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.
And in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, and he made a proclamation throughout his kingdom, and also in writing, saying,
Chronicles does not end with a burned temple. It ends with a decree from a foreign king. So how does God keep a promise when His people have lost everything? And why does He use a king who does not know Him?
The verse ties the release to a prophecy with a deadline. One writer notes that God used three men in three different ways — and that one of them never went home.
After seventy years it would be God's mind that they should return to Jerusalem... It is worth noting that Daniel himself did not return, though his face was always turned towards Jerusalem. God used him in prayer for this, as He used Cyrus in providence and Jeremiah in prophecy, while He Himself stood behind it all, working in purpose and in power... He can raise up servants, kings and prophets as He wills.
Exactness is not just a curiosity. The same writer turns it into a reason for confidence now.
This word and its fulfilment are so exact, and so encouraging. They fill the soul that trusts in the blessed God with comfort and cheer. That soul knows that even now He makes all things work together for the good of His own, whom He has called by His grace, according to His purpose.
The stirring took place inside the king. One writer sees here how God handles every ruler.
Let us stop and notice something. Whatever things look like on the outside, the Lord holds the hearts of all men in His hands. He turns them wherever He will. He uses men of every rank as instruments to carry out the counsels of His will.
Cyrus's decree has wording that needs explaining. One writer points back to a prophecy spoken two hundred years earlier.
Here is a remarkable prophecy that came true to the letter within two hundred years of being spoken. God called him by his name, and gave him a title, though Cyrus had not known Him. Yet the words of his decree, recorded in 2 Chronicles 36:23 and again in Ezra 1:2, make it likely that in some way Isaiah's prophecy had reached him.
Did Cyrus believe? One writer sets him beside Nebuchadnezzar, an earlier king God put to work, and leaves that question open.
In Cyrus we do not see the power of faith. Just as Nebuchadnezzar carried out God's work, so Cyrus is the minister of His mercy to bring the Jew back to the land. In himself he goes further than Nebuchadnezzar, for he says that the LORD God had given him the kingdoms of the earth, and a charge to build the house at Jerusalem. Whether this confession of God's sovereignty came from faith that leads to salvation is another matter. God is able to make the world confess His power and authority... The point is not what Cyrus was in himself, but his work.
The return was real, but it was small. One writer measures it, and points to a greater restoration still ahead.
True, that restoration was only partial. Only a remnant returned, small compared with the whole nation. A full restoration of all Israel, after the judgment is over — from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south — is kept for the great Son of David.
Chronicles could have closed at the ruin of verse 21. It does not. One writer carries the point over to the church today.
The book of Chronicles does not end in total misery. It shows the pure grace of God, which would not leave Israel in hopeless despair, but would seek their restoration in grace. We might well think about this in the light of the professing church today. Turning away from the pure truth of the New Testament, and rebelling against it, has broken and scattered the people of God. Many are inclined to think the outlook is hopeless. But God still cares for His Church more faithfully than we do. He is willing to give grace to those who cry to Him, so that they can keep up some testimony for Him.
- Word first. God moved a king to keep the word He spoke through Jeremiah. The promise came before the politics.
- Time kept. The fulfilment was exact. That is ground for trusting that God works all things together for good for those He has called according to His purpose.
- Heart turned. God holds the hearts of all men in His hand. He turns them where He will, using people of every rank.
- Stranger used. God named Cyrus two hundred years in advance, yet Cyrus did not know Him. What counted was not his faith but his work as the minister of God's mercy.
- Grace last. Only a remnant came home, yet Chronicles refuses to end in despair. The closing note is grace: God seeks His people's restoration, and still gives grace to those who cry to Him.
Thus says Cyrus king of Persia All the kingdoms of the earth has Jehovah the God of the heavens given to me, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whosoever there is among you of all his people, Jehovah his God be with him, and let him go up.
Chronicles follows Judah's kings down to ruin and exile, and then ends not with a funeral but with a Persian king ordering God's house in Jerusalem rebuilt. Why does a broken nation's story close in a foreigner's mouth, and what does its last open invitation ask of anyone who hears it?
One writer sees pure grace in that ending, and takes it straight to discouraged believers today:
So the book of Chronicles does not end in total misery. It shows the pure grace of God, who would not leave Israel in hopeless despair, but would kindly seek their restoration. We should weigh this against the state of the professing church today. Departure and rebellion against the pure truth of the New Testament has so broken and scattered the people of God that many think the outlook is hopeless. But God still cares for His Church more faithfully than we do. To all who cry to Him He is willing to give grace to keep up some testimony for Him, against all the opposition of Satan and against our own natural pull towards discouragement.
The decree did not come out of nowhere. God had promised it long before, and He used three very different men to bring it about:
So to fulfil this promise God used Jeremiah in prophecy, Daniel in prayer, and Cyrus, a man who did not know the Lord, in providence. God had said of Cyrus long before, through Isaiah, "I have surnamed you though you have not known Me… I have raised you up in righteousness." … This word and its actual fulfilment are so exact and so encouraging that they are full of comfort and cheer to the soul that trusts in the blessed God.
Cyrus says God charged him with the task, but never says how he knew. One writer suggests an answer:
Here then is a remarkable prophecy, and it came true exactly, within two hundred years of the day it was spoken. God called Cyrus by his name, and gave him a title, though Cyrus had not known Him. Yet the words of his decree here, repeated in Ezra 1:2, make it likely that someone had somehow shown him Isaiah's prophecy.
The title Cyrus uses — "the God of heaven" — is not the usual one. One writer explains what the change signals:
From the first, one solemn fact is clear. For the present the Jews are Lo-ammi (not My people), and God no longer speaks to them through the prophet. … God is given the distinct title "the God of the heavens" (Daniel 2:18, 37, 44), and the same title is repeated in Ezra, in Nehemiah, and here in 2 Chronicles 36:23. His people had turned away to idols. In that state it did not fit His nature and majesty to act as their head, or to move among them as "the Lord of all the earth" (Joshua 3:11).
The last sentence of the book names nobody. That wording did its own sifting:
The proclamation did not name any person who was to go to Jerusalem and build the house. It threw the door open to any Jew whose heart stirred him up to go, and promised him generous help with the work in front of him. Worded that way, those who responded would in the main be godly men, whose hearts were alive to the glory of God and to the place of His Name. The more worldly-minded and selfish would tend to stay in the comfortable homes they had built during the seventy years of captivity, and leave the task to others who were ready to face the difficulties and hardships.
One writer hears that same call still going out today:
In a sense, king Cyrus is still alive. The same call still goes out. Who is there among you? Who is there, who is not content with Babylon? Who is there who values Jerusalem? Who is there, who takes an interest in the house of God?
God used Gentile rulers both to punish Judah and to send her home. What followed, though, was only a beginning:
God used one Gentile to carry out His anger on Israel. He used another, Cyrus, as the instrument of His mercy, giving permission and help to all who wished to return. … True, that restoration was partial; for only a remnant returned, a small number compared with the nation. The full restoration of all Israel is reserved for the great Son of David. It comes after the judgment is over, and gathers them from the east and the west, from the north and the south (Psalm 107:3).
- Grace closes. The book of failure does not end in misery but in God's pure grace, still seeking His people's restoration.
- Grace keeps time. Jeremiah prophesied it, Daniel prayed over it, Cyrus carried it out. The promise came true exactly, which is comfort to anyone who trusts God.
- Grace works through outsiders. God named Cyrus through Isaiah two hundred years early, though Cyrus had not known Him.
- Grace names no one. The door stood open to anyone whose heart stirred him. That sorted those who valued God's house from those who stayed comfortable.
- Grace is not finished. Only a remnant returned; the full restoration of all Israel is reserved for the great Son of David.