Our sixth study in this overview of the biblical storyline brings us to the end of the Old Testament and the (or so it would seem) of the Nation of Israel. In 586BC the Babylonian Empire conquered Israel, burned the Temple, and took her people into Exile for 70 years. It was the loss of the land promised to Abraham.

So what does it tell us? That God gave up? The Israel had been abandoned? No. It, like the whole of the Old Testament, prepares us for Christ by showing us, simultaneously,

• A God who is not afraid to punish his people for their sins
• A God who is not ashamed to suffer with his people for their sins