Historical Prologue

Historical Prologue

            The promises of God are dependent upon the condition of obedience (see Jer 18:9,10). No other people group was able of testifying to this fact than God’s Israel. From the very beginning of their journey as God’s chosen people, they have seen both the reward for obedience, and also the regrettable consequences of disobedience.

            Upon taking them out of Egypt, God had promised to take them to the Land which He had Promised to Abraham their father, but they frustrated and greatly delayed His desires.^S1 Finally, after 40 years in the Wilderness (cf. Deut 1:39, 40), God was able to have a generation  with whom He can work in order to accomplish His vital and eternal redemptive purposes; but God knew to well that He had chosen to associate Himself with an extremely rebellious people, and that even this generation and their future descendants would also not walk in His ways (see Deut 31:16-18). So before they entered the promise land, God, speaking through Moses, clearly explained to them what would be their terrible fate if they would disobey Him,^S2 but He also laid out before them their great and many blessings if they would obey.^S3

            Following the period of the Judges of Israel (ca. 1500-1040 B.C.), the nation entered into the period of its monarchy (1040-587 B.C.), but it is in this prosperous period that the gradual downfall of the Nation began to occur, particularly following the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon. It was following Solomon’s reign, that the kingdom became divided into two kingdoms with the Northern Kingdom (Israel) having 10 tribes, and the Southern Kingdom (Judah) having only one (visible) tribe-Judah.^N4

            Evil and rebellion reigned supreme during this "Divided Kingdom" Era for of the twenty kings that reigned in the kingdom of Israel (930-722 B.C.), not one of them ever did the will of God;’^N5 and of the twenty rulers (19 kings and one queen^N6) that reigned in the kingdom of Judah (930-587 B.C.), only eight were said to have ‘done what was right in the sight of the Lord;’^N7 but of these eight only two (Hezekiah and Josiah) fully accomplished God’s will as they went on to thoroughly purge the kingdom from all links and traces of idolatry.^S8 So in retrospect, of the forty-three kings that reigned during the Nation of Israel’s monarchial period, only three (David, Hezekiah and Josiah) could be said to have completely carried out the purposes of God for His chosen people; and as it usually is, as the leaders go, so goes the nation. Consequently, when Israel was weighed in the Heavenly Balances, they were overwhelming found wanting and unworthy, and therefore God allowed the terrible curses that He had decreed to come to be increasingly poured out on them. He had sent many “covenant-prosecutor” prophets to them like Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel in attempts to bring them back to abiding by the stipulations of His covenant, but they only persecuted and rejected these Godly messengers. So in 722 B.C., God allowed the Assyrians to overthrow and control the Northern Kingdom, and then in 587 B.C. He allowed the Babylonians to do the same to the Southern Kingdom. And thus the once-promising Nation of Israel came to lay in a quite visible state of having been punished and forsaken by their God (Lev 26:32).

            It is in this context of punishment, rejection and destruction that we come to find the great prophecy of the Seventy Weeks for just when all seemed hopeless for Israel, a sudden change began to rise in the horizon as the prophet Daniel, exiled in Babylon, started to perceive, and then desperately cling to, God’s solemn but conditional promise of restoration It is to this memorable and far-reaching development that we now turn our attention.

Notes to Prologue

1. See e.g., Num 14:1-35; cf. Deut 1:26-40.

2. See Lev 26:14-46 & Deut 28:15-68.

3. See Lev 26:1-13 & Deut 28:1-14.

4. The tribe of Simeon having apparently been absorbed into the tribe of Judah at an earlier time (see Josh 19:1, 9).

5. Cf. in e.g., [B.C. regnal dates]: Jeroboam I (930-909)- 1 Kgs 14:7-11; Nadab (909-908)- 1 Kgs 15:25, 26; Baasha (908-886)- 1 Kgs 15:33, 34; Elah (886-885)- 1 Kgs 16:8-10; Zimri (885)- 1 Kgs 16:20; Tibni (885-880)- 1 Kgs 16:21, 22; Omri (885-874)- 1 Kgs 16:25, 26; Ahab (874-853)- 1 Kgs 16:30; Ahaziah (853-852)- 1 Kgs 22:51, 52; Joram (852-841)- 2 Kgs 9:21, 22; Jehu (841-814)- 2 Kgs 10:29-31; Jehoahaz (814-798)- 2 Kgs 13:1, 2; Jehoash (798-782)- 2 Kgs 13:10, 11; Jeroboam II (793-753)- 2 Kgs 14:23, 24; Zechariah (753)- 2 Kgs 15:8, 9; Shallum (752)- 2 Kgs 15:13-15; Menahem (752-742)- 2 Kgs 15:17, 18; Pekahiah (742-740)- 2 Kgs 15:23, 24; Pekah (752-732)- 2 Kgs 15:27, 28; and Hosheag1033  (732-722)- 2 Kgs 17:1, 2. The regnal dates of these Kings are based on the reconstruction of: Edwin Thiele, A Chronology of the Hebrew Kings (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1977), 75.

6. The one queen was Athaliah who reigned from 841-835 B.C. and tried to completely wipe out the royal line, which was the one from King David (see 2 Kgs 11:1; 2 Chr 22:10).

7. [The kings of Judah that did the will of God are highlighted] Cf. in e.g., [B.C. regnal dates]: Rehoboam (930-913)- 1 Kgs 14:21, 22; Abijah (913-910)- 1 Kgs 15:1-3; Asa (910-869)- 1 Kgs 15:9-13; Jehoshaphat (872-848)- 1 Kgs 22:41, 42; Jehoram (848-841)- 2 Kgs 8:16-18; Ahaziah (841)- 2 Kgs 8:25-28; Athaliah (841-835)- 2 Kgs 11:1; Joash (835-796)- 2 Kgs 12:1, 2; Amaziah (796-767)- 2 Kgs 14:1-3; Uzziah (792-740)- 2 Kgs 15:1-3; Jotham (750-732)- 2 Kgs 15:32-34; Ahaz (735-715)- 2 Kgs 16:1, 2ff; Hezekiah (729-686)- 2 Kgs 18:1-3; Manasseh (696-642)- 2 Kgs 21:1, 2ff; Amon (642-640)- 2 Kgs 21:19, 20ff; Josiah (640-609)- 2 Kgs 22:1, 2; Jehoahaz (609)- 2 Kgs 23:31, 32; Jehoiakim (608-598)- 2 Kgs 23:36, 37; Jehoiachin (598-597)- 2 Kgs 24:8, 9; Zedekiah (597-587)- 2 Kgs 24:18, 19. [The regnal dates are also from E. Thiele (Ibid)].

8. Cf. 1 Kgs 15:14, 15 (King Asa); 22:43 (King Jehoshaphat); 2 Kgs 12:3 (King Joash);14:4 (King Amaziah); 15:4 (King Uzziah); 15:35 (King Jotham).