Long before the days of Josiah, or Elijah and Elisha, or even Samuel and Saul, God met Moses on a mountain. And on that mountain, the Lord entered into a covenant with the people of Israel. Like most covenants, this one came with do’s and don’ts, with blessings and curses, with promises made and promises to be kept. The people promised God that they would obey his word. God promised the people that he would bless them for keeping his word and curse them if they didn’t.

Only one side kept its promise.

For almost a thousand years the Israelites lived with the Law of Moses. They got it right from time to time, but for most of the people most of the time, there was hardly a commandment they didn’t know how to break.

God gave them lots of chances. The Lord was very patient with his people. But a promise is a promise. And God had promised that if they broke his covenant, he would kick them out of the land. Just like he put Adam and Eve out of Eden. They were supposed to be a kingdom of priests, not a collection of complainers, idolaters, and rebels.

After Josiah died in battle, Judah was quickly taken over by its enemies. The Egyptians threw out Josiah’s son after only three months. The next king reigned for eleven years, but three months probably would have been better. He was a wicked king who did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. The Babylonians came to Jerusalem and carried off the king back to Babylon.

There were still two more kings left to reign over Judah, but they were bad kings too and no match for the Babylonians. By this time all the priests and the people were unfaithful to the Lord. God kept sending messengers. But Judah would not listen to the prophets. The wrath of God rose up against his people until there was nothing they could do to stop it.

So the Lord raised up the Babylonians one more time. And this time when the Babylonians left, they took the Israelites with them. That may sound like a strange thing to do—sending your enemies to conquer your people—but the people of God had been so disobedient they were acting more like God’s enemies. For seventy years the Israelites would be exiles in Babylon—strangers in a strange land, far from home and far from everything they knew.

But don’t think—even after all of this—that God was all out of chances. God had not forgotten his other promises, the ones he made to Abraham. The Lord would bring his people back, and he would still be their God. But this time the people would need a new Moses and a new covenant.