Despising the Apple of His Eye by Rob Yardley

Throughout the Old Testament, God warns the children of Israel of the consequences associated with their rebellion against Him. As the end of the divided monarchy approached, He said through Jeremiah, “…my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jer 2:13). Because of their sin, which included God’s commandment to observe a sabbath year, the children of Israel were taken into a 70-year captivity in Babylon (Jer 25:9-13; 27:6; 32:28; Dan 9:2, etc.). Israel was warned that her continual rebellion against her loving Lord would lead to her becoming a proverb and a byword among the nations of the world (Deut 28:15,37; 1 Kings 9:7, etc.), and so it happened. The children of Israel have faced unique persecution, a persecution worse than that experienced by any other people.