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The Babylonians Arrive

 Three hundred and fifty years of kings had ruled over the kingdom of Judah before Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian armies arrived at the gates of Jerusalem. For three hundred and fifty years Jerusalem had been growing as the center of Yahweh worship with temple based worship as its focus. This all came to an end the moment the Babylonians laid a devastating siege on the city, sucking dry the power of Judah, destroying the city and temple and exiling the population into servitude.

End of Temple-sanctioned Yahwism

The religious political and social lives of the people of Judah were over; they were citizens of a country that no longer existed. Israelite Yahwism had essentially ended the moment the temple was destroyed. The temple that represented the House of Yahweh on earth, lay in ruins, and sacrifices could no longer be brought to the altar. Furthermore the borders of Judah, which demarcated in the Judeans minds the domain of Yahweh, were breached. They were pulled away, not only from the place of worship, but also from the realm of God’s influence. In a state of servitude and a feeling of abandonment from their God and hopelessness the Judeans walked from the Mediterranean Sea to the Chebar River in modern day Iraq.

The Future?

If History were on their minds during this long trek into exile, they would surely have recalled the similar fate of their brothers in the Kingdom of Israel who were exiled over a hundred years before by the Assyrians. These “ten tribes” as we fondly recall them today disappeared from history, assimilated into the cultures they were artificially planted in, and lost their religion.

This would be our fate, the Judeans were thinking.

God becomes Bigger?

 Israelite Yahwism at this point offered no hope of redemption- for Yahweh was not present in the lands of Babylon with their multiplicity of gods. This idea however dramatically changed when a Judean priest had a mighty vision of Yahweh by the Chebar river. He saw a mighty chariot with wheels, wings and animals carrying the presence of Yahweh who appeared in the likeness of a human. Yahweh spoke with him and called him to become a prophet to his people, his name was Ezekiel. (Ezekiel 1:1-3:5)

The ramifications of this vision were awesome. For not only was God bigger and more powerful than they had ever imagined him to be- for he could transverse over foreign lands were other gods were worshipped proving himself above them all, but more importantly, he was still speaking to the people of Israel.

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