Seventy Years of Captivity

Ezekiel 30; Psalm 123; Psalm 130; Psalm 137

When we read the story about the rebellion of the people of Judah, what should we learn from it? We should learn how very wicked the heart of man is. The heart of every man, woman, and child, if not made new by the Holy Spirit, is as full of rebellion, self-will, and ingratitude as the hearts of the people of Judah were.

Has your rebellious heart been made new? If not, the frown of God is upon you; if you die as you are now, you must be sent away from Him for ever. But now it is not yet too late to have your sinful heart made new and clean. You must ask God, as David did, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in me.”

But what became of the good prophet Jeremiah? The Bible does not tell us how or where he died, but we read in history that the wicked rebellious Jews in Egypt grew so tired of his faithful warnings that at last they put him to death. Then Jeremiah could warn them no more. Perhaps the Jews in Egypt rejoiced, but they did not realize that they had killed their best earthly friend. For Jeremiah, the day of his death was a happy, glorious one; it was the end of all his sorrows and suffering, and the beginning of his everlasting joy in heaven. He then received what God promises to all who shall truly serve Him to the end, “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).

The wicked Jews could silence the prophet by putting him to death, but they could not prevent God from fulfilling His threats. Soon the powerful king Nebuchadnezzar, who had conquered Judah, came to Egypt and subdued that country too. Then God's words to Jeremiah were fulfilled. Almost all the wicked Jews were killed with the sword; very few of them escaped to tell the sad story of their sins and their punishment.

All this time the prisoners whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Judah were in sorrow and suffering at Babylon. There they had no temple, no sacrifices, and no priests. Those around them were idol-worshippers. When the poor captives remembered how far away their own beloved home was, the place where they had once prayed and sung praises to the true God in peace and joy, they wept for sorrow. They thought about why they had been sent to this strange land, and they remembered that it was because of their sins and idolatry that God punished them. Many of them felt very humbled, and they repented, turned to God, and asked Him to forgive and pity them.

Did God hear them? Yes, He had not forgotten His people; He had not forsaken them for ever. Before they went to Babylon, God promised that their captivity should last only seventy years, and at the end of those seventy years, He would bring them back to their own land again.

This promise comforted the captives in their trouble, but still they could not forget their sorrow. Many of them were old and could not hope to live to the end of the seventy years, to go to their home again. They found it hard to sing their joyful psalms of praise while they were away from their happy country. They could not sing, but they wrote many beautiful psalms and tried to praise God as well as they could in this strange land. They said, “By the rivers of Babylon we sat down. We wept when we remembered Zion. We hung our harps upon the willows that are there. Those that carried us away captive asked of us a song; they said, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion.’ But how can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? How can we forget Jerusalem? We love Jerusalem more than any earthly joy.” But then they remembered God's promise, wiped away their tears, and said, “God is our help; unto Thee we lift up our eyes, O Thou that dwellest in the heavens. Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us. Our help is in the Name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Let us trust and hope in Him; for with Him there is mercy, and He will save us from all our troubles.”

How pleasant it was that the faithful Jews had God's promise to comfort them in a strange land! Even today the people of God live in a strange land, far distant from their own home, the heavenly Jerusalem. Like the poor captives in Babylon they have much sorrow, pain, and trouble. But this will not last for ever. God will soon bring them home to that happy land where all tears are wiped away and where there is no more sorrow. Even today, God is always with His people, and He will comfort them by His Spirit and by the promises He has given them in His Word.

The Song in Captivity

By Babel's streams we sat and wept, For mem'ry still to Zion clung; The winds alone our harp-strings swept, That on the drooping willows hung. There our rude captors, flushed with pride, A song required to mock our wrongs; Our spoilers called for mirth, and cried, “Come, sing us one of Zion's songs.” Not songs but sighs to us belong When Zion's walls in ruin lie; How shall we sing Jehovah's song While in an alien land we die? O Zion fair, God's holy hill, Wherein our God delights to dwell, Let my right hand forget her skill If I forget to love thee well. If I do not remember thee, Then let my tongue from utterance cease, If any earthly joy to me Be dear as Zion's joy and peace. Remember, Lord, the dreadful day Of Zion's cruel overthrow; How happy he who shall repay The bitter hatred of her foe.

— Psalter 379

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