THE FALL OF JUDAH
Bible study by Pat Gaines

LESSON 7

Scriptures for this lesson are taken from: Exodus 40; 1 Kings 6; 1 Kings 8; Ezekiel 7, 10 & 11.

I said at the end of Lesson 6 that we would go next into the prophesies of Daniel, but I have decided that there is one more subject I need to cover before we start the Book of Daniel.

The people of Israel are God’s chosen people. When they came out of slavery in Egypt into the Sinai desert, God gave them His laws concerning how they were to worship Him; how they were to treat each other and the nations around them; all the laws concerning how they were to live. God would be their leader, their protector, their king.

While Israel was camped at Mt. Sinai, also called Horeb, after the Commandments and laws were given, they began to build the tabernacle, their place of worship, according to God’s instructions. It took one year to complete the tabernacle so it could be used. The Ark of the Covenant that was placed in the Holy of Holies inside the tabernacle was where God dwelt with His people. When the tabernacle was completed and all the furniture placed inside, the High Priest completed all the cleansing rituals, then the Holy Presence of God also called the Shekinah glory, came down to dwell on the top of the ark of the covenant between the cherubim. Shekinah is a Hebrew word that means dwelling or settling.

[Exodus 40:34-35] (34) Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. (35) Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

During the forty years Israel wondered in the wilderness, God’s presence was seen as a pillar of fire at night and a pillar of smoke in the daytime. While the smoke remained above the tabernacle, Israel stayed where they were, when it rose from the tabernacle they knew it was time to move on.

[1 Kings 6:1] (1) In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the Lord.

After the death of King David, Solomon became King of Israel and it was his responsibility to build a temple for God in Jerusalem. From the time the tabernacle was built at Sinai until Solomon began to build the temple in Jerusalem it was about 480 years.

[1 Kings 8:3-11] (3) When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took up the ark, (4) and they brought up the ark of the Lord and the tent of meeting and all the sacred furnishings in it. The priests and Levites carried them up, (5) and King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel that had gathered about him were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that they could not be recorded or counted. (6) The priests then brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim. (7) The cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and overshadowed the ark and its carrying poles. (8) These poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are still there today. (9) There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt. (10) When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord. (11) And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple.

Glory of God fills the temple of SolomonGod dwelt in the temple in Jerusalem with His people until just before the Babylonians destroyed the temple in 586 BC. The Prophet Ezekiel was taken off to Babylon in 597 BC, 9 years after Daniel was taken and 11 years before Jerusalem fell in 586 BC. Ezekiel has been prophesying from Babylon about the coming fall of Judah.

[Ezekiel 7:1-4] (1) The word of the Lord came to me: (2) “Son of man, this is what the Sovereign Lord says to the land of Israel: “The end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land! (3) The end is now upon you, and I will unleash my anger against you. I will judge you according to your conduct and repay you for all your detestable practices. (4) I will not look on you with pity; I will not spare you. I will surely repay you for your conduct and for the detestable practices among you. “Then you will know that I am the Lord.”

God gave Ezekiel a vision of the Shekinah or Holy Presence of God leaving the temple of Solomon before it was destroyed.

[Ezekiel 10:3-5] (3) Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the temple when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court. (4) Then the glory of the Lord rose from above the cherubim and moved to the threshold of the temple. The cloud filled the temple, and the court was full of the radiance of the glory of the Lord. (5) The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as far away as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.

[Ezekiel 11:22-25] (22) Then the cherubim, with the wheels beside them, spread their wings, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. (23) The glory of the Lord went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain east of it. (24) The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the exiles in Babylonian the vision given by the Spirit of God. Then the vision I had seen went up from me, (25) and I told the exiles everything the Lord had shown me.

After the seventy years of captivity in Babylon, when the remnant of Jews returned to Jerusalem they built another temple called Zerubbabel’s temple. This temple was built about 516 BC. Then many years later when Herod captured Jerusalem for the Romans in about 40 BC, he began a major enlarging and rebuilding of the temple.

This temple known as Herod’s temple stood until it was destroyed by the Romans led by Titus in 70 AD. There is no biblical record that the Holy Presence of God came to dwell in either of these temples after the exile. When Israel went into captivity in Babylon, God ceased to dwell with His people. He was no longer their ruler. Israel would be ruled over by other nations from 586 BC until 1948 when they became an independent nation as we discussed in Lesson 6.

According to the prophesies that we will study in the Book of Daniel, the Messiah will rule over Israel once again when He comes back. The following was written by the apostle John describing a vision that God gave him from heaven.

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