. So the people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria, and they are still there. The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived in its towns.”

So the northern 10 tribes of Israel, known as Israel for 200 years, was absorbed into the Assyrian Empire.

Assyria’s philosophy of how to deal with conquered nations was to mix the cultures, so they ‘deported’ some Jews out of Israel and settled them in other conquered lands and they ‘imported’ other conquered people into Israel, thus diffusing the cultures in hopes that they would be less likely to rise up and rebel.

The race that came from Assyria bringing in other conquered people to Israel became known as the Samaritans. They were ‘part-Jewish’ and came to be despised by the ‘pure Jew’. This hatred is the backdrop to stories in the Gospels such as the one in John 4 where Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well.

Judah

With the nation of Israel now a part of the Assyrian Empire, the focus shifts to the southern nation of Judah. Judah continued as a sovereign nation for 130 years longer. The reason is because they had some good kings with some revivals. Judah was led by 18 kings and eight of them were good leaders who, for the most part, followed God. But eventually the evil and depravity in Judah became so entrenched, that God was forced to do what he had done to Israel 130 years earlier – deal with it.

In Judah’s case, he used Babylon. The reason he used Babylon and not Assyria is because in the years after the Assyrian invasion of Israel, Babylon conquered Assyria and was now the world power. Babylon’s philosophy of conquest was different than Assyria’s. They didn’t mix the cultures, they moved anything of value (people and resources) to Babylon and left the conquered regions pretty much destroyed. They crushed a culture and built their own with the ‘cream of the crop’ of the conquered lands.

In Judah’s case, it happened in three stages and the account of what happened is in 2 Chronicles 36:5-21.

36:5-7, “Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD his God. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked him and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar also took to Babylon articles from the temple of the LORD and put them in his temple there.”

That was the first phase and took place in 605 B.C.: Daniel and his 3 friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were taken to Babylon in this first wave. (We know them by their Babylonian names: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego).

36:8-10,”The other events of Jehoiakim’s reign, the detestable things he did and all that was found against him, are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. And Jehoiachin his son succeeded him as king.” Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months and ten days. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD. In the spring, King Nebuchadnezzar sent for him and brought him to Babylon, together with articles of value from the temple of the LORD, and he made Jehoiachin’s uncle, Zedekiah, king over Judah and Jerusalem.”

That was the second phase and took place in 597 B.C.: Ezekiel was taken to Babylon in this group and he was a prophet to the exiled Jews living in Babylon.

36: 11-21,”Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD his God and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke the word of the LORD. He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him take an oath in God’s name. He became stiff-necked and hardened his heart and would not turn to the LORD, the God of Israel. Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people became more and more unfaithful, following all the detestable practices of the nations and defiling the temple of the LORD, which he had consecrated in Jerusalem. The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy. He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and spared neither young man nor young woman, old man or aged. God handed all of them over to Nebuchadnezzar. He carried to Babylon all the articles from the temple of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the LORD’s temple and the treasures of the king and his officials. They set fire to God’s temple and broke down the wall of Jerusalem; they burned all the palaces and destroyed everything of value there. He carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power. The land enjoyed its Sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah.”

That was the third phase and it happened in 586 B.C.: The city of Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed. That event is what is known as “The Exile”. The nation of Israel was now scattered and out of the Promised Land. From the invasion of the Promised Land under Joshua to the Exile was about 800 years.

The Prophet Jeremiah

I want to focus on one of the great prophets of Judah, who prophesied in the 40 years leading up to the fall of Jerusalem and the Exile. His name is Jeremiah and he wrote the book of Jeremiah as well as the book that follows it, Lamentations. Jeremiah was born with a call on his life…in chapter 1 of Jeremiah, God says in 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

But when Jeremiah heard about his ‘call’, he like Moses at the burning bush, wasn’t real excited about the prospect, “LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you”.” (1:6)

So Jeremiah went to the nation of Judah and over the span of 4 decades and 5 different kings he called the nation and its leaders to return to God. For the most part, they didn’t listen and Jeremiah suffered greatly for his calling. He was arrested several times and put in prison. He was whipped more than once. Once after being whipped he was put in the stocks. Once he was lowered into a mucky cistern and would have starved to death had he not been rescued. He was forced to go to Egypt against his will He was rejected by kings, priests, family and friends. And in the end, he watched his beloved city of Jerusalem get torched and destroyed. It was a tough calling.

Candidly, he struggled with God, over it, In 15:15-18 Jeremiah says, “Lord, you know it is for your sake that I am suffering. They are persecuting me because I have proclaimed your word to them. Yet you have failed me in my time of need! Your help is as uncertain as a seasonal mountain brook—sometimes a flood, sometimes as dry as a bone.” Jeremiah was saying, “I am fulfilling my part of the bargain, even though I didn’t want to…you can count on me, I just can’t count on you!”

Following his beating and night in the stocks he said in 20:7, “O Lord, you deceived me when you promised me your help.” This is a definite reminder of what God said at the time he called Jeremiah, “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you.” (1:6)

In 20:14-18, Jeremiah utters some very raw words, “Cursed be the day that I was born! Cursed be the man who brought my father the news that a son was born…Oh, that I had died within my mother’s womb, that it had been my grave! Why was I ever born? For my life has been but trouble and sorrow and shame.”

Jeremiah bent but he did not break; he stayed faithful and he fulfilled his calling. In the book of Lamentations, the follow up to the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah walks the streets of Jerusalem in the aftermath of the Babylonian invasion. It is a desperate situation, and he weeps. Lamentations is ‘lament’; a funeral song for the city of Jerusalem and the nation of Judah.

Lamentations 1:1-3, “How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations! She who was queen among the

provinces has now become a slave. Bitterly she weeps at night, tears are upon her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is none to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies. After affliction and harsh labor, Judah has gone into exile.”

It was an unspeakably tragic time for those who remained in the city, In 4:9-10 he writes, “Those killed by the sword are better off than those who die of famine; racked with hunger, they waste away for lack of food from the field. With their own hands compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food.” And in 5:15 he writes, “Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.”

But in the middle of this book are some of the most faith-filled words in all of Scripture, “I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.” (Lamentations 3:19-26)

And I just wonder if some of us need to make that same sort of affirmation right now; not when we see the end of our pain, fear, trouble, or problem; not when we can look back after it is past and affirm the faithfulness of God to get us out, but to affirm the faithfulness of God when we are in it!

Do you have a ‘calling’ on your life that you just as soon wish you didn’t have (a hard job, a difficult child or marriage)? Are conditions in your life or your family getting pretty desperate (Is food scarce? Is the mortgage payment too much? Is the income is just not keeping up with the budget demands; the retirement account is looking pretty lean for the needs of your future)? For whatever reason, do you find yourself so discouraged and the problems so daunting that you could say with Jeremiah, “I wish I had never even been born!”? Do you feel like ‘telling God a thing or two’ because of the circumstances of your life or those around you? Do you want to ‘tell God off’?

Would you consider joining the weeping prophet and in the middle of the wreckage declare your belief in the faithfulness of God? “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

The Exile

Contents

Introduction

Judah

The Prophet Jeremiah