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June 22 Daily Devotional

BY THE RIVERS OF BABYLON WE SAT DOWN WE WEPT, WHEN WE REMEMBERED ZION

Henry T. Vriesen

Ezekiel 1–48

The people of Judah were led captive to Babylon. It was a long, sorrowful journey, almost a thousand miles. In Babylon the captives were called Jews, meaning “the people of Judea”. In this country they were to remain captive for seventy years, according to the word of the Lord spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. They were treated more kindly by their new ruler than they had expected. They were permitted to settle in their land. They had houses and gardens. The rich soil yielded good crops. Some of them lived in the cities and held important positions. They were permitted to worship the Lord, the God of their fathers. They fared well.

But it was a strange land, a land of idolatry. Now the people repenting, thought of their native land in tears: they remembered the temple of the Lord, and the inspiring services in the holy city. They longed for the land of their fathers. They sang many a song of lamentation. They sang, “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning … By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof ”

And God did not forget his people in this strange land. He raised up prophets for them. Thus arose Ezekiel, the son of a priest, before Jerusalem was destroyed; he proclaimed the impending end of the city, at the time when many were not willing to submit to the word of the Lord, that the captivity should last seventy years. “Son of man,” so God spake to Ezekiel, “take thee a tile … and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem: and lay siege against it, and build a fort against it” and prophesy against Jerusalem that is besieged. “Thou son of man, thus saith the Lord unto the land of Israel: the end is come: it awaketh for thee; behold, it is come … The day of trouble is near … Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee … and will judge thee according to thy ways … and ye shall know that I the Lord do smite.”

And the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel saying, “Son of man, write thee the name of the day, even of this same day: the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day.” They shall know that I am the Lord, when I have made the land a desolation. Thy people are talking against thee. They sit before thee and hear thy words, but do them not; for they make jests, but their heart goeth after their gain. And lo, thou art unto them as a song. “And when this cometh, (behold it cometh) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them.” And on that day came one that had escaped out of Jerusalem, saying, “The city is smitten.”

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