Assyria destroyed Israel, the Northern Kingdom, in 722 B.C. Judah, the Southern Kingdom, lasted 135 years longer.

During this period, the prophet Nahum (663-612 B.C.) predicted Assyria's fall:

The LORD has given a command concerning you, Nineveh (capital of Assyria): "You will have no descendants to bear your name. I will destroy the carved images and cast idols that are in the temple of your gods. I will prepare your grave for you are vile." (Nah 1:14, NIV)

God fulfilled His word in 612 B.C., when Nineveh fell to the Babylonian leader Nabopolassar. Babylon thus became the dominant power in the region.

Meanwhile, priests in Jerusalem rediscovered the Book of the Law in the Temple and showed it to King Josiah. The king took God's word to heart and led the nation in serious reforms (ca. 620-609 B.C.). He publicly renewed the Mosaic Covenant, repaired the Temple, and removed the idols from Judah (2 Kgs 22-23; 2 Chron 34-35).

Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD as he did -- with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses. (2 Kgs 23:25)

During Josiah's reign (ca. 640-609 B.C.), the prophet Zephaniah announced the Day of the Lord, when God would sweep away idolatry from Judah and surrounding nations, while saving a righteous "remnant" for Himself.

Some thought Josiah might be God's promised Messiah King, but their hopes were dashed when he was killed in battle against Pharaoh Neco of Egypt. After his death, Josiah's heirs returned to the Baals, provoking God's wrath.

In Jerusalem, Habakkuk (ca. 612-600 B.C.) predicted that the Lord would punish the corrupt Judean nobles through Babylon and then deal with Babylon itself. Likewise, Jeremiah warned that Babylon would destroy Judah for its idolatry, just as Assyria destroyed Israel (ca. 627-587 B.C.).

Jeremiah's prophecy was fulfilled in two stages (2 Kgs 24-25; 2 Chron 36; Jer 39, 52): First, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon wanted to conquer Egypt and make its wealth his own, but Judah stood in his way. In 597 B.C. he therefore sent armies into Judah, took King Jehoiachin and other leading citizens into Exile in Babylon, and set up a puppet government under Jehoiachin's uncle Zedekiah.

Second, Zedekiah rebelled against Babylon, which prompted Nebuchadnezzar to return to Judah in 587 B.C. His troops demolished Jerusalem, burned Solomon's Temple, and carried most of the remaining Jews into Exile. Jeremiah's Book of Lamentations mourned this event. The prophet Obadiah angrily predicted the destruction of neighboring Edom for its participation in the sack of Jerusalem.

And yet, in the darkness of disaster, the biblical writers saw a glimmer of hope:

In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Evil-Merodach became king of Babylon, he released Jehoiachin from prison on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month. He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king's table. (2 Kgs 25:27-29)

The royal line of David still endured. The possibility of the Messiah still remained. Perhaps God was not yet finished with His covenant people.

Reflect...

1. Read Lamentations 1, which captures the crushing grief of the Jewish people at the destruction of Jerusalem. According to this text, why did God send His people into exile? What hope do the mourners find in Lam 3:21-40?
   
   
2. Read Jeremiah's letter to the exiles in Jer 29:1-14. What advice does he give for living their daily lives? What hope does he offer for their future? What lessons does this letter provide to us, who sit in "exile" from our true home as we await our journey to "New Jerusalem" (Rev 21-22)?

Christopher A. Davis, Ph.D.
Professor of New Testament
Hope International University
Fullerton, California

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