Daniel Unlocked #12. The Journey continues.
The Lord, Yahweh, has a line over which sin cannot pass. When it does it has to be excised like a cancer. The world crossed that line in the days of Noah when “The imagination of man’s heart was only evil continually.” (Gen.6:5) Sodom and Gomorrah crossed that line (Jude 7) and they were destroyed. When the nation of Israel left Egypt in the Exodus, they were instructed to exterminate countries like the Caananites. We might consider this to be genocide today, but archaeology has revealed that they were so corrupt and filthy that they had to be removed like a cancer that would have otherwise polluted and infected God’s Holy Nation. Some of the excavated archaeology is so corrupt that translators refuse to translate it. When God’s chosen people (chosen because of a promise to Abraham) approached the line, instead of destroying them, He sent them into captivity as punishment.
About 100 years after the Assyrian captivity the two southern tribes approached the line, and they were warned of their impending captivity by the prophet Jeremiah. Babylon had replaced Assyria as the dominant world power. The Medo-Babylonian conquest of the Assyrian Empire was the last war fought by the Assyrian Empire, between 626 and 609 BC. The king of Babylon was Nabopolassar and he was the father of Nebuchadnezzar. This brings us to the very first verse in Daniel’s prophetic manuscript. The “third year of king Jehoiakim’s reign” was 605 BC. Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem and this was to become the first of 3. It was during this invasion that he took Daniel and his friends back to Babylon for re-education in Babylonian ways. Daniel would have been a teenager (Daniel 1:4) and a prince (v3) who was related to king Jehoiakim.
After a revolt in Judah over taxes, King Nebuchadnezzar laid Siege to Judah again in 597 BC. After the city of Jerusalem was captured, tens of thousands of Jewish people were exiled from Judah. Jerusalem was destroyed by Babylonian forces.
One of the great miracles of history is that they survived this time and eventually returned.
God promised that all 12 tribes would return.
(See e.g. Jeremiah 50:4-6 and Jer 29:10-14, 30:11, 25:15, Ezekial 11:16-20,12:15).
The prophecy of Ezekial 37:15-22 promises a national restoration and says that all tribes would be put back into one united nation. In Ezekial 48 the land is divided again for all 12 tribes. After the return from Babylonian captivity Ezra made burnt offerings for all 12 tribes (Ezra 8:35).
Jeremiah had prophesied that the Babylonian captivity would be 70 years and then the miracle of restoration would occur. This captivity lasted until they were freed by Persian leader Cyrus the Great. While the Jewish people were exiled they faced immense pressure to conform to the culture of Babylon. However, they were able to maintain their religious traditions despite the circumstances.
They continued to pray, maintain their Biblically required dietary restrictions, and follow their laws. They remained hopeful that their captivity would end through help from God.
Their captivity did come to an end when the Persian King Cyrus the Great allowed them to return to Jerusalem in 538 BC.
if we only obeyed Jesus he would have already came i can’t wait for Jesus to come and take us home God bless you for sharing his word with us
🙂