Bible Chronology (46): From the Temple to Artaxerxes (21)

Jeremiah prophesied that there would be (1) 70 years of Servitude to Babylon of Israel and the nations (609 - 539 BC, Jeremiah 25:9,12, 27:1), (2) 70 years of Captivity in Babylon (607 - 537 BC, Jeremiah 29:10), and (3) 70 years of Desolations of the Land (588 - 518 BC, Jeremiah 25:8-11, Daniel 9:2). When Cyrus conquered Babylon in October 539 BC, this brought the first period of 70 years to an end. This stimulated Daniel to pray for the restoration of Israel in view of the fact that the remaining periods of 70 years were also approaching their fulfilment (Daniel 9:1-2). Daniel prayed this in the first year of Darius the Mede (whom Cyrus had appointed as king of Babylon), which is Nisan 538 - 537 BC. In response, God sent Gabriel to give Daniel the prophecy of the 70 Weeks or Sevens. When viewed as 70x7 years, this prophecy gives the Countdown to the Messiah, predicting the exact date of His death and resurrection (see my book and videos on Daniel's 70 Weeks). But viewing it as 70x7 days, gave an initial fulfilment, because 490 days later at Tishri 537 BC, Cyrus issued his famous Decree, releasing Israel from Captivity, allowing them to return to Israel, in fulfilment of Jeremiah 29:10. Darius only reigned 1 year, after which Cyrus claimed the kingship (Daniel 6:28), so Cyrus' first year was Nisan 537 - 536 BC, which is when he made his Decree (2 Chronicles 36:22-23). The 70 years of Captivity started with Daniel going into Captivity in Tishri 607 BC (Daniel 1:1) and ended with the Cyrus Decree in Tishri 537 BC. Thus in answer to Daniel's prayers God revealed the timing of the initial short-term fulfilment - the end of the Captivity by the Cyrus' Decree, and the timing of God's ultimate restoration of Israel by the Coming of the Messiah. In the final part of the video we complete our study of the 11-year reign of Jehoiakim (609 - 598 BC), an evil king who encouraged idolatry and ignored Jeremiah's warnings, by rebelling against Babylon in his 6th year. In his 11th year, Nebuchadnezzar came and brought his reign to an end by taking him to Babylon in chains (2Chronicles 36:5-6), but he died on the journey and his body was cast out and exposed to the elements, so that he did not receive a proper burial, just as Jeremiah had prophesied in Jer 36:30, 22:19, which was a judgment upon him for burning Jeremiah's prophetic scrolls (Jer 36). His son, Jehoiachin, was only installed as king after Jehoiakim's death (2 Kings 24:6). This means that there was a short Interregnum of a few months between the reigns of Jehoiakim and Jehoiakin, which is necessary to understand, in order to obtain an accurate chronology of this time-period, as we will see in the next video of this series (not seeing this Interregnum results in a 1-year error in the timings of the kings of Judah).