The rest of the story

Cliff’s Notes Version

 Kingdom is split

•North and South

•Idolatry
•Prophets
 Reform and deform
• Josiah and Hezekiah were Kings
in Jerusalem who brought about
reform.
• BUT Hezekiah’s son Mannaseh
sacrificed his own children to the
god Molech!!!
• Dear Lord! That’s ridiculous.
• Josiah came after and tried to
reform…but it wasn’t enough…
(Gulp) So what happened?
 Babylonian invasion!!!
600 B.C. The Babylonians invaded
Judah and conquered.
 Worse!!!
• In 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar
burned Jerusalem to the ground
and carried the Jews away to 70
years of captivity!!!!
 Even Worse
• The Temple was destroyed, the
priesthood stamped out and the
sacrifices were stopped.
• The Covenant appeared to be over

• But it wasn’t
• This was all about
 Purification

Suffering and loss can bring

us back to what is truly
important
 After 70 years
• Cyrus, king of Persia, busted them out
and even rebuilt the Temple (Is 44-45)
• Ezra, t he High Priest acted as ruler,
though he wasn’t a Davidic king. He
renewed the Covenant and had the
men divorce their foreign wives.
• He republished the law and oversaw
the rebuilding of the Temple.
All without FEMA!!!!

This little girl is rebuilding

the Temple with pumpkins.
 From then on
• With a few exceptions
• Judah was a priestly theocracy without
a king…no royalty.
• “Temple Centered Religious
Commonwealth”…which spawned
JUDAISM.
• They got conquered every other
Tuesday…Babylon, Medo-Persians,
Greeks, then the Ptolemy and Seleucid
dynasties…until finally in 63 B.C.
Rome
 Highs and Lows
• The priesthood was kind of wimpy
and there were hardly any
prophets…
• BUT…martyrdom and persecution
caused conversion of heart.
• Spiritually…this is the high point…
at the political low point….
• when you’ve got nothing…you
know what you really have!
 Refined and purified for
• All of this turmoil, amid corruption,
politics, poverty, and uncertainty woke
up something precious.
• HOPE.
• God’s plan brought them forward to
• The fullness of time…
• The Jews awaited a Messiah….a
fulfillment of God’s promise to David.
And they got one!!!!

Not like they thought, but

much much more!!!
Welcome to Advent!!!!