The Exile

I doubt if the church of Christ has ever been more cavalier about the solemn dimension of proper worship in the presence of God than it is today. And that terrifies me, because the pattern of biblical history over and over and over again is that when the people play around with the way in which they behave in the presence of God, that the church falls apart. And now the renewal of faith here begins with a renewal of worship.

But sadly, even this great reformation under Josiah is short lived. Graciously, God, through His prophets, warned the people of coming judgment. But did they listen? Welcome to the Saturday edition of Renewing Your Mind.

I'm Nathan W. Bingham. Over the past several weeks, R.C. Sproul has introduced us to several Old Testament prophets and their messages and warnings for God's people. Paganism had crept into their worship, but would they repent? Even though there were glimpses of reformation, it didn't stop the coming exile. Today's message on the exile will conclude this Old Testament series, but these messages were just a selection from Dr. Sproul's 57-message overview of the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation. We'll send it to you as part of a special DVD set and grant you lifetime digital access to the messages and the study guide when you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org.

But this is the final time we're offering this popular resource, so respond today, as it won't be repeated next Saturday. Here's Dr. Sproul on the Babylonian exile. When we look at the history of the Old Testament, we realize that the time that is chronicled in the Bible is not that of an uninterrupted flow of peace and unity and stability, but that there are huge crises that take place, and there are from time to time we see a hiatus in the progression of that history.

The most significant one, of course, is the exile. In fact, when we look at Old Testament history, we tend to break it down into its various parts and speak about that period that is pre-exilic and that period that is post-exilic, so that there's a sense in which our whole understanding of the history of the Old Testament is defined over against the backdrop of the exile. Now, we saw that the northern kingdom fell in 722 when it was conquered by the Assyrians, and the southern kingdom doesn't fall completely until 586 B.C.

Now, what goes on between 722 and 586 is a period of extreme volatility. Now, remember when we first started our overview of the Old Testament, we talked about the strategic geopolitical significance of Palestine. But there at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea and the Fertile Crescent is this little tiny nation that functioned as a land bridge that connected three continents, Asia, Europe, and Africa. And tiny little Israel became a political football in these centuries, the 8th and 7th century B.C., as the great world powers of the day were struggling with each other for dominance. And those world powers included the Assyrians, the Syrians, the Egyptians, later on the Babylonians, and then still later on the Persians.

And so we have all of these nations vying with each other for world domination, and right in the middle of them is this little land of Palestine. Now, after the northern kingdom fell, leaving only Judah by itself, now Judah is exposed to the power of Assyria because the buffer zone of the northern kingdom of Israel has now been conquered. And now the borders of Assyrian rule now come right up against Judah. Not only that, but in the same period, the Assyrians conquered the Syrians, so the people so the people in Judah couldn't look to the Syrians to be their allies. And as early as 705, Sennacherib from Assyria, and if you can't remember his name, one of my students used to call him Snatcherib, Sennacherib embarked on a march of conquest against the cities of Judah. And he, in fact, conquered many of the cities and villages of Judah, and he laid siege to Jerusalem.

Now, this is in 705, so this is a very short time after the fall of the northern kingdom. And we could say, were but for the grace of God and the providence of God's intervention, the southern kingdom would have fallen rapidly on the heels of the fall of the northern kingdom because the Jewish people in and of themselves did not have the military power to withstand this invasion of the forces of Sennacherib. In fact, if you ever have the opportunity to read the Jewish wars of Josephus that chronicles the invasion of Israel centuries later by the Romans leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, you will see in detail how conquering powers would come into the land and systematically destroy city after city after city, gaining momentum, gathering strength before they would launch their siege of the large centers of population. And it's as though Sennacherib is anticipating the later invasion of the Romans that culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. When I think of what happened in 586, when Jerusalem did fall finally, I refer to that, historians don't and so on, but I refer to that as the first Holocaust, the destruction of the Jewish city of Jerusalem.

And I would call the second Holocaust the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. But God did intervene under King Hezekiah, and Jerusalem did not fall to the forces of Sennacherib, and King Hezekiah introduced spiritual reform to the nation. And as I said, this period was a volatile period.

Israel was like a seesaw. More than one serious reformation takes place among the people between 722 and 586. But these reformations or revivals or awakenings that God visited upon His people were in each case short-lived. They didn't last, and the people reverted again and again to the kind of ungodliness that provoked God's judgment on them in the first place.

For example, when we see under King Hezekiah, he introduces reform, and there's a spiritual renewal. But at the same time, he entered into a treaty agreement with the king of Babylon so that Babylon would pledge its defense of Judea or the Jews, Judah, against the threat of the invasion of the Assyrians. Now again, if you read the book of 2 Kings and Chronicles, you will see how dimly God viewed these activities, because what happened is in the first place God rescues His people when they look to Him, but no sooner does He rescue them than they run around and start making treaties and military alliances. They had their CEDOs and their NATOs and all of these different alliances with pagan nations.

And instead of relying upon God, they sought to build bridges to their pagan neighbors in order to secure their own safety. And the prophets Jeremiah, Isaiah, and the others who prophesied in these days spoke the word of the Lord to them of His judgment and condemnation for putting their trust in the power of military and political alliances. So Hezekiah's reform did not last very long, and he was replaced by his son Manasseh, who was during his reign one of the most wicked kings ever kings ever in the southern kingdom.

Not only did he establish pagan images all around the villages and areas of Judah, but he had the audacity to establish a pagan image in the temple itself in Jerusalem. Now one of the interesting footnotes to Manasseh was that in his old age, this wicked king was brought to repentance. That's something that you see rarely among the kings of the divided kingdom.

But his son Amnon came to power after Manasseh died, and he was as wicked as his father had been before his father repented, and he didn't last very long until he was assassinated. And then in the year 637, as we try to have our countdown to 586, Josiah comes to the throne. And Josiah's reign over Judah is marked by the greatest period of reformation that comes to the land in the entire period of the divided kingdom. And I'd like to read a portion of 2 Kings that tells us a little bit about Josiah's reign. Chapter 22 of 2 Kings begins with this notation. Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned 31 years in Jerusalem. And we are told in verse 2 that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord and walked in all the ways of his father David.

He did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. Now it came to pass in the eighteenth year of King Josiah that the king sent Shaphan, the scribe, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshulam, to the house of the Lord, saying, Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money which has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the doorkeepers have gathered from the people. And let them deliver it to the hand of those doing the work who are the overseers in the house of the Lord. Let them give it to those who are in the house of the Lord doing the work to repair the damages of the house.

Now do you see what's going on here? That the temple had been damaged in all this siege activity and warfare that they had to endure earlier on. And so now under Josiah's reign, there's this effort to reconstruct and refurbish the temple. And while the workers are engaged in their task, they find a scroll, a small scroll that's not identified in the Scripture but which most historians and scholars believe to have been a forgotten scroll of the book of Deuteronomy. All the Bible tells us is that under Josiah's reign, a book of the law was found amid the rubble of a section of the temple that was being repaired. And so the people who find it turn it over to the high priest who gives it to the scribe and so on. And finally, the book is taken to the king. And we read in verse 11 of chapter 22, now it happened when the king heard the words of the book of the law that he tore his clothes.

And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahicham the son of Shapan, Agbar the son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Aziah a servant of the king, saying, Go inquire the Lord for me, for the people and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book to do all according to that which is written therein. Now, Josiah is so moved by reading anew and afresh the terms of the ancient covenant that he brings the Word of God and of the law afresh to the view of the people. And the chief element of the reform that he institutes according to his instruction from the book of the law has to do with worship. This may seem strange to us today, but as we see in the Old Testament from the days of Abraham through the giving of the law to Moses and all through the chronicle that we've looked at so far, that God is zealously and jealously concerned about the purity of worship, and that the paganism that corrupted the people of God in the Old Testament always began with a corruption in worship. Now, we see the invasion of secular mores and values into the church and the influence of so-called secularism on the morality of Christian believers in our day. But in a very real sense, the collapse or degeneration of behavior, of morality, follows from a prior collapse of true worship. And I doubt, frankly, if the church of Christ has ever been more cavalier about the solemn dimension of proper worship in the presence of God than it is today. And that terrifies me, because the pattern of biblical history over and over and over again is that when the people play around with the way in which they behave in the presence of God, in their adoration, in their reverence, and in the offering of the sacrifices of praise, the way in which they offer the sacrifices of praise, that the church falls apart. And now, the renewal of faith here begins with a renewal of worship. But sadly, even this great reformation under Josiah is short-lived in a kind of delay, buys a little bit of time for the people.

Well, there are some other dates here that I want to look at so that we can come to an understanding. 637, as I said, Josiah comes to the throne in 608. A battle takes place that is called the Battle of Megiddo. Some people have seen this as something of a precursor of the Battle of Armageddon because of the similarity of the names. The Battle of Megiddo refers to a battle that took place in a pass that was of extreme military importance strategically. And many, many, many important battles have been fought in that area in Palestine, in what's even present-day Megiddo. But there, in 608, there is a battle where Josiah rises in battle against the Egyptian King Necho, or Pharaoh Necho, and in this he is killed.

And let's take a look at the record of this. In 2 Chronicles chapter 35, we read, After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates, and Josiah went out against him. But he sent messengers to him, saying, What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I have not come against you, but against the house with which I have war. For God commanded me to make haste. Refrain from meddling with God, who is with me, lest he destroy you. Here's the Egyptian Pharaoh telling Josiah, God told me not to fight against you. Why are you here? Get out of the way.

I'm just passing by. Nevertheless, Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself that he might fight with him did not heed the words of Necho from the mouth of God. So he came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. And the archer shot King Josiah, and the king said to his servants, Take me away, for I am severely wounded. The servants therefore took him out of that chariot and put him in the second chariot that they had and brought him to Jerusalem. And so he died and was buried in one of the tombs of his father's, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. And listen to this, Jeremiah also lamented for Josiah.

You have to put this in its perspective. Jeremiah was delighted to see at least the brief reform that came to pass during his prophetic ministry under the leadership of Josiah. But now Josiah dies, and his kingdom is supposed to pass to Jesus. But this conquering Pharaoh, Necho, deposes Jehoaz and replaces him with Jehoiachin. And Jehoiachin is wicked.

In fact, he distinguishes himself by burning one of the scrolls of Jeremiah to show his contempt for the prophetic judgments brought by Jeremiah. In 605, I'm running out of space on my board here. I'm going to have to drop 586 down a little lower. 605, we have what's called the Battle of Carchemish. Now this is a battle between the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar and the Egyptians under Pharaoh Necho. And in this battle that takes place on what at least had been Jewish soil sees victory for Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. And as part of the booty of his victory over the Egyptians, he takes away as slaves and so on some of the Jewish people. And in 605 is the first stage as it were of the exile insofar as now some of the captured Jewish people are carried away to Babylon. And among those who are carried away in this first deportation was a young man by the name of Daniel.

And we'll hear more from Daniel later. Then in 597, let's get down to 597, Jehoiachin as distinguished from Jehoiachin was deported along with nobles, craftsmen, and a large group of the elite. And that's what happened in the exile was that the poor people and the peasants were left behind, but the cream of the Judean people were carried away into captivity. And in that deportation in 597 was included the prophet Ezekiel.

So now by 597 both Daniel and Ezekiel are already captive in Babylon. Then finally King Zedekiah comes to the throne and he is the last king, and he rules basically as a vassal king of Nebuchadnezzar and of the Babylonians. This was customary in those days when a conquering king would conquer a nation. He would take the booty and everything he wanted, and then he would leave one of the surviving monarchs to be his vassal king.

And as long as the man behaved himself and paid the tribute and followed the rules, he could continue to exist as the king. And this was the case with Zedekiah until Zedekiah started filling his oats, and he rises up in rebellion against the king. And so Nebuchadnezzar marches from Babylon against Jerusalem, and this is recorded for us in the 25th chapter of 2 Kings. For it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month on the tenth day, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and encamped against it and built a siege wall against it all around. Verse 4, and the city wall was broken through. All the men of war fled at night by way of the gate between two walls, and then the king went by way of the plain. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon, and they pronounced judgment on him. Then they killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, then put out the eyes of Zedekiah, bound him with bronze fetters, and took him to Babylon. And so the last surviving king of Judah, having seen as the last thing that his eyes would see, the assassination of his family, is now led in chains blind as the prisoner of the king of Babylon, and Jerusalem, Jerusalem has fallen. From 586 to 536, the Jewish people remained in exile, captives in Babylon, and were not to return at all until the Babylonians were defeated by the Persians.

And under a decree from King Cyrus, 50,000 Jews in 536 returned to rebuild their country. That was R.C. Sproul on this Saturday edition of Renewing Your Mind from his popular series Dust to Glory. Dr. Sproul's warning today that a decline in the health of God's people is seen first in a decline in the purity of their worship is one of the reasons why we need to take the time to not only read the Bible, but study it deeply, and not restricting that study to the New Testament, but searching the scriptures to see what we can learn from the Old Testament.

R.C. Sproul's series Dust to Glory was recorded to help you do just that, covering Genesis to Revelation across 57 messages. This series will provide you a solid foundation for Bible study, and the accompanying study guide will help you dig even deeper. For the final time, request this series at renewingyourmind.org when you give a donation of any amount. In addition to sending you the special edition DVD set, we'll unlock all the messages and the study guide in the free Ligonier app. And if you'd prefer not to receive the DVD set, or you live outside of the U.S. or Canada, you can request the digital edition of today's offer at renewingyourmind.org slash global. But respond now because this offer ends at midnight and it won't be repeated next week. Thank you. To help you better defend your faith, we'll begin a short series on apologetics next Saturday. So be sure to join us then, here on Renewing Your Mind. .