In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure-house of his god.”YI May 14, 1903, par. 1

We also read of other invasions by the Babylonians a few years afterward, the first of which was in the reign of Jehoiachin the son of Jehoiakim:YI May 14, 1903, par. 2

“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. And Nebuchadnezzar ... carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land. And he carried away Jehoiachin ... into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.YI May 14, 1903, par. 3

“The king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father's brother king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah. Zedekiah was twenty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.... And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. For through the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.YI May 14, 1903, par. 4

“And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, ... that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about. And the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.... And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night: ... and the king went the way toward the plain. And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were scattered from him. So they took the king, and ... carried him to Babylon.”YI May 14, 1903, par. 5

“In ... the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem: and he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire. And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about. Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carry away. But the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vine-dressers and husbandmen.... So Judah was carried away out of their land.”YI May 14, 1903, par. 6

The prophet Nehemiah presents the evil-doings of the Jewish nation as the cause of their calamities. After recounting the Lord's dealings with them, and their oft-repeated rebellion, he declares: “They were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and slew thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great provocations. Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies.”YI May 14, 1903, par. 7

God made Zion his holy habitation, the joy of the whole earth. But notwithstanding his goodness to his chosen people, they forgot him, and wandered into idolatry. Before their dispersion, repeated warnings came to them; but “they refused to harken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his Spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts.”YI May 14, 1903, par. 8

If men refuse to receive the admonitions of the Lord, if they persist in walking contrary to his instruction, he can not deliver them from the sure consequences of their own course. If they place themselves in opposition to his purposes, and forsake the principles of heaven, he permits their enemies to humble them.YI May 14, 1903, par. 9

Through Huldah the prophetess, God declared concerning the unrepentant nation: “Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against” Jerusalem.YI May 14, 1903, par. 10

And what was the result?—“Therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts. Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts: but I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate.”YI May 14, 1903, par. 11

The children of Israel were taken captive to Babylon because they separated from God; they did not maintain his principles unadulterated with the sentiments of the nations around them. The people who should have been a light amid the surrounding darkness, disregarded the word of the Lord. They lived for themselves, and neglected to do the special work God had appointed them. And because of their failure to fulfil his purpose, he permitted them to be humbled by an idolatrous nation.YI May 14, 1903, par. 12

The Lord could not work for the prosperity of his people, he could not fulfil his covenant with them, while they were untrue to the principles he had given them to maintain, that they might be kept from the methods and practises of the nations that dishonored him. By their spirit and works the children of Israel misrepresented the righteousness of God's character, and the Lord allowed the Babylonians to take them captive. He left his people to their ways; and in the calamities that befell them the innocent suffered with the guilty.YI May 14, 1903, par. 13

Mrs. E. G. White

April 23, 1903

May 21, 1903