from WL Worcester (H Blackmer, ed.), 
The Sower.  Helps to the Study of the Bible in Home and Sunday School
 
(Boston: Massachusetts New-Church Union, n.d.)

Table of Contents
 

 

Lesson 23

2 Kings 25:1-21: Jerusalem Destroyed

The Story

Primary

The people of Judah had disobeyed the Lord and worshiped idols much as Israel had done, and the time came when they too were carried away captive. They were taken even farther away than the people of Israel, to Babylon. We will in a moment look it up on the map.

Armies of Babylon came three times against Jerusalem, and each time more captives were taken away. The temple was spoiled. First, its gold and silver treasures were taken to be put in the temple of an idol in Babylon. We do not hear again of the beautiful ark in which were the commandments. At last, even the pillars and altar and laver from the temple court were broken up and the brass or bronze was carried away. The city, too, was spoiled. The good houses were burned, and the wall about the city was broken down. It was left very desolate, and it remained so for seventy years.

Now let us take our map and follow the captives on their long journey. Here is Jerusalem, and here is Babylon. But the journey was longer than it looks because this country between is desert, which they could not cross. They would go up to the Euphrates River and then down this way to Babylon. Babylon was a great, rich city, with palaces and temples. The country about it was flat, watered by streams from the Euphrates River. Some of the Jewish captives were taken into the great, strange city; some of them were given homes in the country near by.

How homesick you would be if you were carried far away to some strange land! And the Jews were leaving their Holy Land and their dear city, Jerusalem, and the temple of the Lord. Perhaps this leaving it and going far away would make them love it more and make them remember the Lord. Read verses 1-6 of Ps. 137. “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion.” The Psalm is full of the sadness of the homesick captives.

Junior

Do you remember the messengers that came to Hezekiah from a far country, to whom he showed all his treasures, and how the prophet Isaiah rebuked him and told him that these same people would some day carry away the treasures and the people? (2 Kings 20:12-19)

Three times armies of Babylon came against Jerusalem, each time taking more captives and more treasure.

In the first verse of 2 Kings 24, you read about the first taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar when Jehoiakim, Josiah's son, was king. You read of this taking of the city more fully in Dan. 1:1-2. You learn that Daniel was among these first captives, and that at this time a part of the precious golden vessels of the temple were carried away.

Jehoiakim was followed by his son, Jehoiachin. Look carefully at these names, they are so much alike. When Jehoiachin was king, Nebuchadnezzar came again against Jerusalem, and this time he carried away to Babylon the king and the best of the people, and the craftsmen and smiths, and all the gold that was left in the temple. (2 Kings 24:6-16) The priest Ezekiel was among those taken captive at this time and he spoke his prophecies in captivity near Babylon. (Ezek. 1:1-3)

When he took Jehoiachin away, Nebuchadnezzar made the king's uncle king in his place and called him Zedekiah. He rebelled against the king of Babylon and then the end came. Jerusalem was besieged and taken a third time. The walls were broken down, the temple, the king's palace and the good houses burnt, and the brass or bronze was taken from the temple. You read of the cruel treatment of Zedekiah. More of the people were carried away, leaving only some of the poorer ones to be vinedressers and husbandmen. We read about this destruction of Jerusalem in 2 Kings 25:1-21, and in Jer. 39:1-10; and 52; for the prophet Jeremiah was living in Jerusalem in those days. Read of Jeremiah's own experiences during the siege of Jerusalem in Jer. 37 and 38. We shall learn more about Daniel and Ezekiel and Jeremiah in other lessons.

Read with our story today a part of the sad Psalm of the captives. (Ps. 137:1-6) Is this only a story and a Psalm of what happened long ago, or are we ever the captives by the rivers of Babylon, who weep as we remember Zion? When is this true of us?


1. What enemy took Israel captive? What enemy took Judah captive?

2. Who was the last good king in Jerusalem? Who were the kings in Jerusalem when the army of Babylon came three times against the city?

3. What great prophets belong to this time of the captivity?

4. How long would the captivity in Babylon continue?

Spiritual Study

Intermediate

Study more carefully Ps. 137. It is spiritually a picture of those who come under the power of self-love (Babylon) and into the falsity and mere outward appearances of truth which come with self-love (the rivers and willows of Babylon). This evil state is far from heavenly love (Zion) and heavenly truth (Jerusalem). Happy heavenly affections (songs of Zion) are not active, nor are glad confessions of heavenly truth (harps). If we yield wholly to the evil, there is no power to do good (right band), nor any power to speak truth (tongue). Evil of other kinds (Edom) rejoices to see heavenly truth (foundations of Jerusalem) utterly destroyed. Self-love destroys the beginnings of heaven (little ones of Jerusalem). Happy is the person who destroys evil in its beginnings (little ones of Babylon), condemning it with the Lord's truth (stones). (E. 411, 518)

Someone must make for us a more careful study of the meaning of Babylon. The evil represented by Babylon you see in Nebuchadnezzar's proud words: “Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power; and for the honor of my majesty?” (Dan. 4:30) You find it condemned in Isaiah, in a proverb against the king of Babylon. “Thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. . . . I will be like the Most High.” (Isa. 14:13-14) Babylon is a type of self-love, and the desire to rule over others, especially by means of holy things. Note the use of holy vessels from the temple as drinking vessels in Belshazzar's feast. (Dan. 5:1-4) It profanes holy things by using them for selfish ends. This is the meaning everywhere in the Bible, from the tower of Babel in Genesis to the fall of Babylon in the Revelation. (A. 1326; J. 54; E. 1029; R. 717)

Can someone now show us why Babylon was the special enemy of Judah, as Assyria was the special enemy of Israel? It is plain when we remember that Israel represents heavenly intelligence and Judah heavenly affection. Self-love is the very opposite of such affection. (E. 811, 1029)

The gradual enslavement of the character by an evil love or habit is suggested by the three times that the army of Babylon came against Jerusalem, treating it each time more severely and carrying away more captives. Notice, too, how at the earlier visits the gold of the temple was taken away, and at last even the brass or bronze. The pure motive of heavenly love is destroyed by the indulgence of self-love. The appearance of goodness in outward life may continue a little longer, but even this is soon lost. (A. 425; E. 70)

Does this captivity of seventy years in Babylon necessarily represent a state hopelessly confirmed in evil, or may it represent a state of temptation from the evil of self-love from which one may by the Lord's help, through repentance, return humbled to a happy heavenly life? Answer by reading Ps. 126 and Isa. 35. Seven and seventy in a good sense mean what is complete and holy, but in a bad sense what is complete in wickedness; or as here a full state of affliction before the coming of a brighter day. (A. 728, 6508) Judah would return in preparation for the coming of the Lord.

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