____________________________________________________ THE GOSPEL OBSERVER ____________________________________________________ "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19,20). ____________________________________________________ May 16, 2004 ____________________________________________________ The Captivity, Jerusalem's Destruction, and the Return by Tom Edwards While Jeremiah was prophesying to a people in Jerusalem who had continually rejected his message and kept listening to their many false prophets instead, Ezekiel prophesied to the Jews who, like himself, had been taken into Babylonian captivity. In Ezekiel's case, it was in 597 B.C. when he was led by Nebuchadnezzar's army to that foreign land. Eleven years later, in 586 B.C., the Babylonians completed their destruction of Jerusalem. Its temple, along with many of the houses of the city, was burned; and it is assumed that this is also when the ark of the covenant ceased to be, having perished in the flames. See 2 Kings 25:8-16. At that time, the remnant of Jerusalem's population (another group) -- except for some of the poorest -- was also taken into Babylonian captivity. Since there were these poor who remained in Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah to serve as a governor over them (2 Kings 25:22). He encouraged the people to not be afraid, but to serve the king of Babylon (v. 24). Jeremiah was entrusted to Gedaliah's care, of whom the prophet not only found protection in the governor's home, but also liberation (Jer. 39:13,14). In speaking of his noble character, the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia states: "The narratives reveal Gedaliah in a very attractive light, as one who possessed the confidence alike of his own people and their conquerors; a man of rare wisdom and tact, and of upright, transparent character, whose kindly nature and generous disposition would not allow him to think evil of a brother; a man altogether worthy of the esteem in which he was held by succeeding generations of his fellow-countrymen." Unfortunately, Gedaliah was assassinated just a couple months after having been installed as governor. The need for the Jew to submit to the king of Babylon was God's message through Jeremiah. It was the only way that the Lord's people could be spared. But the false prophets spoke in opposition to what God wanted; and, sadly from our perspective, the majority went along with them, not taking heed to the Lord (Jer. 27:6-13). Zedekiah, for example, the "puppet king" of Judah -- and last king Judah had -- who reigned from 597 to 586 B.C. , was given that position by the king of Babylon of whom he rebelled. For instead of submitting to Babylon, Zedekiah, along with his men of war, fled to Jericho. However, he was captured and brought before the king of Babylon at Riblah. Because of Zedekiah's rebellion, his punishment was very grievous: After seeing his own sons slaughtered before him, he then was made blind; and bound in bronze fetters, he was led into exile (2 Kings 25:1-7). With regard to this, notice Ezekiel's prophecy: "I will also spread My net over him, and he will be caught in My snare. And I will bring him to Babylon in the land of the Chaldeans; yet he will not see it, though he will die there" (Ezek. 12:13). Prior to Jerusalem's ultimate destruction, however, Ezekiel prophesied of its downfall, due to the sins of God's stubborn and rebellious people (see Ezek. 2:2-7; 3:4-7); and, in spite of their indifference and unbelief, Ezekiel still had the responsibility to serve as a watchman who warns his people (Ezek. 3:17-21). Needless to say, God was grieved with His wayward ones. As the Lord states, Jerusalem "...has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations and against My statutes more than the lands which surround her; for they have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes...Therefore...I will execute judgments among you...fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; for I will execute judgments on you, and scatter all your remnant to every wind" (Ezek. 5:5-10). The fact that Ezekiel was taken into captivity prior to Jerusalem's destruction can be seen in Ezekiel 33:21, where we are informed of the time when news of that devastation had reached him: "Now in the twelfth year of our exile, on the fifth of the tenth month, the refugees from Jerusalem came to me, saying, 'The city has been taken'" (NASB). This last statement has been translated in other versions as, "The city has been stricken" (LITV), "The city is smitten" (KJV), "The city has been struck" (HNV), "The city has been struck down" (ESV), and "The city is laid waste" (DRB), in referring to its destruction. For too long, Israel had been led by false shepherds (Ezek. 34:1-10) -- and look where that got them. But God, the true Shepherd, would seek His flock -- regardless of where they would be found: "For thus says the Lord GOD, 'Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land. I will feed them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest,' declares the Lord GOD" (Ezek. 34:11-15). For a few centuries, David -- that young shepherd lad who later became king of God's people -- had been deceased. But the Lord states in Ezekiel 34:23-26: "Then I will set over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them; he will feed them himself and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and My servant David will be prince among them; I the LORD have spoken. I will make a covenant of peace with them and eliminate harmful beasts from the land so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. I will make them and the places around My hill a blessing. And I will cause showers to come down in their season; they will be showers of blessing." Not that that same David would be resurrected for this purpose; but, rather, his great descendant Jesus Christ would be that shepherd of God's people and would feed them and also be a prince over them. This passage, therefore, contains a Messianic prophecy. And citing an individual to figuratively represent another, who was to come, is also seen elsewhere in the Bible: For instance, the "Elijah" whom God would send (Mal. 4:5) was actually referring to "John the Baptist" (Matt. 17:10-13). The peaceful coexistence in Ezekiel's prophesy reminds us of the prophesies in Isaiah 2:2-4 and 11:6-9 that figuratively depict the tranquil realm of God's spiritual kingdom, the church, which was to be established "in the last days" and where "the wolf will dwell with the lamb." But the key to all of this is seen in Isaiah 11:9: "They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain...." This represents God's authority that his kingdom (or church) rests upon -- that "MOUNTAIN of the house of the Lord" that "will be established as the chief of the mountains" (Isa. 2:2, emphasis mine). In God's spiritual kingdom today, this peace exists. The wolf and the lamb dwelling together symbolizes the peaceful coexistence of Jew and Gentile -- which has been made possible by the death of Jesus Christ (cf. Eph. 2:11-18). In regard to Israel's restoration to their homeland, note what the Lord states in Ezekiel 36:24-28: "For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. And you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God." Finally, after this restoration of God's people to their homeland, they would never again become an idolatrous nation, as they had so often been in their previous history. This great renewal of the Lord's people is especially expressed in the next chapter, and very vividly, in which the "dry bones" were to "hear the word of the Lord" (Ezek. 37:4); and, as a result, God would "cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. And I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin, and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the Lord" (vv. 5,6). This is not talking about a literal resurrection; rather, it illustrates the transformation from Israel's hopeless, far-removed, and cut-off state -- as if separated by death -- to that of jubilant restoration to life in the land of promise, that land originally given to their forefathers. For see how this is explained in Ezekiel 37:11-14: "Then He said to me, 'Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, "Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off." Therefore prophesy and say to them, "Thus says the Lord GOD, 'Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken and done it,' declares the LORD."'" In thinking of the hardship in being away from their homeland, we're reminded of Daniel who, around 606 B.C., was taken into Babylonian captivity with that first group of exiles. While in that foreign land and with his windows opened toward Jerusalem, David would pray three times each day and give thanks to God. And this he did -- even when he knew he could be thrown into the lion's den for having done so (Dan. 6:7-11). How much he must have missed his homeland and the city of God's holy temple, Jerusalem. We are also mindful of Nehemiah who "wept and mourned for days" when he learned of the condition of Jerusalem. Nehemiah 1:13,14 reads: "...'the remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire." At this time, Nehemiah was in Susa (or Shushan), where the capital or palace was for the Persian kings. (The Medes and the Persians are the ones who defeated Babylon, bringing its 70-year reign to an end, and then they became the new world-ruling empire. It was Cyrus, king of Persia, who had issued the decree that the Jew could return to his homeland -- 2 Chron. 36:15-23.) Though written a few hundred years prior, Psalm 137 is also prophetic of this captivity and Jerusalem's destruction: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst of it we hung our harps. For there are captors demanded of us songs [of Zion]...How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget her skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy. Remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom the day of Jerusalem, who said, 'Raze it, raze it to its very foundation.' O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one, how blessed will be the one who repays you with the recompense with which you have repaid us. How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones against the rock" (vv. 1-9). So it truly does appear that the "life" of the Jews -- in a manner of speaking -- was taken away when they were made exiles in this distant land that was not their own and where they are depicted as "dry bones" existing there. Of course, this is not to say that every Jew in the captivity was discontent or even desirous toward going to the land of Israel. For there were many who were born on Babylon's soil, which to them was "home." In addition, it would not be only those of the southern kingdom of Judah (that was made up of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and some of the Levites that had left the northern kingdom) who would return from this Babylonian captivity; but it would also include descendants of the ten tribes of Israel that made up the northern kingdom that had been taken into Assyrian captivity in 721 B.C. -- more than a hundred years prior to Judah's captivity. For consider what God states to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 37:15-17: "And you, son of man, take for yourself one stick and write on it, 'For Judah and for the sons of Israel, his companions'; then take another stick and write on it, 'For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions.' Then join them for yourself one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand." When Ezekiel's people would question him as to the meaning of this, he was to tell them the following: "...'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will put them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand"'"(Ezek. 37:19). The Lord then goes on to say in Ezekiel 37:21,22: "Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms." The stick of Judah stands for the southern kingdom of Judah, while the stick of Ephraim (or the stick of Joseph) stands for the northern kingdom of Israel. Ephraim was not only the largest tribe of the northern kingdom -- and, therefore, sometimes used as a synecdoche for all those tribes -- but it was also within Ephraim's territory that the city of Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom, was located. A point we want to emphasize with this is that -- obviously -- the ten northern tribes of Israel did not vanish or become "the lost tribes of Israel," never to be heard of again, as many have believed today. For people from those tribes had returned to the land of Israel, along with those of the tribe of Judah. For instance, in Luke 2:36, the prophetess Anna, who was alive during the time of Jesus' incarnation -- seven centuries after the captivity of the northern kingdom of Israel -- is said to have been from the tribe of Asher. The Babylonian captivity of Judah had lasted 70 years -- just as it had been prophesied (2 Chron. 36:19-21; Jer. 25:11,12; 29:10; Dan. 9:2). After which, the Lord fulfilled His word to bring His people back into their homeland. The return began in 536 B.C., under the leadership of Zerubbabel, who concentrated on rebuilding Jerusalem's temple. Ezra led the next group in 458 B.C. He was concerned with Israel's spiritual reform and brought his people to a religious awakening through the reading of God's law (See Ezra 7:9-13). The third group was led by Nehemiah around 445 B.C. -- a trek that took four months, since Susa (or Shushan) was approximately 240 miles due east of the city of Babylon. He had previously been the "cupbearer" for King Artaxerxes, the king of Persia, which indicates how trustworthy of a man Nehemiah was; but made the long journey to Jerusalem in order to rebuild its walls and its gates. He had also been made governor of Judea. With regard to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, this return began 185 years after their captivity by the Assyrians in 721 B.C. So we are actually talking about the descendants of those who were taken away from the promised land -- just as would be true for many of those of the southern kingdom. But, of course, not all journeyed to the land of Israel. According to Smith's Bible Dictionary, "Those who were left in Assyria, Est. 8:9; Est. 8:11, and kept up their national distinctions, were known as The Dispersion (or the Diaspora). Joh 7:35; 1Pe 1:1; Jam. 1:1." Smith also mentions that the captives "were treated not as slaves, but as colonists." So some had probably made a good life for themselves and simply remained where they were; but what a day of liberation for those whose hearts had longed to live in that land that had been given to their people by God Himself, and where His holy temple had been -- and would be again. For these Jews were making that long journey, to the land of their forefathers, in order that that would all be so: the temple would be rebuilt (Ezra 1:3); 5,400 articles of gold and silver that had been taken as booty from the temple would be returned (Ezra 1:7-11); the walls and gates of the city would be restored (Neh. 2:17,18); Jerusalem would undergo a major improvement (Jer. 30:18) -- as well as other cities that had been in ruin, but would now be rebuilt (Amos 9:14). The return of God's people to their own land was in order that they could engage in this important and needful work; and which they carried out -- even when under the threat of war (Neh. 4:7-23). What enabled them? "...the people had a mind to work" (v. 6). May we each who are Christians also have a "mind to work" when it comes to our service to the Lord; for we had been brought out of the "captivity" of sin by the death of Christ in order that we might truly serve Him; bring glory to His name; and work on the building up of His temple today, which is the church (2 Cor. 5:15; 1 Pet. 2:12; 1 Cor. 3:16,17; 1 Thess. 5:11). Like each builder on the literal temple of Jerusalem, let us also realize our individual responsibility to be a worker -- and not merely an onlooker or a passerby. ____________________________________________________ News & Notes The Gospel Meeting at the Southside church of Christ in Gonzales (LA) begins today and will continue through Wednesday. The speaker will be Terry Slack from Arlington, Texas. Weeknight services will begin at 7:30. ____________________________________________________ MYRTLE STREET CHURCH OF CHRIST 1022 Myrtle Street Denham Springs, LA 70726 (225) 664-8208 Sunday: 9:15 AM, 10:00 AM, 4:00 PM Wednesday: 7:00 PM evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (225) 667-4520 e-mail: tedwards@onemain.com web site: http://home.onemain.com/~tedwards/go ____________________________________________________