The histories of the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah ended for both in captivity. Israel was taken captive by the Assyrians and Judah by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian. A summary of God’s dealings with Judah is found at the close of the book of Chronicles.
“All the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which He had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy. Therefore He brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: He gave them all into His hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: to fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years” (2 Chron. 36:14-21).
Whereas the public history of the ten tribes ended with the Assyrian captivity, God preserved a remnant of Judah and ultimately permitted them to return to the land of Palestine. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah cover this period of their history. This was more than God’s simply acting in mercy toward His people, for it set the stage for the coming of the Christ. If for a moment, we skip ahead some 400 years, we find that despite God’s mercy towards this remnant, and the place of privilege and responsibility in which they found themselves, when the Lord Jesus came they rejected Him! Place and privilege do not in themselves produce faith. “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God ... . Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?” (John 3:5,10).
Solomon’s temple had been destroyed by the Babylonians and the city of Jerusalem was in ruins. Nevertheless, God still had His eye on that city, for it was there that He had placed His name, and it was there alone that His people could worship in accordance with the Law of Moses (Deut. 12:11-14).
Despite the ruin that we observe in Christendom today, God views His church as holy and without blemish (Eph. 5:27). Let us never forget, however, that God most certainly does see the division, worldliness, infidelity, defilement and self-righteousness which exist within the Christian profession (Rev. 2-3). We must never confuse these two perspectives. There remains a responsibility with each saint of God to walk in the truth (3 John 4). When such an exercise exists, there can be a collective testimony to the true character of the church despite the general state of things. It is this character, the characteristics of a remnant testimony in a day of ruin, which we find so richly illustrated in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.