After hundreds of years of running after false gods and not obeying God’s voice, God allowed King Nebuchadnezzar to conquer the kingdom of Judah and carry the Israelites into captivity in Babylon. Seventy years of bondage and exile pass between verse 21 and 22. Verse 21 records the fall of Judah to Nebuchadnezzar in 582 BC, and verse 22 records Cyrus king of Persia, seven decades later, allowing the people to return to the land in 539 BC. Archaeology has proven this verse to be accurate with the discovery of the \u201cCyrus cylinder,\u201d which records Cyrus’ policy of encouraging exiles to return to their homelands.<\/p>\n
Ezra, who also led a group of exiles back to Jerusalem, is the possible author of Chronicles. And it’s interesting that he chose to end his book with hope by fast-forwarding past the 7 decades of bondage in Babylon to God fulfilling His promise to restore His people again. It reveals the heart and character of God. We serve the God of hope. We see this clearly in the ministry of Jesus in the New Testament. Wherever He went, He brought hope. In fact, it seems like it was his calling card. Jesus brought hope to the leper, sick and exiled from home and community. Jesus brought hope to a paralyzed person, unable to care for family. Jesus brought hope to any person who felt worthless, lost, broken, rejected, or beyond saving.<\/p>\n
Missionary Oswald Chambers wrote:<\/p>\n
\nThe spirit of God is always the spirit of liberty; the spirit that is not of God is the spirit of bondage, the spirit of oppression and depression . . . God who made the birds never made birdcages; it is men who make birdcages, and after a while we become cramped and can do nothing but chirp and stand on one leg. When we get out into God\u2019s great free life, we discover that is the way God meant us to live\u2014\u201cthe glorious liberty of the children of God.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
God’s desires us to hear and obey His voice, which keeps us from bondage and exile and enables us to live in His freedom.<\/p>\n
“LORD, please set us free and give us hope for others this day as we walk Your path, in Jesus’ name.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n
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2 Chronicles 36 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1<\/sup>\u00a0Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father\u2019s stead in Jerusalem.\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0Jehoahaz\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>twenty and three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0And the king of Egypt put him down at Jerusalem, and condemned the land in an hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and turned his name to Jehoiakim. And Necho took Jehoahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt. 5<\/sup>\u00a0Jehoiakim\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did\u00a0that which was\u00a0<\/em>evil in the sight of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0his God.\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon.\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon.\u00a08<\/sup>\u00a0Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found in him, behold, they\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.\u00a0 9<\/sup>\u00a0Jehoiachin\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did\u00a0that which was\u00a0<\/em>evil in the sight of the\u00a0LORD.\u00a010<\/sup>\u00a0And when the year was expired, king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of the\u00a0LORD, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.\u00a0\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0Zedekiah\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.\u00a012<\/sup>\u00a0And he did\u00a0that which was\u00a0<\/em>evil in the sight of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0his God,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet\u00a0speaking\u00a0<\/em>from the mouth of the\u00a0LORD.\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the\u00a0LORD\u00a0God of Israel. 14<\/sup>\u00a0Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0And the\u00a0LORD\u00a0God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0arose against his people, till\u00a0there was\u00a0<\/em>no remedy.\u00a0\u00a017<\/sup>\u00a0Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave\u00a0them\u00a0<\/em>all into his hand.\u00a018<\/sup>\u00a0And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the\u00a0LORD, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all\u00a0these\u00a0<\/em>he brought to Babylon.\u00a019<\/sup>And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.\u00a020<\/sup>\u00a0And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:\u00a0\u00a021<\/sup>\u00a0To fulfil the word of the\u00a0LORDby the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths:\u00a0for\u00a0<\/em>as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years. 22<\/sup> Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0spoken\u00a0<\/em>by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the\u00a0LORD\u00a0stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and\u00a0put it\u00a0<\/em>also in writing, saying,\u00a023<\/sup>\u00a0Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the\u00a0LORD\u00a0God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>in Judah. Who\u00a0is there\u00a0<\/em>among you of all his people? The\u00a0LORD\u00a0his God\u00a0be\u00a0<\/em>with him, and let him go up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After hundreds of years of running after false gods and not obeying God’s voice, God allowed King Nebuchadnezzar to conquer the kingdom of Judah and carry the Israelites into captivity in Babylon. Seventy years of bondage and exile pass between verse 21 and 22. Verse 21 records the fall of Judah to Nebuchadnezzar in 582 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7313"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16390,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313\/revisions\/16390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}