Outline of Chapter One
Crisis Point: The Fulfillment of Prophecy, 1
Captive Situation: Humbled By God, 2
Crucial Test:
Temptations to Conform, 3-7
Critical Choice: Yahweh or
Marduk, 8-13
Commendable Decision: Way Out of
Temptation, 14
Consequent Blessing: God’s Response to
Resolution, 15-20
Coincident Prophecy: Typical
Fulfillment, 21
Background of Chapter One
In 722 B.C., the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the
Assyrians. A century later, three powers beat the war
drums to gain supremacy in the Middle East. In 616,
Napolassar, king of Babylon, invaded Assyria. With the
help of the Medes, he besieged Nineveh in 612. In 610, the
fall of Haran to Babylon prompted Egypt and Assyria to
join forces. In 609, Pharaoh Necho marched north and
Josiah, king of Judah, was killed attempting to block his
way at Megiddo, resulting in Necho’s domination of
Palestine and Syria. In Jerusalem, the prophet Jeremiah
delivered
God’s decree.
Therefore the LORD Almighty says this: “Because you
have not listened to my words, I will summon all the
peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon,” declares the LORD, “and I will bring them
against this land and its inhabitants and against all the
surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and
make them an object of horror and scorn, and an
everlasting ruin. I will banish from them the sounds of
joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the
sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole
country will become a desolate wasteland, and these
nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.
But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish
the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the
Babylonians, for their guilt,” declares the LORD, “and
will make it desolate for ever” (Jeremiah 25:8-12).
In December 604 B.C., Jehoiakim had cut
to pieces Jeremiah’s prophetic scroll (Jeremiah 36:9-32),
including this prophecy of the seventy-year captivity
under Babylon. One can rip and tear prophecy from the
pages of Scripture, but it changes nothing. Judah’s days
were numbered.
By 607 B.C., the young and
energetic Babylonian crown prince, Nebuchadnezzar, had
begun his attempt to dislodge the Egyptians and Syria.
Napolassar lay sick in Babylon when his son Nebuchadnezzar
led a surprise attack against Pharaoh Necho and the
Egyptian Army at Carchemish. Routing the Egyptians, the
Babylonian crowned prince pursued them through Syria,
Phoenicia, and Palestine and stopped to besiege Jerusalem
in 605 B.C. Yahweh gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his
hands.
