Jer. xxv. 12.—Dan. i. 1-3.—Ezra i. 1-6.
Many years had passed away, during which the Children of Israel had
been governed by judges, and by the kings of Judah and Israel; but
gradually the people got slack; they forgot the Lord that brought them
out of the land of Egypt, and forsook His commandments and fell into
idolatry and dreadful sin.
At length God told the Prophet Jeremiah that the sins of the people
were so great that He must send Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, to
carry them away captives, and that they would serve him for seventy
years, while the land of Canaan should be a desolation, and enjoy her
Sabbaths.
We read in the first chapters of Daniel about this captivity.
Meanwhile God was very pitiful to His people whom He had had to punish,
and He sent them this message through Jeremiah:—
"For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at
Babylon, I will visit you, and perform My good work toward you, in
causing you to return to this place."
God told Jeremiah to tell them to build houses and make families
during that seventy years; to pray for their enemies, and to ask God
to send them peace. And God heard their prayers; and when the seventy
years were accomplished, He fulfilled the prophecy in a very wonderful
way, by raising up Cyrus, King of Persia, to send the Jews back to
rebuild God's Temple at Jerusalem. And Cyrus helped them in every way,
even giving them back the sacred vessels of the House of God which
Nebuchadnezzar had taken; and by encouraging his people to help the
Jews by giving them silver and gold, and beasts to carry the treasures,
and all that they needed.
Thus God fulfilled His own word, and the people returned at the end of
the seventy years.