And them that had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they became servants to him and his sons, until the reign of the kingdom of Persia;
Chronicles closes with the death of a kingdom: the survivors of the sword go to Babylon as the property of a foreign court. Two questions press on the reader — why did God allow this, and why does the verse fix an end point to it?
This collapse was not sudden. Commentators note that God let the evil in Jerusalem run its full course before He struck. This is His consistent way:
This, we believe, is always God's way. He does not act in judgment until the evil has fully shown itself. It was so with the Amorite nations, as shown in Genesis 15:16. It was so with the kings and people in Jerusalem, as testified in 2 Chronicles 36:11-20. It will be so again in the sad history of Christendom, as predicted in Revelation 17 and 18.
The word that stings in this verse is "servants." Israel had held that title once, but from God's own lips:
As soon as the people had gone into captivity, the "sword" of government passes to the Gentile king... Israel had been God's servant until this point (it held that position, however unfaithful). See Isaiah 43:10 — "You are my... servant whom I have chosen." (See also Isa. 41:8; Isa. 42:19; Isa. 44:21.) The Gentile king now takes the place of the Lord's servant, though in another sense... During the times of the Gentiles, God takes the title "God of heaven," as we see all through the book of Daniel, which deals with these times. The people had proved themselves worse than the nations around them. They were completely false witnesses to the "Lord of all the earth." So God removes His presence from among them, and hands the government of the world over to the Gentile king.
This was more than one nation's misfortune. It was a hinge in the whole world's story — the moment God's throne left the earth:
When Nebuchadnezzar carried them away captive to Babylon, the people truly became "Lo-ammi" — "not my people" — though God still watched over them in mercy. The "times of the Gentiles" began. So when Israel failed and turned to idolatry, God gave power into the hands of the Gentiles. His throne was no longer found on earth. It had been at Jerusalem, where He lived in the house built for His name.
Nebuchadnezzar looks like the victor. But he did not author this, and what began here has never been undone:
Nebuchadnezzar was only the executor of God's sentence. No son of David has since that time sat upon his throne... The foreigner has ruled them ever since. He will go on ruling until the true Heir comes — the next King of the house of David, the Lord Jesus.
If Babylon's rule was God's own sentence, then fighting it was fighting Him. This is why Jeremiah's counsel sounded like treason:
The Lord meant their exile to be for their eventual good. In a day of ruin faith always recognises the chastening of God and bows to it. Unbelief always resists, and calls its opposition patriotism, or maybe religion. This is why the men of Judah saw Jeremiah as a very false Jew. He always advised them to submit to the king of Babylon. They thought themselves much better Jews, because they were willing to fight against the king of Babylon.
The verse does not end in Babylon. It ends with a change of empire — and one writer names the very night it came:
Those who were not killed were carried captive to Babylon. There they became slaves to Nebuchadnezzar and his sons, until the kingdom of Persia began to rule. That change came when the Medes and Persians conquered Babylon, on the same night that Belshazzar saw the handwriting on the wall (Dan. 5:24-30).
The length of the exile was no accident of politics:
The Lord measured the seventy-year stay in Babylon. It was long enough to do His chastening. It was short enough to prove His tender mercy, and to leave room for a greater display of Himself.
Being under the yoke did not mean being abandoned. Among the captives were men God still honoured:
Not all who reached Babylon were like Ezekiel, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. These men, and all who thought as they did, formed the true remnant during the seventy years of captivity. It is striking that they were not spared the nation's common lot of living under a Gentile yoke. Yet God honoured them: He trusted them with His secrets, and they confessed His name.
- No remedy — God struck only when the evil was fully out in the open. His delay was patience, not indifference.
- Only the rod — Babylon won nothing on its own. Nebuchadnezzar carried out a sentence God had passed.
- Servants — the nation once called God's servant now served a Gentile king. World government left Jerusalem.
- Bow, don't fight — faith accepts God's chastening and bows. Unbelief resists, and calls its resistance loyalty.
- Until — God measured the term. Long enough to correct, short enough to show mercy, and ending on a date He had already named.
to fulfil the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath, to fulfil seventy years.
This verse explains the ruin of Jerusalem in one line. The exile was no accident: the land was taking back the rest Israel had refused to give it, and God had set the number of years long before.
God had commanded that every seventh year the land should lie fallow. Israel never trusted Him enough to obey, so He took the rest by another route.
This is exactly what happened to them when Babylon carried them away captive (compare 2 Chronicles 36:21 with Leviticus 26:34). The land enjoyed its sabbaths while Jerusalem lay desolate. Once every seven years there was to be a year of rest. But the people did not have faith in God to keep it. They did not believe God and would not allow the sabbatical years, so God found this way of enforcing obedience to His law.
Where does the number seventy come from? It counts the sabbath years Israel skipped.
There is no record of the Sabbatical year and the year of Jubilee ever being kept. Leviticus 26:34-35 predicts what would happen if the Israelites did not let the land keep the sabbaths. It reads almost like a prophecy: the land was to lie desolate "because it did not rest in your sabbaths." Jeremiah 25:11-12, Jeremiah 29:10 and Daniel 9:2 give the actual desolation as seventy years. And as the land was to have rested one year in every seven, the 70 answers to 70 × 7 = 490 years. Israel's kingdom began in B.C. 1095, and Jerusalem was taken in 606, which is just 490 years. This seems to confirm the silence in Israel's history about ever giving the land its required sabbaths.
God did not strike at once. He sent warning after warning first.
With infinite patience the Lord still waited for His people to return. Judgment is His strange work, but He delights in mercy. He sent them messengers who urged them and brought the messages of God, because He had compassion. But they mocked the messengers. They despised God's gracious offers and mistreated His prophets, till there was no remedy. What an awful statement. Turning away from God and defying Him grew worse and worse, till there was no remedy.
The exile also changed who ruled the world. That change still stands today.
In B.C. 606 Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, and this was the start of the seventy years' captivity in Babylon. This also marked the beginning of the "times of the Gentiles." A little later, in B.C. 588, Jerusalem was completely destroyed, along with the temple Solomon had built. God took power and authority out of the hands of His own people and put it into Gentile hands. Nebuchadnezzar was the first head of the line of Gentile kingdoms (Daniel 2:38). It is still the "times of the Gentiles," and these will continue until the kingdom is set up in the hands of Christ.
God fixed an end and said so in advance. Daniel found that limit in Jeremiah while he was a captive, and it drove him to prayer.
He read the book of Jeremiah with care. There he came across the prediction in Jeremiah 29:10 that this time the desolations of Jerusalem would last only seventy years. The discovery of this unexpected grace brought him to his knees in an agony of confession and prayer. Was not the judgment of the very power that had overthrown Jerusalem the dawn of hope? Was not the time of their weeping nearly at an end?
Failure is not the last word. Commentators point on to a day when God recovers everything for a repentant people.
Sadly, it is the old, old story of man's failure in every duty, and it runs from the earliest days. These, however, are only the wretched ways of man. But days are coming when everything will be recovered by a poor, afflicted and repentant people under Messiah and the new covenant. Then all the pledges of the sabbath year will come true. Far more will come true as well: every promise and every prediction, to God's glory and to the blessing of Israel and all the nations.
- Debt. Israel farmed the land in the seventh year instead of letting it rest. An unpaid account of sabbaths built up behind them.
- Collection. God did not cancel the debt; He collected it, using the exile to give the land the rest His people had withheld.
- Delay. God waited and sent messenger after messenger. Judgment fell only when there was no remedy left.
- Transfer. When God called in the debt, world rule passed from Jerusalem to Babylon. The times of the Gentiles began, and they still run today.
- Limit. God named seventy years in advance, so the word that measured the punishment also promised its end. Daniel read it and prayed, and a fuller rest is still promised to the land.