By O.S. Hawkins
This brings us to the "what?" question. What was this that was taking place? It was nothing short of the judgment of God. God was punishing His people. In fact, the Bible puts it like this; the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his [Nebuchadnezzar] hand. (Dan. 1:2) God was in control. God was pushing the buttons on His own remote control. There's a sense in which Nebuchadnezzar was nothing more than the remote control in the hand of God Himself. In fact, in Jeremiah 25:9 He refers to Nebuchadnezzar as my servant. Some of us in our modern day have forgotten that God judges sin.
The Babylonian captivity was the direct judgment of God upon His people. This captivity into Babylon had been predicted in detail years before it happened (Isa. 39:5-7; Jer. 25:8-12; II Kings 20:17-18). However, Judah would not repent. Judah had seen what had happened to the Northern Kingdom. Judah had heard the warnings of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Hezekiah. Judah had been spared by miraculous intervention during the Assyrian invasion. They got to the place where they began to think they were indestructible. Can we help but think of our own America? Most of us today are not hearing God's warning to us, much less heeding it.
Thus, Judah was taken away into the captivity of a pagan world and culture. One only has to read Psalm 137 to see what it was like. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hung our harps upon the willows in the midst of it. …How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? (Psa. 137:1-6) Daniel reminds us that it is the hand of God that is in the rise and fall of nations (Dan. 2:21). Yes, the Lord gave Jehoiakim, King of Judah, into Nebuchadnezzar's hand. If God would do that with a people He called the "apple of His eye" what makes us think that we are so invincible here in America? The Babylonian captivity was nothing less than a judgment of God upon His own people.
Finally, we come to the "why?" question. Why did God allow it? God allowed the Babylonian captivity to scourge His people. The Bible says, Whom the Lord loves He chastens. (Heb. 12:6) God punishes His own people out of a heart of love for them. Not only was the captivity to scourge His people but to purge His people.