This is Spoken Gospel.

We’re dedicated to seeing 
Jesus in all of scripture.

In each episode, we see what’s 
happening in a Biblical text

and how it sheds light
on Jesus and his gospel.

Let’s jump in.

Judah is under Babylonian control.

Jehoiakim, Judah’s governor, unsuccessfully 
rebels and is waylaid by enemy skirmishes.

When Jehoiakim’s son takes over 
the governorship, he rules for only  

three months before surrendering to 
the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar.

Nebuchadnezzar then empties the temple of its treasures
and sends a first wave of exiles from Jerusalem to Babylon.

Jehoiakim’s brother also tries
to rebel against Babylon but fails.

Nebuchadnezzar retaliates and besieges Jerusalem.
The brother flees Jerusalem, but he’s caught.

As punishment, his sons are executed in front of him, his
eyes are gouged out, and he’s shipped to a Babylonian prison.

Nebuchadnezzar burns Jerusalem and its temple
to the ground and exiles a second wave to Babylon.

The charred bronze of the temple is measured, 
broken down, and shipped into the empire’s treasury.

The temple’s priests are murdered, 
and Judah begins its long exile.

Nebuchadnezzar installs a new Judean governor 
under the watchful eye of Babylonian officials.

But both the governor and 
Nebuchadnezzar’s officials are  

immediately assassinated by a few rebels 
who avoided the first waves of deportations.

Afraid of further retaliation, the remaining
population of Judah seeks asylum in Egypt;  

the same place God 
rescued their ancestors from.

God’s people are back where they started—landless, 
enslaved to an empire, trapped in Egypt, and as good as dead. 

Thirty-seven years later, a new more benevolent Babylonian
king exonerates and frees Jehoiakim’s son from prison.

He seats him at his royal table and replaces his
prison uniform with clothes fitting a man of his table.

The history of Israel and Judah ends
with the barest of hopes.

Israel has fallen. Judah has fallen. The 
temple is burned. God’s laws are forgotten.

The kings are deposed.
The prophets are dead.

But a descendant of David has been shown grace 
and has been raised up near the center of pagan power.

Israel’s history isn’t about dates 
and cities and kings; it’s about God.

And what we learn from
Israel’s national story is that

God does not save through nations, temples, laws, kings,
or prophets. God saves by grace alone

and God gives life even after death.

[music]

Jesus is the culmination of Israel’s political, 
prophetic, and spiritual expectations.

Jesus is a son of David
and the rightful King of Israel.

He’s the final Temple and the Law demonstrated.
He’s both prophecy come true and the last Prophet.

But for Jesus to be the Savior of Israel’s history, he must
historically die. To save Israel, he must be Israel.

To redeem Israel from her sin and rescue her from 
her idolatry, he must embody her sin and idolatry.

Like Babylon, the empires of Sin 
and Death would overwhelm Jesus.

Outside the city, rejected by his disciples, 
murdered by the powers, and forsaken by God,  

Jesus relives both Israel’s 
history and Israel’s death.

But like Jehoiakim’s son, Jesus rises from
his exile and is now seated at God’s table,

clothed in glory—not at the center of pagan power,
but as the center of life, death, and the universe.

All authority has been given to Jesus.

More gracious than the King of Babylon,
he promises an end to our exile on earth,

a home in his Kingdom, and
resurrection from the dead.

Jesus promises to elevate and strengthen 
humbled, weakened, and humiliated people like us.

And he will even replace our prison garb with robes
of righteousness and seat us with him at his table. 

So, I pray that the Holy Spirit would
open your eyes to see the God who saves.

And may you see Jesus as the King
who saves us from death, by grace alone.