God allowed His chosen people to choose for themselves who they would serve, but man's heart is desperately wicked and they chose to forsake the Lord. The Jews, His inheritance and peculiar treasure, had become an abomination. The Word of God says that they were so corrupt that they were like a crooked wall, which had to be torn down and completely rebuilt.

It is amazing to think that God allowed His city Jerusalem to be burned with fire, and His Temple to be completely destroyed. Then His people were taken into captivity 800 miles across the Arabian desert, to the land of idols and bondage. Yet they would only be there for 70 years, and there would be an end to their misery. The lesson that God was to teach them in Babylon would only be for a season. During their hardships God was still with them, He had chosen servants who ministered to them, and He still had a plan and hope for them in His promised Redeemer.

Many of them had blamed God, yet it was their own rebellion that brought the judgment of God upon them, as the prophets continually warned.

Many of them hated the Babylonians for storming God�s chosen city and destroying the Temple, yet it was their own rebellion that brought the Babylonians upon them, as the prophets continually warned.

There were also those who realized that it was because they had forsaken God that the judgment came, and they were sorry and turned back to the Lord.

There were also those who realized that it was because of their attachment to the things of this world that the judgment came, and they were sorry and turned back to the Lord.

There were also those who remembered that it was because of their estrangement to the wonderful purposes that God had for them that they were driven from their land of promise, and they were sorry and turned back to the Lord.

The Lord would remember His people even in the foreign land of Babylon. He would still keep His sworn oath that He made to their fathers and bring them back to their land, and bring them the promised Redeemer.

Jer 29:10-14

10 For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place.

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

14 I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.