Why did God send the Jews into exile in Babylon?
Jeremiah 24 4 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 5 “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians. [b] 6 My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. 7 I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.
Idolatry, Jews and the nation of Israel would grow close to God and they would have a time of awesome peace and closeness with God and then they would stray after pagan gods and God told them in the book of Exodus if they ever put any gods before Him that is what He would do. They had multiple warnings every time before they went into captivity. Even in Lamentations believed to be written by Jeremiah (who also has a prophetic book prophesying the coming captivity and exile) made a statement that “His mercies are new each morning. He is totally fair and just. Kinda like with your child you tell them “if you hit your sister again I will spank you,” “if you do that again you’re gonna get a time out, “If you back talk you will be grounded” and then finally they push it so far you have to make a believer out of them and ultimately shape and form them into good citizens who are beneficial for society.
I think that the reason the jews are gods chosen people is because God was impressed with Abraham continueing his command in the sacrifice of his son, therefore he lets his son {Jesus} be sacrifice to save mankind from sin and to offer eternity in heaven, after all the jews as well as others continued to turn their backs from God thru sin and God was so close to destroying man so God gave us another chance.
I hope I have enough detail… Please refer to Deuteronomy 28. Link below for your reference. Right before Moses died, he told the Israelites the consequences of keeping and breaking the law. Keeping the law would lead to blessings and life, while breaking the law would lead to curses and death. It was up to the nation of Israel to decide its fate. Unfortunately, the nation of Israel ultimately chose to turn its back on God, forsaking Him and worshipping other gods. For years, God sent messengers (prophets) to try and turn His people back into obedience and life. However, during the reign of Manasseh, Judah’s longest-reigning king (I think), the city was filled with the blood of the prophets, and divine judgment could no longer be denied. God has the most difficult role of mixing justice with mercy. Eventually, judgment must be meted out, when mercy is rejected.
The Babylons took over all the known world by force, even Egypt was under their thumb. So the question would have been, that God had said to the Babylons, “will you put these unruly Hebrews under house arrest and take them back to Mesopotamia for safe keeping”. The reality is that, the Babylonians saw it was better to take hostages and install puppet regime under their control with the threat of if you the Hebrews of Jerusalem cause any uprising again, I will kill your king and all the hostages. This is fact and is recorded in the Babylonians history of stone.
