After the Northern Kingdom fell, Judah stayed in the land for another 134 years. It is recorded against the Jews who lived in Judah during that time that they kept not the commandments of the Lord their God. Judah backslid from God so far that Jeremiah said : "Backsliding Israel [Northern Kingdom] hath showed herself more righteous than treacherous Judah" (Jeremiah 3:11).

Finally, God's anger was kindled against Judah, until it burned in the fierceness of His great wrath. In 586 B.C., He turned His people over to the Babylonians. The reason He turned them over to the foreigners is set forth in Chronicles 36:11-21:

11 Zedekiah was twenty and one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: 12 and he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah his God; he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of Jehovah. 13 and he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who made him swear by God; but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart against turning unto Jehovah, the God of Israel. 14 Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of Jehovah which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. 15 And Jehovah, the God of their fathers, sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending, because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling-place: 16 but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of Jehovah arose against his people, till there was no remedy.

17 Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or virgin, old man or hoary headed: he gave them all into his hand. 18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of Jehovah, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. 19 and they burnt the House of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. 20 And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: 21 to fulfill the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths: for as long as it lay desolate it kept Sabbaths, to fulfill threescore and ten years.

After the 70 years of captivity in Babylon were ended, about 40,000 Jews under the leadership of Zerubbabel returned to their homeland. A much greater number remained in Babylon and Assyria.

The Jews who returned to the land of Israel feared the Lord and wanted to do His will. The following generation did not; for the Book of Ezra gives evidence that the very next generation turned away from the Lord.

9 . . . The people of Israel, and priests and the Levities, have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. 2 For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the peoples of the lands: yea, the hand of the princes and the rulers hath been chief in this trespass (Ezra 9:1,2).

Malachi was the last prophet to the Jewish remnant who had returned to their land from the Babylonian captivity. He named seven sins of the people of Israel of his day and time. We can sum up the attitude of the children of Israel toward God in the following statements Malachi spoke for Jehovah of host, saying:

13 Your words have been stout against me, saith Jehovah. Yet ye say, What have we spoken against thee? 14 Ye have said, it is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept his charge, and that we have walked mournfully before Jehovah of hosts? 15 and now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are built up; yea, they tempt God, and escape (Malachi 3:13-15) .

The Bible is silent on the history of Israel for about 400 years following the days of Malachi. Secular history paints a dismal picture of the vacillation of the children of Israel in their attitude toward God during that period.

At the end of the 400 year period, the last Old Testament prophet appeared on the scene to call the nation of Israel to repent and return to God. That prophet was John the Baptist.

In John's time the Jews were strongly divided among themselves. There were then four main sects in Israel--the Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, and the Essenes. Since each sect had its own idea concerning how one should serve God, hatred constantly flared up among the groups.

Soon after John began his ministry, the greatest of all teachers of righteousness, Jesus of Nazareth, appeared. He ministered for about three and one half years, and tried to call His nation back to God. His last message to His nation's leaders shows His love and longing for His people Israel:

37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. 38 Behold, your house is being left to you desolate. 39 For I say to you, from now on you shall not see Me until you say, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord (Matthew 23:37-39, New ASB ).

As their fathers had willed not to listen to the prophets of God and had persecuted and killed many of them, so the Jewish leaders (the Sanhedrin) set their wills against Jesus and demanded that He be crucified. Surely that willful act broke God's heart, so to speak, because Jesus is God's only begotten son -- the one of whom Moses and the prophets spoke.

"Who hath ascended up into heaven, and descended? Who hath gathered the wind in his fists? Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou knowest?" (Proverbs 30:4 ).

Even though the leaders had swayed their nation to condemn Jesus to death, God graciously kept them in their land about 40 years after His Son's crucifixion. During those 40 years He sent many messengers from among the Jews to call them to repentance. One of the outstanding messengers during that time, the apostle Peter, besought his nation to repent and turn to God and serve Him, saying:

12 . . . "Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him [lame beggar] walk? 13 "The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered up, and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. 14 "But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, -- a fact to which we are witnesses. 16 "And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all. 17 "And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. 18 But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He has thus fulfilled." 19 "Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that the times of revival may come from the presence of the Lord; 20 and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, 21 whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things, about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time." 22 Moses said, "THE LORD GOD SHALL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN; TO HIM YOU SHALL ......GIVE HEED IN EVERYTHING HE SAYS TO YOU. 23 'AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERY SOUL THAT DOES NOT HEED THAT PROPHET SHALL BE UTTERLY DESTROYED FROM AMONG THE PEOPLE.' 24 "And likewise all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also have announced these days. 25 "It is you who are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, "And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.' 26 "For you first, God raised up His Servant, and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways" (Acts 3:12-26, New ASB).

The nation of Israel refused to receive the message concerning the Righteous One, Jesus of Nazareth, during the 40 years following His crucifixion. By 70 A.D God's wrath arose against His people again. This time He drove the Jews out of the land of Israel and scattered them among all the nations of the world. For over 1900 years they have been scattered among the nations under the chastening hand of Almighty God.

Down through history God has had to chastise His beloved people, the Jews, for disobedience. Speaking through Moses, God told His people what was in store for them as a nation because of acts of disobedience toward Him which they would commit throughout their history. He said:

18 and if ye will not yet for these things hearken unto me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins. 21 And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. 23 and if by these things ye will not be reformed unto me, but will walk contrary unto me; 24 then will I also walk contrary unto you; and I will smite you, even I, seven times for your sins.

27 and if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; 28 then I will walk contrary unto you in wrath; and I will chastise you seven times for your sins. ...33 and you will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you: and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste (Leviticus 26:18,21,23,24,27,28,33).

God's messages through His prophet Moses warning the Israelites of the punishment that would come upon them for continued acts of disobedience are recorded in full in Leviticus 26:14-45 and Deuteronomy 28:15-29:29.

Though God has severely chastised the Jewish people in the past, none of the terrible sufferings which they have endured have been sufficient to break their will as a nation. Thus far He has been dealing with them in His goodness trying to lead them to repentance. "Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds" (Romans 2:4-6, New ASB).

Nothing short of the awful punishment of God in the day of His wrath, The Time of Jacob's Trouble, will be sufficient to cause the Jewish people as a nation to willingly and whole-heartedly repent, turn to God and become His servants--a holy nation, a kingdom of priests.

When the terrible judgments of the Time of Jacob's Trouble finally end, God's threefold purpose in sending the Tribulation will have been accomplished: The inhabitants of the world will have learned righteousness; the world will be rid of wickedness and wicked ones; and the breaking in pieces the power of "the holy people" will have been accomplished--Israel will truly be a holy nation, a kingdom of priests, and a blessing to all the families of the earth.