Returning From Exile

I had a long, sleepless night recently and decided to invest it in pursuing the Good Shepherd in prayer.  During that time, I began to be drawn to the Scriptures about the return of God’s People to Judah from the Babylonian Exile.  Can you guess what has been on my mind lately?

 Several things I took away from this time:

 The Return From Exile Took Time And Happened in Roughly Three Waves

• 539 BC – Zerubbabel – the Decree of Cyrus
•  537 BC – Rebuilding of Temple begins
•  458 BC - Ezra the Priest – Rebuild the people – problem of pagan assimilation
• 445 BC - Nehemiah – Rebuild the wall

 

The Return Was Neither Perfect Nor Complete

 “Mistakes were made.”  All three leaders and the people they led were flawed and stumbled at points.  Some mistakes were significant and had painful consequences.  No one was perfect.  But they were willing.  And the LORD used those people.

 I became aware as I prayed that the people returning to Jerusalem were very different than the people who had been dragged away from the city decades earlier.  It was an entirely new generation.  They and their children had been forever shaped by the event.  They never “got back to the way things were.” 

 Already for us here at Harderwyk – indeed for the entire world – there have been deaths and births while we are “staying safe at home.”  When we do get back together under one roof, we will not be the same people, in the same way those returning exiles were different.  Certainly, there is sadness with that, but it is not all bad.  God’s People learned some things in Babylon.

  

The LORD Was With His People Wherever They Were And His Promises Were Dependable

 It was the LORD Who raised up the Babylonians as His instrument to ransack Jerusalem, the Temple and carry off the People of Promise.  While they were far away, captive in pagan Babylon, the LORD was present – speaking through the prophets (Ezekiel and others), raising up Daniels and making promises (read Jeremiah 29!) that He would deliver on.  This exile would indeed end for Judah.  And though Cyrus the Persian King would write the decree that did it, the Scriptures are clear that it was the LORD Who was at work through even the civil government to make it all happen.

 Our Heavenly Father is with us also.  He is with us in the outbreak of sickness and loss.  And His promises are good and coming to pass.  It takes time.  Missteps go on.  Life and losses are all mixed into the gumbo.  But we are not alone, and things are not out of control.

  

We Look Forward To Our True and Perfect Return Home From Our Exile

 The return of God’s People from Babylon to Jerusalem points us to God’s work, presence and promise in our own moment.  We have a Good Shepherd who has gone ahead and made a place for us.  (John 10 & 14)  The Return to Jerusalem, our return to life together are wonderful expressions of our LORD at work, but they are meant to remind us of something greater.  They are not an end in themselves. 

 There is coming a time when the worship will be perfect!  (Rev 5;9)  There will be more people and more different kinds of people that we have ever experienced or can even imagine.  (Rev 7:9)  And there will be a great feast of a meal.  (Rev  19:9)  Frankly, I can hardly wait.

 And I am living today with whatever I face with that True and Perfect Return as my motivation.

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To be clear, I am not writing here about the judgment and exile part of the narrative.  I want to specifically reject any “cause-and-effect” connection between “bad-behavior-and-troubles-in-life.”  The gospel frees me from a graceless, mechanical sort of “Judah-sinned-so-God-punished-them-with-exile” cause-and-effect view of sin and judgment specifically because no amount of exile could ever pay for the depth of Judah’s sin, or of my sin or of the sin of any person or nation.  Only God Himself could take care of that problem.  Perhaps I will address this more deeply in a future post, but for now, I want to specifically reject any connection to “we-were-bad-so-God-sent-COVID-so-that-means-we-all-need-to-be-good” thinking.  God’s answer to our sin – personally and as a nation – is always the death and resurrection of Jesus, not some measure of punishment whether for us or for anyone else.