Returning From Exile

There are a lot of themes that run throughout Scripture. One theme that does not find its way into many conversations but has been coming up again and again for me as I read Scripture is Exile and the Return from Exile. (Also check out the Bible Project’s Series on Exile. It is crazy good.)

The lack of attention to this theme is a bit of a mystery because it is all over Scripture. It literally starts on the first pages in Genesis and reaches its resolution on the last page in Revelation.
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Adam and Eve have a wonderful, tailored-for-human-life home in Eden. The presence of God has no hindrances. They literally take walks with Him and speak with Him directly. They have no hindrances either. They do have humanity’s designed limitations, a command from God, and a single forbidden tree but we would hardly call these hindrances. But they sin with that one tree they shouldn’t eat from and they are exiled from their wonderful home and God’s presence to a cursed world and existence.

We are 3 chapters in and Scripture already defines all of human existence as an exile, looking forward to a return.  

Fast forward to the last page; humanity returns to the presence of God. There is a new Eden, with some new trees, in a re-created existence that is preferable to the original, all of which comes through Jesus. Hallelujah for the Gospel!

In between those pages are all kinds and shapes of smaller exiles and returns. These smaller exiles give a picture of the grander exile and return on the first and last pages. Yet they still point to the fact that humanity is not home yet.

The most notable exile and return is the multistage exile of the Israelites out of the promised land, in starting in 2 Kings 17:6. Sin is systemic and rampant in the tribes and kingdoms of Israel and Judah. First the northern kingdom falls to the Assyrians. Then later, the southern kingdom takes a dive to the Babylonians. There is hope! There are prophesied promises of return to the promised land and back into God’s grace. We see it narratively in Ezra and Nehemiah. The people of God are home! It is on the last page of the Hebrew Old testament too (2 Chronicles 36:22-23). Sadly, tension remains. Where is everybody? Where are the representatives from the rest of the tribes of Israel? Where is the previous closeness with God? Where is the once strong nation being led by a divine king? Where is the beauty of the original temple?
Then Jesus comes and another stage of the ultimate exile and return begins. But Jesus coming, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, the coming of the Spirit, preaching of the Gospel to the whole world, still leaves tension.

1 Peter 2:9-11 puts it this way.
"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation."
 
We are a nation of royal priests from a different kingdom. In our current kingdom, we are actually exiles, sojourners, people moving through, and not yet home. We are still waiting for the ultimate return on the day of “visitation” when God finally comes back.

The mystery of why the theme of Exile and Return, which occurs throughout Scripture, is not commonly recognized and discussed in our own lives, I believe, is because essentially, we do not think that we are in exile. This could be for a number of reasons. Simply not knowing Scripture’s truth is one reason. There are also understandable reasons from experience. We like it. We think it is home because it is all we have known. We think the land we rent or own, or our country’s square miles of rock on this large spinning sphere is home.
Then, when there are things wrong here, or we feel that things are not right, we tend to think it can get better.

This ends up shaping our expectations in our relationship with God. We expect God to show up here and make this place more home-like. So we pray, we read, we get wisdom, we get discipled by a more mature believer, all to make sure our lives and circumstances become more right. Will God “show up” and do work in us and our circumstances here? Yes! But the extent to which God shows up will still include tensions that point to the fuller return. The world won’t be completely right until Jesus returns.

Okay. How does the recognition that we are exiles shape our expectations of our relationship with God?

It creates in us an expectation that we have a need to turn our focus away from here and point it there to connect with Him.
We need to shift our focus away from the immediate, visible, and felt. We need to shift our focus away from the needs, earthly desires, and hurts. We need to leave here.
We need to shift our focus toward the promises of God, the declared truth, and the invisible. We need to shift our focus toward His power, goodness, His personhood, and justice. We need to return there.

This is a little ethereal, so here is an example from Scripture.

Genesis 4:26.
​“To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.”

Seth was the second generation of people and Enosh was third. The first generation of people were still alive (Adam was 235 years old when Enosh came along). They knew all too well what exile meant. They knew they were not in their home. Then at some point and in some way, people recognized that God was not with them as before and they wanted Him. They changed their focus from the things and people around them and turned their eyes toward the sky and their focus toward heaven and cried out for the God that created them. They wanted His recognition, His voice, His interaction, and His presence.

For us, thousands of years later, still living in exile from our true home, our return home needs to be one of the multiple desires that brings us to a point of moving our focus away from here and turning to there, and then, crying out to God. There should be a desire for the return of Jesus at the end of this age, of course. That is a part of it. Until that comes, however, the desire to return home adds a desperate energy for God himself to our Scripture meditation, prayer, and other spiritual disciplines right now. Daily.

And the beautiful thing that happens is that this desire is fulfilled in a sense. Jesus is with us (Matthew 28:20)! The Spirit has filled those who believe (John 14:16-17, Acts 2:4, Romans 8:15)! We can go before God the Father boldly as His children (Hebrews 4:16)! Again, and frustratingly, there is still tension as we see our own lives and the world around us in desperate need of the Savior and His return.

Here are a couple of things to work through for the time of our exile:
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Let Scripture and the Spirit speak into your thoughts of “home”. Start asking questions of yourself, your expectations of the relationship with God, and how you process through “home”. Answers may come quick or slow. In any case, we can take our answers to Scripture and see what it says. We can take our answers to God Himself through the Spirit for Him to guide us home.

Let our desire for the world and our lives to change feed our crying out to the Lord for a taste of our true home. This is at least part of the reason why we turn daily to our Bibles and prayer and other Spiritual disciplines. We are drawn to them for a taste of home. Though we might find it helpful to keep to a list of spiritual disciplines to keep us accountable and moving in a specific direction, let the heart of these disciplines be that desperate energy for God and home.

Put your empathy muscles to work when you see people in earthly exile. The refugee and immigrant is not just displaced from their home land. They are more deeply experiencing the sin-induced exile than those of us who are living in our homeland. Let that empathy muscle move your actions to care and tangible help. Let them speak to you about their experience. I bet you'll find that their experience of exile connects to the Biblical exile in multiple ways.

Let that desire for our true home feed your evangelism.  Humanity’s true home is with God in the place He creates for us to experience him. There is an invitation to be made for all peoples to enter into that place through Jesus. This is Good News. People can go home!

Peace Brothers and Sisters!
Pastor Nick