A Prophet Among You

Two Captivities

The chronicler was here telling of the fate of Judah; but a little more than a century earlier a similar doom had overtaken the northern kingdom, Israel, when it was conquered by the Assyrians. However, neither invasion nor captivity had taken place without adequate warning and counsel by the prophets. In the northern kingdom Amos and Hosea had sharply portrayed conditions within Israel that called for intervention on the Lord’s part, but with their messages of accusation and rebuke was an invitation to return to the Lord. In Hosea’s message, especially, the love of God for His erring people was depicted, and with it was an expression of His eagerness to receive them back. Hosea’s appeal was the last, and because of its nature perhaps the strongest, sent to Israel. It is possible that his ministry continued until the fall of Samaria to the Assyrians in 722 B.C. When it became apparent that the evils that covered the land had gone beyond remedy, the sentence was pronounced: “Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.” Hosea 4:17. “The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come; Israel shall know it.” Hosea 9:7. “Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword.” Hosea 13:16. But the final chapter of the book is one of invitation: “O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God.... I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for Mine anger is turned away from him.” Hosea 14:1-4. APAY 155.1

Judah’s time of probation continued more than a hundred years longer than Israel’s, but the same doom came to both. The division of the kingdom in the days of Rehoboam helped slow the spread of idolatry in the southern nation. Isaiah made strong pleas for the people to turn from the worship of idols and to remember the God who was the Creator and who could foretell the future. He predicted their captivity and eventual deliverance. At the same time Micah was preaching against their presumptuous sin. “They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us.” Micah 3:10, 11. He pointed out the result of their course: “Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.” Verse 12. Repeatedly he brought appeals for repentance. “He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” Micah 7:19. APAY 156.1

By the time Jeremiah began his ministry, about twenty years before the first Babylonian Captivity, the situation appeared to be beyond hope; but still God worked through the prophet to try to avert the coming disaster. Even after the first and second invasions, in 605 and 597 B.C., the complete destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the temple might have been avoided if Zedekiah had been willing to surrender to the Babylonians instead of staging a hopeless resistance. The prophet was at hand to give counsel as to how to meet the critical times successfully, but his words were ignored even after they were asked for by the Reuben-like king. APAY 157.1

Since the Assyrians scattered thousands of the people of Israel throughout their empire in an attempt to destroy the unity and identity of the nation, we have no record of prophets working directly among them. Judah, on the other hand, went into captivity in Babylon, and was not scattered as was Israel. It was the Lord’s plan that those who would remain faithful during the Captivity should be brought back again to Palestine, and made a nucleus of a nation that would perform His will by giving to the world a revelation of His love and power. This was the same purpose He had in mind for His people originally. If ever God’s people in ancient times faced a crisis, it was then. The Babylonians had no intention of permitting the Jews to return and revive the nation that had been so much trouble to them through the years. Satan’s purposes, too, could be well served by having Israel swallowed up by this heathen nation. God’s plan for the future depended on the preservation of a knowledge of Himself and of the true worship during the period of the Captivity. APAY 157.2

As spiritual leader of Judah in exile, the Lord chose Ezekiel, a young priest, and called him to be His prophet. It was he who ministered to the people in Babylon during many years of the Captivity. Daniel, who occupied important positions in the royal court, supplemented the work of Ezekiel, but it was this prophet-priest who maintained contact with the people and was their spiritual guide. He held before them the glory of God as it had been revealed to him, and taught them that the Lord could be with them where they were as well as in Jerusalem. Ezekiel 11:16. Daniel’s presence in Babylon after the death of Ezekiel undoubtedly did much to hold the people faithful until the time of deliverance by the decree of Cyrus. It is possible that he showed Cyrus the prophecies of Isaiah that told of the deliverer of Israel; he would be a general who would persuade the king to send back to Palestine the Israelites who wished to go. This gap in the national life of the chosen nation was bridged through the ministry and leadership of prophets, so that Judah had another opportunity to prove itself worthy of God’s confidence. APAY 157.3