captivity – La Vista Church of Christ

The Valley of Dry Bones

Jeffrey Hamilton — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 02:45:52 +0000

by Matthew W. Bassford

We all know the song. In fact, many people who aren't religious know the song. It is easily the most familiar concept from the book of Ezekiel, even though I think most people don't know that the content of the song comes from the book. Stripped of its context and meaning, the core idea is still striking. Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk around!

In context, though, Ezekiel 37 is profound. The valley of dry bones isn't merely a geographical curiosity. Instead, it represents the nation of God's people, which is D-E-A-D dead.

After all, Ezekiel, though a member of the priesthood, is writing from exile in Babylon, many hundreds of miles from Jerusalem. Jerusalem itself has been conquered by Babylon, along with all the rest of Judah. The temple has been burned; the people have been carried away captive.

Nor is this disaster the result of chance. Instead, it has occurred because God's people broke their covenant with Him and rebelled against Him. Through idolatry, oppression of the poor, and every kind of wickedness, they provoked the Lord into fighting against them rather than protecting them. As God warned in Jeremiah 37:10, even if the men of Judah had succeeded in badly wounding every Babylonian, the wounded men still would have risen up and burned the city. Truly, there is no strength, no understanding, and no counsel against the Lord!

From here, the rest of the story would have been brutally obvious to everyone. There was no way for the Jews to defeat Babylon, no way to get out from under the boot of the oppressor. The people were going to remain in exile indefinitely until they became indistinguishable from the nations around them. The great work that God had begun at Sinai had failed.

However, God has other ideas. As He restores life to the bones in Ezekiel’s vision, so too He is going to restore life to the dead nation of Israel. Indeed, He does. Mere decades after Ezekiel writes, Babylon is conquered by the Medo-Persians, and the Persian king Cyrus allows the people to return. Against all odds, God's people continue dwelling in the land, and God's work continues until its culmination in Christ.

Today, American Christians like to wring their hands over the wickedness of the United States and its downward moral trajectory. Generation Z is the least religious generation that our country has seen since before the Second Great Awakening. Many of our own congregations increasingly resemble AARP chapter meetings.

We are doomed, I tell you! Doomed!

I am not worried, not about the future of the church, at least. We serve a God who can give life to a valley of dry bones. The devil has never been able to destroy His people or defeat His will, and he's not going to succeed this time either.

I don't know how this is going to play out. Maybe this nation will see a Third Great Awakening. Maybe the truth will be extinguished here but continue to shine in places like the Philippines and Mozambique. Maybe their descendants will send preachers to evangelize ours.

I don't know, but I am confident that God does. Don't lose sleep over the future. It belongs to Him.

What proof is there that Jews returned with Nehemiah?

Jeffrey Hamilton — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 21:13:12 +0000

Question:

I saw your web page Q&A regarding how many waves of people were taken to Babylon.

You also list three return groups. Is there any scriptural support for any Jews returning with Nehemiah?

Answer:

The list of those who returned with Zerubbabel is found in Ezra 2:2-67. The total was 42,360 male Israelites plus 7,337 servants and 200 singers, for a grand total of 49,897 people. This group went during the first year of King Cyrus of Persia.

During the seventh year of King Artaxerxes, 1,769 male Jews went with Ezra (Ezra 7:7; 8:1-20).

Nehemiah 2:12 mentions a few men who were with him when he inspected the walls. He specifically states that he did not tell the local Jews about his night visit in Nehemiah 2:16. Whether those men were Jews or not is not stated. Nehemiah 2:8 also mentions that Nehemiah came to Jerusalem with an army escort. That would hint that there were more people in the traveling party than just Nehemiah, but how many is not possible to determine. Likely it was not that many.

Nehemiah found a book of genealogies about 100 years later (Nehemiah 7:5-67). There are a few differences in numbers from the list in Ezra. Some can be explained by differences in the spelling of names, or some might be scribal errors. But what should be noted is that it is a list of who arrived while Ezra's list was a list of who left. Still, the total comes out the same: 42,360 plus 7,337 servants and 245 singers.

Response:

Thanks so much for the reply. Some of us had heard over the years that there were three return groups, but when we looked for scriptural support, we really didn't find any.

I’ve always heard about the three waves of the Babylonian captivity, but where is this found?

Jeffrey Hamilton — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:06:08 +0000

Question:

I've always heard about the three waves of the Babylonian captivity, but where is this found?

Answer:

Three Captivities

Jehoiakim, also called Eliakim, was put into power by Pharaoh Neco who had killed his brother. Babylon attacked Judah and Jehoiakim surrendered to Babylon for three years, but he rebelled and Judah suffered its first devastating blow by Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar took away many in the ruling class. This is the wave that took Daniel into captivity (II Kings 23:34-24:6; Daniel 1:1-4).
Jehoiachin, also called Coniah or Jeconiah, only managed to reign three months under Babylon. He was carted away in the second attack by Nebuchadnezzar along with the middle class, craftsmen, and the remainder of the upper class. In this attack, the treasures of Israel were carted off to Babylon. This was the wave that took Ezekiel into captivity (II Kings 24:6-16).
Zedekiah, also called Mattaniah, managed to reign eleven years before rebelling and the third wave destroyed what was left of Judah. Most of Jeremiah deals with Zedekiah's reign. (II Kings 24:17-25:21).

Three Phases of the Return

Lead by Zerubbabel, the first wave of fewer than 50,000 people returned and began work on the Temple, managing to lay the Temple's foundations before quitting. Years later the project was restarted and the temple was completed (Ezra 1-6).
Lead by Ezra, the second wave consisted of just over 1,700 people. The priests returned and the law again was taught and followed (Ezra 7-10).
Lead by Nehemiah, this group rebuilt Jerusalem's walls and reestablished the government with Nehemiah serving as governor for twelve years (Nehemiah).