The Babylonians captured Jerusalem in 587 BC, and many Israelites were forced into a seventy-year exile. What caused this to occur? Let’s examine the major historical books of the Old Testament in more detail. They were written to provide an answer to this question.
God’s faithfulness
God is reliable, and He always keeps His word. He assured Abraham that He would provide him and his descendants perpetual control of the land of Canaan (Genesis 17:8). The Israelites left Egypt after 400 years and traveled through the desert for 40 years before arriving in the promised land. Under Joshua’s leadership, they destroyed the Canaanite cities and took control of the territory west of the Jordan.
“Not a single word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you,” Joshua was able to tell them at the conclusion of his life. Not a single one has failed; they have all come to pass for you (Joshua 23:14). However, the land of Israel was devastated, the capital towns of Samaria and Jerusalem were destroyed, and the elite class of society was taken prisoner to Babylon in the East around six centuries later. Why is that?
Israel’s sin
[Sin] is the succinct response to the article’s main query. The biblical historiography has the longer response. There, it is stated that the Israelites’ land promise was conditional upon their compliance with God’s commandments and was not absolute. According to Moses, this is what Deuteronomy 28 says:
“The Lord will bring unusual hardships upon you and your descendants if you are not cautious to execute all the words of this law that are written in this book, so that you may fear this great and awesome name, the Lord your God.And just as the Lord enjoyed creating you and multiplying you, so too will the Lord enjoy ruining and destroying you. And when you go to take ownership of the land you are entering, it will be taken from you. And from one end of the earth to the other, the Lord will disperse you among all peoples (Deuteronomy 28:58-64).
It went wrong as early as [the Judges’ time]. The populace committed numerous horrible sins and idol worshiped. Following a brief period of prosperity under the kingdoms of David and Solomon, under the succeeding rulers of Israel and Judah, it deteriorated once more.
The book of Kings has nothing good to say about the kingdom of Israel. The Assyrians took control of Samaria in 722 BC, and the 10 tribes were exterminated.
The 150-year lifespan of Judah’s two tribes included some notable monarchs, including Hezekiah, Josiah, and Jehoshaphat. However, in spite of the prophets’ constant warnings, most of the people committed grave sins against their Lord and their neighbors. In vain, God tortured them in order to bring about conversion. They remained true to themselves.
God’s punishment
God finally imposed the judgment that Moses had spoken of onto the people of Judah after so many years of warnings. Due to their transgressions, the people were banished to Babylon. As stated by The Chronicler:
“All the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations. And they polluted the house of the Lord that He had made holy in Jerusalem. The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against His people until there was no remedy. […] The king of the Chaldeans […] took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years” (2 Chronicles 36:14-21).
The solution
Because of His reliability, God refrained from sending His people into permanent exile. They were granted permission to return to their homeland and begin anew after seventy years. It is evident, therefore, that the central issue of sin throughout Israel’s history remains unresolved. The Old Testament raises the dilemma of how God can coexist with unchangeable sinners. Real obedience cannot come unless the law is somehow internalized and engraved in the minds of the people (Jeremiah 31:33).
This mystery—that God’s Son, Jesus Christ, took on human form and died in order to atone for his people’s sins—is made clear in the New Testament. Every believer now has the Holy Spirit within them (1 Corinthians 3:16), and God is eternally present with them:
“Look, God has made humankind his home. According to Revelation 21:3, “He will live among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them as their God.”
Main points
- The Israelites were granted the land of Canaan as long as they followed God’s rules.
- Israel’s history is a depressing tale of unrelenting iniquity.
- God had to send the Israelites into seventy years of exile as a kind of punishment for their disloyalty.
- Jesus’ death on the cross provided a solution to the sin issue. Everyone who believes in God will spend eternity with Him.
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