People have thought and spoken in different ways about the fall of Jerusalem and its causes. Immediately after 589 BC, when the Babylonian army...
People have thought and spoken in different ways about the fall of Jerusalem and its causes. Immediately after 589 BC, when the Babylonian army took the city by storm, many believed that this was some historical misunderstanding that God would soon put right, and everything would again be as it had been. That was what the majority thought at the time, and of all the public figures of the age only the prophet Jeremiah warned his compatriots that what had happened was no accident and that the exile would be long, though not endless.
The prophet was not heeded. Judean patriots launched an anti-Babylonian revolt; after it was defeated, the city was finally destroyed and all its inhabitants were deported to Babylon. This happened precisely because the prophet had been right. In essence, the Babylonian soldiers merely made visible what had previously been hidden: there was no longer any room for God in Jerusalem, in His own Temple, among His own people.
This, of course, did not happen all at once. A movement towards the abyss always begins slowly and often imperceptibly, gathering speed towards the end. Such was the whole pre-exilic history of Israel and then of Judah: less and less room remained for God in its life, until at last He had to leave altogether. Of course, the people's life in the pre-exilic period did not consist solely of spiritual decline: there were also upswings, when it seemed that the days of David were returning, David with whom God had made a special covenant, promising him that his descendants would rule in Jerusalem for as long as the city and the country existed.
Unfortunately, however, these upswings were short-lived and could not alter the overall spiritual direction characteristic of the pre-exilic age. Acting through the prophets, God tried to reverse the situation, but all His efforts proved fruitless. A human being is free, as is every nation, including the people of God. Yet if the people of God betray their calling, their fate inevitably becomes worse than that of any other nation.
Of course, any nation that betrays its calling and abandons the spiritual and historical task God has set before it will, in one way or another, come to historical and spiritual disaster. But the people of God, whose sole task and sole calling were to preserve the revelation they had received and, by the very fact of their historical existence, to bear witness to it, were especially vulnerable: they had no other calling and could have none. If they ceased to be what God had conceived and created them to be, their continued existence simply lost its meaning.
That is what happened to the Jewish people, while the catastrophe of 587 BC was merely the consequence and culmination of the corresponding spiritual processes, including the unwillingness of those who witnessed and took part in the events to understand what was happening. Now the remnant of the people had to rediscover the meaning of its historical existence, not only through repentance for the sins committed and a renewed turning to God, but also through a spiritual interpretation of its own history. Only after this had been done could the remnant hope to become the nucleus of a new people with a new history.
36 The wicked reign of Jehoahaz, Ch2 36:1-4.
Jehoiakim, Ch2 36:5-8.
Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, Ch2 36:9-13.
The wickedness of the people, Ch2 36:14-16.
Jerusalem destroyed, Judah laid waste, the people slain or led away captive, according to God's word, Ch2 36:17-21.
The proclamation of Cyrus, Ch2 36:22-23.
36:8 Found in him - That crime of rebellion against the king of Babylon, which for a time he kept in his own breast, but when he saw fit, discovered it, and was convicted of it.
36:10 Expired - Heb. at the return of the year: at the beginning of the next year, according to the sacred account of the Hebrews, at the spring of the year, the time when kings go forth to battle, as is elsewhere said, when Nebuchadnezzar, among others, went forth to settle and enlarge his conquests. His brother - Largely so called, for this was his uncle, or his father's brother, being the son of Josiah.
36:13 By God - Who had required him to swear fealty and constant obedience to him by the true God, whom he called upon to be a witness against him if he broke his oath. So his rebellion was aggravated with perjury, and horrid contempt of God.
36:15 Rising - Sending them early and diligently, as a careful house - holder, who rises betimes about his business. God sent them many prophets and messages, some at the very beginning of their apostacy, and others afterward, 'till the very day of their captivity.
36:16 No remedy - Because the people would not repent, and God would not pardon them.
36:17 Chaldees - Abraham was called out of Ur of the Chaldees, when God took him into covenant with himself. And now his degenerate seed are carried into that country again, to signify that they had forfeited all that kindness wherewith they had been loved for their father's sake, and the benefit of the covenant into which he was called.
36:21 Sabbaths - Had rested from the labour of the husbandman in plowing and harrowing it; the people that should have managed it being destroyed. Many a time had they ploughed and sowed their land in the seventh year, when it should have rested: and now it lay unploughed and unsown for ten times seven years. Yet even this might encourage them to hope, that they should in due time return to it again. Had others come and taken possession of it, they might have despaired of ever recovering it. But while it lay desolate, it, as it were, waited for them, and refused to acknowledge any other owners.