The Politcs Behind the Fall of of Assyria and the Rise of Babylon

What was happening in the Middle East between the Fall of Israel and the Conquest of Judah? If you look at the map below, you will note that Judah sits right in the middle of the region.  There were many players on the field, such as Syria, but the primary players were Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt. For the Empires of the North to gain access to Egypt (and vice versa) they had to, essentially, go through Judah.

When Assyria was at the peak of her Empire, she controlled all of the Fertile Crescent in the Near East. Babylon was one of her provinces. Around 1600 B.C., the province of Babylonia revolted.  The governor of Babylonia declared himself to be the King of New Babylon.  In essence, the province of Babylon seceded  from the Assyrian Empire much like South Carolina seceded from the United States in 1862 A.D. Like the war between North and South after the secession of the South, Assyria attacked New Babylon and tried to force her back into the Empire.  They were unsuccessful. Babylon attacked Assyria and at the Battle of Arrapha in 616 BC succeeded in pushing the Assyrian out of  Babylonian territory.  When the Medes attack and defeated Assyria at the Battle of Terbisu in 615, Assyria lost her power in the area. 

Assyria had been allied with Egypt.  When she fell to Babylon, the Egyptians became nervous.  She was obviously not a fan of Babylon. Remember that Egypt had been allied with Assyria.  Toward the end of that century, Egypt approached Judah for passage through Judean territory to attack Babylon.  Josiah was the king and, against the advice of the Prophet Jeremiah, formed a secret Alliance with Babylon.

King Josiah's Death

Josiah ignored the advice and sent out her armies to war against the Egyptians crossing their land. It was one foolish choice by a king who was known for making good choices and for following God and His prophets, but one bad choice was all it took.  Egypt soundly defeated Judah at the Battle of Megiddo in 609 B. C.  Josiah was mortally wounded in the battle and died a few days after of his wounds.

That gave Egypt free access across the country of Judah. Pharaoh's armies attacked the army of Babylon at the city of Carchemish.  Babylon won the battles.  Pharaoh was sent back to Egypt in defeat and Assyria (who, remember, had an alliance with Egypt) ceased to exist and was eventually swallowed up in the New Babylonian Empire. 

Our international political brokering is right in line with the struggle for power in the end of the era we've just discussed.  What can we learn from this?  

• Among other things, I can see that the battle was not about who was right and who wrong, but rather a battle for power and wealth.  
• We can learn to recognize the same motives in today's political struggle.  The Civil War we are waging now in America is as dangerous as any shooting war in history.  It's still about greed and power.  But it is the Battle of Good versus Evil that has been raging since the War in Heaven before the Earth was created. 

• I believe we can learn the most from King Josiah. As great and honorable a king as he was, when he began to ignore God and His prophets, it ushered in fall of the King and the Kingdom. 

 In the face of all that is going on in America today, we can learn from Josiah's mistake: Listen to and follow the living prophet today. When we fear the worst, turn to God and not the arm of flesh. He will defend and protect you.

     Follow the Prophet.  Follow the Prophet.

    Don't go astray!

    Follow the Prophet.  Follow the Prophet.

    He knows the way!

Stone Tablets Describing the Babylonian Victory at Carchemish

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©Dr. Kathleen Rawlings Buntin Danielson 2019

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Learn from the Past to Prepare for the Future

I received a phone call from my brother recently that has given me pause to think.  We were talking about my latest book, Words of God: 10 Crucial Bible Themes Supported by the Book of Mormon. He said he hadn't read the entire book but he had dipped into it as reference material.  He told me that it was so deeply doctrinal that it was a difficult read. He said that it is a stretch for average people to comprehend it by a casual reading. He told me that I write like James A. Talmadge. Anyone who has read Jesus the Christ will know what a compliment that is, although I'm not sure I agree with him.

It made me realize that while I know where I am going with my blog, I don't always convey it to my readers. As I reread my blog I realized that - unlike Brother Talmadge, who is very well organized - I tend to wander.  The reader may like a given post, s/he may have trouble connecting the dots so to speak.  Where in the world is she going with this.


Mea Culpa. Here's an outline from my head to paper.  I hope it helps clarify my rambling words:

1. The reason I chose this topic and title is because I am very concerned with the direction in which  my country is going. Lessons from history show that if we continue with this liberal agenda, we will lose the protection of God's blessings in America. The steps to destruction as described in the scriptures are being played out in the evening news.

2. Both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln believed that America has a covenant with God as outlined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America.  Both approached the wars of this country recognizing the need of the nation to repent of the things Americans were doing that broke the covenant, the prominent ones being human bondage, oppression, immorality, pride, power seeking, and greed.

3. We in America today are breaking the covenants we made with God when this nation was founded.  We have had His wall of protection thus far because there are so many people in the country who do keep the Covenant. I am very concerned for the country my grandchildren will inherit if America continues with her immoral and even amoral behavior.

4. I am retelling the ancient scriptural and historical accounts to exemplify the results of those who fall from grace as covenant breakers, in the hopes that my readers might glean the lessons of history. A wise person once said that if we don't learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. I am doing so in hopes that my readers might liken the scriptures to themselves and take the necessary steps to avoid being a part of the problem as ancient peoples did.  We need to maintain the covenant keepers of America so that they recognize the signs of apostasy and expose the enemies of God.

Point of clarification:  There are many individual covenants in the history of mankind, but they all had the basic innate message of the covenant:

I will be your God and you will be my people.

When I talk about keeping covenants made with God, I refer to all of them in the context of the above quote.  If we become His people through covenant, we are asked only to love Him and keep His commandments.  In return we are promised prosperity, posterity, and protection.

The Interim: Israel to Judah: Assyria to Babylon

Let's talk politics.

Tiglath-Pileser III was the King of Assyria at the time of the first attacks on Israel.  It was his army that first breached the wall.  They took some of the Israelites captive, but left the majority where they were.  Ten years later, when Sennacherib was on the throne of Assyria, he completed the conquest of Israel, deporting thousands of the inhabitants and scattering them throughout the Assyrian Empire. He imported thousands of Gentiles from other conquered areas. They intermarried with the few remaining Israelites and became the group known as the Samaritans.

Isaiah was the prophet in those days.  Hoshea was the King of Israel at the time and Hezekiah was the King of Judah. Both countries faced assault and siege by King Sennacherib, who succeeded Tiglath to the throne. Israel fell but Judah did not.  Hezekiah was a covenant keeper. He followed the living prophet.  Hoshea was wicked.  He and his people did not listen to the prophet.  There is a lesson here as to why it so important to center our lives in Jehovah/Jesus Christ.

Hezekiah's son and grandson were both covenant-breakers who quickly led Judah back into idolatry. It was a dark time for Judah. They had a reprieve from God's justice because of the righteousness of King Hezekiah.  Hezekiah's son and grandson were idolaters and they led Judah back to evil. They could easily have been conquered as Israel had been, but instead they had a second reprieve when Hezekiah's great-grandson ascended to the throne of Judah. 

Josiah was only 8-year-old when he was crowned King. He was a thoughtful and good child who was blessed with the influence of a few righteous advisers, including his mother.  The Bible tells us of these  years that he did good in the sight of God.  When he was twelve, he began a conscious search for the God his ancestor, King David, had worshipped.  At sixteen, he began to cleanse Judah of pagan idols and desecrated the high places used in idol worship throughout the kingdom.

Josiah was in his twenties when he ordered the cleansing and repair of the Temple.  Years of apostacy and idolatry had led the Temple to be little more than a storehouse for everything, including the statues of many false gods.  As the priests began to cleanse the temple, they came across a scroll of the covenants of God with Judah.  When the high priest brought it to the King and he read it, Josiah realized just how far Judah had fallen. He tore his robe as a sign of mourning and called on his people to repent in sackcloth and ashes. He ordered that the scroll be read to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that they, too, could understand the depth of their fall.

The Fate of Judah: Hezekiah and the Assyrians

We have been talking about the covenant-breakers in the Northern Kingdom of Israel that led to her utter annihilation in 723 B.C. There were no righteous kings in Israel.  

As you will note in the above chart, Judah had four kings who were righteous covenant keepers: Jehoshaphat, Joash, Hezekiah, and Josiah.  She had four others who were good men,  but who were not committed enough to lead their people out of sin.  Finally, Judah had a dozen kings who were covenant-breakers, who led the people into sin. The Bible calls these kings evil.

At the time of the fall of Israel, Judah was also besieged by the Assyrians. Because of the wisdom and righteousness of Judah's King Hezekiah Jerusalem withstood the siege and did not fall.  

Hezekiah led the people in righteousness.  He heeded the prophets.  He prepared for a siege which he knew was coming by digging a tunnel under the walls of Jerusalem to the spring outside the gate that provided Jerusalem with water. Hezekiah's tunnel not only provided water for the city, it also cut off access to the water to the camp of the Assyrians outside the walls.  Hezekiah went to the prophet for help.  He was told that the Lord would protect Judah.

He did.  The Bible tells us that by some mysterious means, the angel of the Lord and smote in the camp of the Assyrians 5,180 soldiers. (2 Kings 19:35)  The next morning when Hezakiah arose and looked at the enemy horde, they were all dead corpses. (2 Kings 19: 35) The king of Assyria withdrew all of his troops and left Judah alone.

Unfortunately, the pattern seemed to be that when a good king died, he was followed to the throne by a wicked son.  After Hezekiah died, he was followed by his evil son, Manasseh.  Over the next century, wicked king followed wicked king.   Isaiah had promised that Jerusalem would not fall nor the Holy Temple destroyed at the time of the Assyrians, that did not mean it would never fall.  The Lord had His protective wall around Jerusalem while they kept the covenant, but when they departed from it, they had no protection.

I think there is a lesson there for anyone wise enough to take it. 

The Sins of Israel - The mockery of Hollow Worship

4. Israel did not honor or keep the Sabbath in righteousness. If observed at all, it became a day of vain repetitions. The ordinances became a mockery of God as the people disobeyed His commandments the other six days.  The Old Testament tells of many such examples.  One such was King Saul.

During the reign of King Saul, the prophet Samuel gave Saul God's commandment to utterly destroy the Amalakites. Saul disobeyed and captured alive their king and all their livestock.  (You will notice in the painting the captive king, cattle, and sheep.) God spoke to Samuel and sent him to Saul's camp.  When he arrived, he heard cows mooing and sheep bleating.  He asked Saul why he had disobeyed a direct commandment from God.  Saul rationalized by saying that he kept them to offer as sacrifices to the Lord.  The prophet then uttered this profound statement: 

To obey is better than to sacrifice.

Welcome to September, Arizona Style

My life has revolved around the traditional school year since I was 4 years old beginning Kindergarten. School commenced the first day after Labor Day and ended the Friday before Memorial Day.  It made it easy to keep track of things. As kids, it gave an ending to school.  "Schools Out for Summer" sang Alice Cooper.  Every child I knew felt that same was.  I know I did!

Times have changed!

Schools now have fall break and winter break and spring break.  In order to meet the total number of days-in-class requirement, schools are now opening in August.  Some actually open their doors in late July.  In the 1950s we had two weeks off for Christmas, four days off for Thanksgiving and three days off for Easter. That was sufficient.  

Extended fall and spring breaks and long summers came out of an agrarian society.  Today, most of us don't live on farms where we have to be excused from school in the spring to help with the planting and again in the fall to harvest.  We also don't need a full summer to work the farm and make hay while the sun shines.

Spring and fall breaks are relics from the past just like the horse-drawn plow. 

In truth, the concept of year 'round school makes a lot of sense from the standpoint of the learning and forgetting curve. In the traditional 3-month-summer vacation, students lose close to 80% of new learning. Most teachers spend the entire month of September and part of October reviewing old material that, over time, has been lost.

With shorter, but more frequent, breaks, teachers have less to review and, therefore, can begin teaching new material sooner.

If they are wise, they will build frequent,  automatic review into their curriculum

From the standpoint of learning, I can see the wisdom in the new school timing.  From the standpoint of tradition, I miss the old. Where is the nostalgia and romance in that?

It's the first week of September.  Anyone want to buy a bouquet of newly-sharpened pencils?

BTW - if you happen to live in Arizona, it is still 108 degrees in the shade.  Most of us are still thinking of swimming and watermelon!