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THE FALL OF JUDAH
Bible study by Pat Gaines
LESSON 6
Scriptures for this lesson are taken from Jeremiah 25; 2 Chronicles 36; Ezekiel 5; Leviticus 25; 2 Kings 25.
At the close of Lesson 5, Nebuchadnezzar had taken thousands of captives to Babylon in 597 BC. Nebuchadnezzar had placed Zedekiah on the throne of Judah. He was required to pay a large tribute each year to Babylon. Ezekiel is prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem from Babylon, Jeremiah is preaching in Jerusalem to the people of Judah to repent of their idol worship and prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem if they don’t. The prophet, Ezekiel was one of the captives taken to Babylon in 597 BC. He was married and lived in the countryside outside of Babylon. He prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem for six years before it fell.
[Ezekiel 5:8-12] (8) “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will inflict punishment on you in the sight of the nations. (9) Because of all your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again. (10) Therefore in your midst parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents. I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds. (11) Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your vile images and detestable practices, I myself will shave you; I will not look on you with pity or spare you. (12) A third of your people will die of the plague or perish by famine inside you; a third will fall by the sword outside your walls; and a third I will scatter to the winds and pursue with drawn sword.
While Ezekiel prophesied in Babylon, Jeremiah was prophesying in Jerusalem.
[Jeremiah 25:8-11] (8) Therefore the Lord Almighty says this: “Because you have not listened to my words, (9) I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. (10) I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. (11) This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
Here in this prophecy Jeremiah gives the exact number of years that the Jews will be held in exile in Babylon. The reason for seventy years is given below in 2 Chronicles 36:20-21.
[2 Chronicles 36:20-21] (20) He carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and his successors until the kingdom of Persia came to power. (21) 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.
The Sabbath rests refers to the Law of the Sabbath Year given in Leviticus 25. After the Israelites came into the Promised Land and began to live, there is no record that they kept the Sabbath Years or the Year of Jubilee.
[Leviticus 25: 1-7] (1) The Lord said to Moses at Mount Sinai, (2) “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath to the Lord. (3) For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. (4) But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of Sabbath rest, a Sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. (5) Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. (6) Whatever the land yields during the Sabbath year will be food for you — for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, (7) as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.
This means that they could plant and harvest crops for six years but on the seventh year they could not plant anything. Whatever came up volunteer in the fields could be used. So they had to depend on the Lord to give enough abundance in six years to last seven years. It seems that Israel never had enough faith in God to provide, to observe the Sabbath years. In the Year of Jubilee they were required to let the land rest but also land that tribal members had to sell would be returned to them. This was God’s way of keeping the tribal lands in the hands of the members of each tribe. This was apparently not practiced by Israel ever as far as we know. During the seventy-year exile God’s law concerning rest for the land would be fulfilled. In the following prophesy, Jeremiah gives the reasons for the exile.
[2 Chronicles 36:14-16] (14) 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. (15) The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. (16) 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.
Zedekiah was made King over Judah by Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon and he reigned 11 years. In the ninth year of his reign he rebelled against Babylon, refusing to pay tribute and Nebuchadnezzar came back to Judah and laid siege again against Jerusalem for eighteen months.
[2 Kings 25:1-7] (1) So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. He encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it. (2) The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. (3) By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat. (4) Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Babylonians were surrounding the city. They fled toward the Arabah, (5) but the Babylonian army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered, (6) and he was captured. He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where sentence was pronounced on him. (7) They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.
In 586 BC, Jerusalem fell and many more captives were taken to Babylon. The Kingdom of Israel would be ruled over by other nations from 586 BC until May 14, 1948 when Israel once again became an independent nation. As we move into our study in the Book of Daniel next week, we will be studying about those nations what will rule over Israel.
Israel was established by God as His people. He would be rule over them, lead them and protect them. They were to be a blessing to all other peoples by showing them that God was the only god and what it meant to follow God’s laws. They were to be a teacher of God’s ways to all other people. But Israel failed because they could not be monogamous to God. They were unfaithful by worshiping other gods who were not gods at all. They were also given the privilege of bringing forth the Messiah. God did bring forth the Messiah through a faithful remnant of His people.
As we will learn in Daniel, Israel’s mission as a teacher of God’s ways was taken from them and given to the gentiles. That is us. We are living in the age of the gentiles and as Christians it is our responsibility to teach the world about Jesus, the son of God and the Savior for all mankind.
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