Prophets Speak IV

   420. The prophet Jeremiah warned of the oncoming destruction by hostile empires, and he said sinful people would become "meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth" (Jer. 7:33 KJV). By "fowls" that would feast on the slain, Jeremiah undoubtedly meant vultures, because they feed on dead animals. The griffon is a huge vulture in the Holy Land, particularly in the mountainous areas. Although it is large and powerful, it never kills its own prey, and it will not feed on any animal that shows signs of life. It is a remarkably clean bird in its habits, bathing almost often as it finds water.

   421. The Babylonians came. They laid waste to the countryside and were on the verge of capturing Jerusalem just as Jeremiah had foretold. Yet on the eve of destruction, Jeremiah did a strange thing. He bought a piece of real estate, a field near his home village. He paid seventeen shekels of silver for it, had the deed signed, sealed, and witnessed, and then instructed Baruch to put the deed in a clay jar so that it could be preserved for a long time. For just as he believed that God would surely destroy the nation of Judah, Jeremiah also believed that God would build it up again. "Is there no balm in Gilead?" Jeremiah cried out and answered his own question by refusing to despair. God would not forsake his people, no matter how faithless they had been.

   422. Jeremiah is believed to be the author of the Book of Lamentations. In chapter three, the writer cries out:

               I am the man who has seen affliction,
                  by the rod of His wrath.
               He has driven me away and made me walk,
                  in darkness rather than light;
               indeed He has turned His hand against me,
                  again and again, all day long.
               He pierced my heart,
                  with arrows from His quiver.
               I became the laughingstock of all my people;
                  they mock me in song all day long.
               He has filled me with bitter herbs,
                  and sated me with gall.
                                              
                                                         verses 1-3, 13-15

   423. Origin of the term Jews. In the year 587 B.C. the Holy City lay in ruins, and its people were led off to captivity in Babylon after the armies King Nebuchadnezzar overran Judah and conquered Jerusalem. Their name changed to "Jews" (from the Hebrew Yehudi, which means "belonging to the tribe of Judah"). They kept alive their faith and their way of life during the years of exile.

   424. Habakkuk is thought to have been a prophet around the time of Jeremiah. He struggled with how God would want His people, despite how badly they were behaving, to come under the influence of an even more ungodly people-the Babylonians. God was faithful to His prophet and assured Habakkuk to trust Him for the answer.

   425. Ezekiel spoke knowingly about the land and its life. Scholars disputed for a long time about what animal he meant by "the great dragon" (Ezek. 29:3 KJV), until archaeologists excavated ancient Babylon and discovered the remains of an enormous gate that was ordered to be built by Nebuchadnezzar. The ruins of the Ishtar Gate showed decorations with rows of animal sculptures-at least 575 figures in all. One of the animals is a fantastic beast: the Sirrush or Dragon of Babylon.

   426. Why a dragon? No one knows for certain why the image of the Sirrush was placed on the gates, but Nebuchadnezzar ordered these words inscribed on it: "Fierce bulls and grim dragons I put and thus supplied the gates with overflowing rich splendor that all humanity may view it with wonderment." It is possible that these figures were intended to impress or even frighten the Medes and Persians. So although actual dragons never existed, sculptured figures of them must have been seen by Ezekiel during the exile in Babylon.

   427. The valley of dry bones was a graveyard to which the prophet Ezekiel was commanded to preach. As he did so Ezekiel watched the bones reattach to one another and come to life-an image of the spiritually dead nation of Israel coming back to life by the power of God's Word. This event, recorded in Ezekiel 37, is one of several strange visions of the prophet.

   428. The period of the exile in Babylon, lasting approximately from 586 to 538 B.C., deeply impacted Judaism and the Bible. Without the Temple in Jerusalem as the focal point of Yahweh worship, the Jews were forced to create a new form of communal ritual with the earliest beginnings of the synagogue as the center for prayer, Torah study, and teaching.


   429. The spirit of hope to return to Jerusalem and restore the Temple gave many exiled Jews a purpose. They began to look for a Messiah, a new leader or savior. However, only a minority of the Jews took advantage of the offer to return  to Judah and rebuild Jerusalem. Many of these people had lived in Babylon for two generations and intermarriage had become common.