to watch.
The deaths of his sons are the last sight King Zedekiah will ever see, for after the murders are complete, King Nebuchadnezzar personally grabs a hold of Zedekiah's head and pushes his thumbs hard into his skul , blinding him. Zedekiah is then placed in special bronze chains and marched on the long and painful road to Babylon, where he will be a slave for the rest of his life.
Accompanying Zedekiah on that long march into captivity are the elite of Jerusalem. They too are now slaves of the Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar doesn't take everyone to Babylon. It's the cream of Jewish society that he wants; the professional and educated are led off. Among
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them is a group of young friends named Daniel, Hananiah, Mischael, and
Azariah. On them rests the hope that the people of Jerusalem can one day find God and return.
But first they must find each other. For almost as soon as the deportation begins, they are separated in the great throng of refugees, pack animals, pushcarts, and soldiers, destined to make the long walk without the camaraderie of friends.
"Give me strength, oh God," prays Daniel. "Protect me and guide me, and one day, no matter how many years it takes, please forgive us our sins and allow our people to return to the Promised Land."
Just in case they had any idea about turning around and fleeing back toward Jerusalem, a watching soldier draws his sword, itching for the chance to run them through. From this day forward, their every movement will be scrutinized in this manner. Punishment will be swift and sure. Death will always be an option.
Welcome back to slavery, O Israel.
Fourteen generations of Israelites pass from Abraham to his descendant David. Another fourteen generations from David to the great deportation to Babylon. There will be fourteen more generations until the birth of Jesus, a direct descendant of David and of Abraham, with whom God made His covenant. Jesus will be sent to renew that covenant with God's people. The covenant is in desperate need of renewal. But that is fourteen generations in the future. Now, as a long line of bedraggled, weeping Israelites gaze upon the waters of Babylon for the first time, the covenant seems a thing of the ancient past. After a march of five hundred miles, they have finally landed in exile. The vast shining waters of the Euphrates River shine like steel in the sun. No one knows if they will ever see their beloved Jerusalem again.
But even as soldiers prod them to cross the water at a low ford, many of the Israelites fail to grasp why they are here. These people see their exile from the Promised Land in purely political terms, as if it were the
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natural order of things for one great army to conquer another, and the people of the vanquished land to suffer accordingly.
The faithful, however, know why they're here. When the others gnash their teeth and wail about their plight, the faithful remind them that the Israelites had forsaken God and served pagan gods in the Promised Land. But even the faithful wonder if God has turned His back on them forever.
Daniel, a cheerful, bright young man of twenty who is a distant relative of King Zedekiah, wades into the cool waters of the Euphrates and prays.
"God," he asks, "how will we ever find our way back home?" Daniel has always worshipped the God of Abraham, despite Zedekiah's wanderings.
He wades in deeper. The water soothes his aching feet and washes away the dust that coats his bare legs. "God," he pleads, "please come back to us."
Suddenly, Daniel loses his footing. The current sucks him under and sweeps him away. His body flails and tumbles in the current, and he swallows a stomach full of water. Daniel is not a swimmer--there was no need to learn to swim back in the dry environs of the Promised Land. So even though he battles to find footing, or at least to push his head above the surface, nothing works. He's been underwater only a few seconds, but it seems like forever. As low and near death as he's felt on the entire journey from home to captivity, those feelings are nothing compared with the terror of this instant.
Then Daniel feels the loving arms of Hananiah, Mischael, and Azariah grabbing him from the water, pulling his body from the current. They help him stand. Then the four of them--coughing, choking, and shivering--embrace.
In the midst of their worry and fear, the