The king of Egypt dethroned him in Jerusalem and imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. – 2 Chronicles 36:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 6, 2014): 2 Chronicles 36

Spartacus might be the most famous slave from the Classical age. And his fame is only because Spartacus was an escaped slave who led a slave revolt about 70 years before Jesus was born. Spartacus was Thracian slave that was used to fight in the gladiator fights. Basically, he fought so that the free citizens of Rome could be entertained. Spartacus rebelled against Rome, an act which started the Third Seville War – the third and final slave revolt that made up the Roman Seville Wars. The wars have been used as an example of the untenability of the concept of slavery. People can only be kept down for so long, eventually they will rise up and fight – even if the fight is in a losing cause. And that was exactly the way the story ended for Spartacus. The slaves ended up losing their battle, and all of the ancient historians agree that it was in the final battle of the war that Spartacus was killed, although his body was apparently never found. After the final battle the Romans rounded up six thousand slave survivors and had all six thousand of them crucified along the Appian Way – an early and strategically important Roman road.

But no one grew up hoping to one day be a slave. Slaves were often obtained from defeated nations and empires. The Romans were famous for drawing slaves from many of the nations that they defeated. Their culture depended on a fresh supply of slaves needed to do the work of the empire – as well as entertain the citizens.

Israel started their existence as a people as a nation of slaves. In those early days, Israel’s existence was dependant on Egypt, their slave masters. But once they escaped slavery during the time of Moses, one of the things that God commanded Israel to do was to never go back to Egypt. The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again” (Deuteronomy 17:16). The problem – and the fear was that if Israel went back to Egypt, they would end up being slaves to the Egyptians one more time.

Israel repeatedly violated this command of God. Solomon, during his reign, did exactly what God had commanded Israel never to do – and Solomon violated the command for the exact reason that God had prohibited – he went back for horses. Solomon felt that he needed the horses for military purposes, and Solomon’s need outweighed the express will of God.

As Babylon closed in on the prize of Judah, the king of Judah, and a direct descendant of Solomon, once more relied on Egypt to help out in a military way. And as a result, Judah before they fell to Babylon, fell to Egypt. Egypt did not help Judah out for humanitarian reasons. Judah became a vassal state of Egypt and was expected pay tribute – essentially, Judah entered into a kind of slavery under the authority of Egypt, just as God had feared when he brought them out of slavery in Egypt.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Daniel 1