Nebuchadnezzar, Servant of Yahweh

King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, conquered Judah and destroyed the first temple in Jerusalem in the sixth century BCE. It is regarded as one of the greatest tragedies in the history of the Jews. Yet the Book of Jeremiah, 27: 6, says, "And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant." He calls Nebuchadnezzar his servant in Chapter 25, verse 9, also.

His servant? This must mean that Yahweh orchestrated the Babylonian conquest of Judah, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the 70-year exile of many Judahites to Babylonia. In other words, Yahweh is the villain of the piece. Why? According to the prophets, it was divine retribution because the Children of Israel repeatedly sinned by worshipping other gods besides Yahweh.

This raises an uncomfortable question. If Nebuchadnezzar was Yahweh's servant, which other antagonists of the Israelites were also just carrying out Yahweh's orders? We can assume that when the Assyrian King Sargon II conquered the northern Kingdom of Israel in the seventh century BCE, he too was on a mission from God. The same for the Seleucid King Antiochus IV in the second century BCE.

Going back even further to the Book of Exodus, we're told that on several occasions, after the pharaoh had agreed to let the Israelites leave Egypt, Yahweh "hardened pharaoh's heart." Thus the pharaoh wasn't responsible for the Israelites' continued captivity -- Yahweh was! Why? He wanted to demonstrate his awesome power to the world, which he could not do had the pharaoh freed the Israelites. The result was the heartless collective punishment we call the Ten Plagues, which included the murder of all the Egyptian firstborn children. 

None of this should be surprising. Yahweh is depicted as an all-powerful and all-knowing deity. Created humanity knowing from the start exactly what would happen. He programmed us all. To him, nothing can come as a surprise. The world is solely his production project. He's the cosmic Cecil B. DeMille.

It stands to reason, then, that later antagonists were also Yahweh's helpless servants, even those in post-biblical, modern times. It's a sobering thought.