Prophetic Prospective Daily Devotional

To fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years.

As we come to II Chronicles 36 we see the record of the third wave into Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army to destroy the Jewish Temple, devastate the city of Jerusalem and to take a number of Jews into the Babylonian captivity.

This is done to fulfill the prophecies of Jeremiah that I will deal with in a moment. I would have you notice the activities of this siege on Jerusalem. Verse 7 of our devotional reading sums it up in one verse. There are more details in verses 18 through 20.

All the vessels of the Temple, with the exception of the "ark of the covenant", II Chronicles 35:3, were taken into Babylon and placed in Nebuchadnezzar’s temples, verse 7. The Babylonian Army then burned the Temple down, broke down the walls of Jerusalem, burned all the palaces in Jerusalem, verse 19.

Verse 20 states that those Jews still alive in Jerusalem will be taken back to Babylon, to remain there until 70 years had been accomplished. The purpose for this was to fulfill the prophecies of Jeremiah.

As mentioned earlier, these prophecies were given to illustrate God’s judgment on the Jews for not following His command as it relates to the land that He had given them. The command in question is found in Leviticus 25:4, the land of the Jewish people was to be given a rest, no crops grown on it, every seven years.

The Jews were disobedient to the Lord and did not give the land its Sabbaths and thus the Lord would do it for them, He would take the Jews out of their land and give the land its Sabbaths. Jeremiah would prophecy how this would happen.

Jeremiah 25:11 and 29:10 would foretell that Jerusalem would be desolate for seventy years and thus giving the land its Sabbaths. The Jews had not rested the land for 490 years, 490 divided by seven is seventy, the amount of years that Jerusalem was desolate.

There is a very interesting Biblical principle found in this historic event. We must be obedient to the Lord or He may well do what He must to make us follow His command. I’ve found that the sooner I learned this lesson the easier it has been for me.

Verse 21 in our devotional says that all of these things happened so that the "word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah" would be fulfilled. All of the prophecies of God’s word will be fulfilled.

The very next prophecy to be fulfilled will be the Rapture. There are no prophecies that must be fulfilled before the Rapture. All other prophecies, yet to be fulfilled, will be fulfilled after the Rapture. That makes this a unique time in history for all alive today.

The Rapture could happen at any moment, even today. Even so come, Lord Jesus.

PRAYER THOUGHT: Thank you Lord for the promise of the Rapture of the Church. Thank you Lord for fulfilled prophecy in the past that guarantees prophecy will be fulfilled in the future. Help me to live ready for the Rapture, as if it will be today.