Video Transcript: Exile and Return

One of the best events in Israel's history was their entrance into the promised  land in fulfillment of one of God's main promises to Abraham. This land was  where they could fully be the people God intended them to be. And one of the  very worst events in Israel's history, which is our subject for today came at the  end of their dissolution, their exile from the promised land and the corresponding lack of God's presence and blessing. This, this exile came at the hands of the  Assyrians. By 722 BC for many people in the northern part of the divided  kingdom of Israel. There's no record of what happened to them afterwards,  hence some mystery of the so called Lost Tribes of Israel. In the southern half of the divided kingdom, Judah. The exile came more than a century later at the  hands of the Babylonians. Some members of the royal families were taken to  battle in in 605 BC when Judah became a vassal of that world power among  them more Daniel and his three friends. But the exile began in earnest in 597  BC, when Nebuchadnezzar responded to a revolt of Judah by returning to  devastate the country. At this time, large numbers of Judah's citizens who were  deported especially the wealthiest and most prominent people, those who  represented a potential threat to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar appointed Zedekiah  as his representative to rule over those left behind. Most of the exiles were  allowed to form their own community in Babylon and to keep their religious and  cultural practices. However, they did not offer sacrifices, since the only legitimate place to do so was the temple in Jerusalem. Over time, some adopted some of  these exiles adopted the Chaldean religion but most of them remained united in  their faith in the Lord. Their faith was challenged to be sure, their defeat by  battling and loss of their land might have prompted them to wonder whether  God's promises were still valid. But at least Jerusalem and the temple were still  intact even if they were half a world away. One of the exiles was Ezekiel Ezekiel  was the son of a priest and a member of Jerusalem's aristocracy. Five years  after reaching Babylon, Ezekiel was called by God as a prophet to the exilic  community, a ministry that would continue until he died in about 570 BC.  Ezekiel's messages from the Lord help the exiles to know that their suffering  was a judgment of God for their sin in refusing to be the people he had called  them to be. But Ezekiel also declared God's continuing purposes for his people.  Speaking to them of hope and future restoration after judgment, it reminded  them as well of God's dealings with all the nations. Ezekiel's clear and dazzling  visions of the glory and splendor of God's presence were accompanied by  warnings of the impending destruction of the temple and the beloved city of  Jerusalem. This destruction, as I said before was precipitated by another revolt  of Judah against Babylon and in 586 BC, influenced by false prophets and  against the warnings of Jeremiah Zedekiah joined a coalition of other nations  who also wanted to escape Babylonian control. And that's told in Jeremiah 27,  the first three verses, the Babylonians responded by besieging Jerusalem.  About the same time Ezekiel's wife died, but God told him that he was not 

allowed to mourn as a sign and example for the exiles who would not be allowed to mourn the destruction of the holy city and the temple. That destruction was  accomplished a short while later, as a final stage of the Lord's judgment against  his people. Afterwards, you have more people were taken into captivity, with only a few of the poorest of the poor, left behind to serve as farmers and  vinedressers. the distress of the exiles over this destruction is expressed in  several Psalms. Listen, for example, to this excerpt from Psalm 137. By the  rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. If I forget you,  Jerusalem May my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of  my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem, my highest  joy. And here's part of a prayer found in Psalm 74. Remember the nation you  purchased long ago, the people of your inheritance whom you redeemed, Mount Zion where you dwelt, turn your steps toward these everlasting ruins. And all the destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary. They burned every place  where God was worshiped in the land, we are given no signs from God, no  prophets are left. And none of us knows how long this will be. Ezekiel was very  clear about the reasons for God's judgment against his own people in Psalm  106 shows the same understanding. They did not destroy the peoples as the  Lord had commanded them. But they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs, they worshiped their idols which became a snare to them, they  sacrificed their sons and their daughters to false gods. They shed innocent  blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters whom they sacrificed to the  idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood. They defiled  themselves by what they did. by their deeds, they prostituted themselves.  Therefore, the Lord was angry with his people and abhorred his inheritance, he  gave them into the hands of the nations, in their fools, and their foes ruled over  them. The books of Daniel and Esther also about the experiences of certain  exiles don't deal specifically with the reasons that God's people were in exile.  But they do speak to two issues that were important for all the exiles to  understand, or for all God's people to understand, no matter where they live.  The first was that however bad things looked, God was still in control of time and people and events. At first in Daniel, it doesn't look at all as if God is in control.  Quite the opposite. It looks as if the Babylonians are in control, and later as if  the Medes and Persians are in control. But time and again, in the stories found  here in the book of Daniel, God shows that he is the one who is orchestrating  the events, including the rise and fall of kings and Kingdom. The repeated  lesson is that God alone is worthy of all worship and service, and those who will  not give him this must at least be silent before him and submit to His will. The  Book of Esther shows this too even though God is never mentioned, for one  thing, the strong implication is that Mordecai and Esther's actions are prompted  by their faith in the Lord. The most likely explanation of why Mordecai the Jew  wouldn't bow to Haman, is because Haman was a descendant of Agag the 

ancient king of a people who were sworn enemies of the Jews, the Amalekites,  God instructed on at least two occasions, that the Amalekites be utterly  destroyed. The first time was to Moses during Israel's wilderness years. In  Deuteronomy 25:19, and centuries later, God repeated this command to King  Saul as recorded in I Samuel 15:3, but Saul did not obey God again. And as a  result, Samuel told Saul, he has rejected you as king. There are two conflicting  worldviews represented in Esther. One is Haman's. Haman believed that he can  do whatever he wants to anyone who offended him, and thought that on that  basis, he could annihilate the Jews. The other worldview held that events were  subject to God's control, and that people needed to respect God and cooperate  with him. The end of the book of Esther is pretty clear without actually saying so  that the improved lot of God's people in Xerxes empire and also Mordecai's  promotion to second in rank to Xerxes himself is due to God's sovereign control. The second important issue for the exiles following from the sovereignty of God  was to understand that they had to be faithful, no matter what circumstances  they found themselves in. Mordecai proved his faithfulness in refusing to honor  Haman and by his other actions including his question to Esther that  encouraged her faithfulness. Esther 4:14, he asked Esther who knows, but that  you have come to royal position for such a time as this. That's still a good  question. An appropriate one for all servants of God, a reminder that God has  put you where you are, for a reason. And of course, that faithfulness is what  Daniel and his friends were concerned for as well. Their faithfulness was  challenged in the challenge met in several matters. For example, in the matter of Babylon's food and drink, which for Daniel and his friends likely epitomize the  pagan uncleanness, say, associated with captivity in a foreign land. And so they  wanted to abstain from this foreign food and drink as a way of remaining faithful  to the God of Israel. Another matter the matter of bowing down to  Nebuchadnezzar's image of gold, Daniel disobeyed here because God's law  prohibited Israel from worshiping any God besides the Lord and also the use of  images. The matter in which prayer was prohibited to anyone but Darius. Daniel  was not at all Pharisaic about praying in public, but neither was he afraid to keep up the connection that he had established with God, and give him the honor that belonged to him. There was no guarantee that failure to comply with any of the  demands placed upon Daniel and his friends would not cost them their lives. But they knew that death in God's service is preferable to life outside of it. In fact, a  big lesson of the exile is that life lived in service to anyone but God can't help  but end in death. But as it turned out, God was pleased each time to preserve  the lives of his faithful servants and increase both their honor in his own glory in  the eyes of the world that sought to control them. Toward the end of his life,  Daniel discovered from his study of Jeremiah, that the nation of Babylon was  about to be made desolate, and that this would coincide with the end of Israel's  desolation. This is, in the first couple of verses of Daniel 9, in which he was 

reading from the prophet Jeremiah. When 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not  harm you, plans to give you hope and a future, then you will call on me and  

come and pray to Me. And I will listen to you. And I will bring you back from the  place from which I carry you into exile. I want to comment briefly on on verse 11. I know the plans I have for you that verse from Jeremiah, that's a favorite verse  for many Christians today who take from it the comfort that God knows each of  

us individually and has good plans for us. Well, this is undoubtedly true. But  that's not what Jeremiah was saying. Jeremiah was speaking of God's plans to  bring his people out of captivity, and return them to the promised land where  they would have another chance to serve him wholeheartedly. As the community had originally called them to be the God blessed children of Abraham, living in  harmony with their God in such a way that they would become a blessing for the whole world. Don't neglect the original context and meaning of Scripture in order to jump right into what it means for me. Because you and I can't understand the  full riches of what it means for us personally, without understanding the  redemptive historical story. Another question that might occur to us regarding  Jeremiah's prophecy is this. Why did God choose 70 years is the length of time  to punish his people? Well, we must confess that we really don't know. But II  Chronicles 36:21 says this about the length of it of the exile. It says the land  enjoyed its Sabbath rest. All the time of its desolation it rested until the seventy  years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.  through Moses, God had said, remember that every seventh year, the landed to  which he was leading his people was to have a Sabbath of rest of Sabbath to  the Lord. In Leviticus 25:4, this, like the weekly Sabbath, was to be a testimony  to Israel's dependence on the Lord's provision and a way to give him special  honor and worship. If Israel had followed this law of God giving the Lord the  honor due him they would not have incurred the judgment that led them to forfeit the land for seventy years. So in the end, God had his way, the land did have it's Sabbath rest. And the implication is God's people had better play, pay closer  attention to keeping the Lord at the center of their life after their return. Back to  Daniel, what did Daniel do when he discovered, through Jeremiah through  reading Jeremiah, what did he do when he discovered the imminent end to the  captivity of his people, he went to God in prayer, confessing the sins that had  caused God to punish his people and praying that God would indeed fulfill his  promise to restore them. One can never go wrong, praying as Daniel did,  according to the already revealed will of God. Indeed, that is precisely what the  majority of our prayer should be about. More about this in a lecture to come the  prayers of God's servants. Daniel himself probably never left the country to  which he had been exiled Babylon now Medo-Persia, but the return would begin in a year or two with a group of about 50,000. This, the beginning of this return is

described in the book of Ezra. The returnees found difficult conditions back in  the homeland, the cities of Judah had been torn down, they were rubble. People left behind lived in villages and rural areas. And most of these had been the,  remember the poor of Judah, but they had intermarried with the surrounding  tribes, and people and pretty much lost their identity. Those in the north of the  country were called Samaritans who had a blend of non Jewish and Jewish  blood and cultural practices. There were some similarities between their worship practices and those of the Jews, but enough differences so that the Jews  regarded them as illegitimate. And so while many of the challenges to the  returning exiles were physical, the bigger ones were spiritual, how to reestablish the true worship of God in their homeland. Their main concern was to rebuild the city of God and the temple of God so that all the promises of God made earlier  to Abraham and Joshua and David and so on, could be fulfilled. And so God's  people could achieve the status and the inheritance that they believed was their  destiny. And consequently, after the people had some time to settle in their own  towns, they regathered in Jerusalem to reestablish the sacrifices that had been  neglected. And along with this, they celebrated the Passover and other Jewish  feasts. A few months later, they started to rebuild the Lord's temple. They had an offer of help in this from some other residents of the land, who said they also  had an interest in serving the Lord and had in fact been sacrificing to him for a  long time. But that offer was quickly rejected by the heads of Israel, even if it had been sincere, which they doubted. They knew that these neighbors had no  interest in serving the Lord to the exclusion of other gods and according to the  demands of his law, that was proved afterwards by their use of physical  intimidation and political maneuverings to stop the rebuilding efforts. The  Israelites found it very difficult to maintain their own homes and businesses and  also donate time to work on the temple. And so they stopped work on the temple to give themselves more time for personal pursuits. Even so, their life in the  Promised Land remain difficult and no, not all that much like the place God had  promised it would be. A decade later the Lord sent the Prophet Haggai to tell the people that the reason they weren't doing well was precisely because they had  worked on their own houses to the neglect of the Lord's house. In response to  Haggai's message scripture says that the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua, the high priest in the spirit of all the people. So they  set to work again to rebuild the temple and they stayed at it for another six  years, the New Temple was a poor imitation of the grand structure that Solomon  had built. But it was finally completed about 20 years after they had first arrived  in the land. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah describe the contributions of two  other men to their establishment of life as God intended it. Ezra led another  contingent of exiles back to Israel after about three decades after the temple  had been completed. Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of  the law of the Lord and to teaching it's decrees and laws in Israel. He was an 

expert in the law. One of the things that came to bother Ezra greatly was that the returning exiles, and even the priests among them, had not avoided  intermarriage with the neighboring peoples who served other gods. And so Ezra  led the people in addressing this issue. And he got them to confess their sins.  And afterwards, the leaders of Israel agreed to investigate the violations case by case and deal with this matter so that their service to the Lord would not be  compromised. Just a few years later, Nehemiah, who had risen to high office in  his adopted land of Babylon, heard about some continuing troubles that God's  people were having, involving the still broken down walls and gates of  Jerusalem. This matter was heavy on his heart and mind and after much prayer,  God gave him an audience with his master King Artaxerxes. And then his  subsequent blessing and financial support to go to Jerusalem as governor and  rebuilder of the city walls. Nehemiah had to deal with many problems among  God's people and much opposition from Israel's neighbors. But by assigning  armed men to protect the builders and taking other wise precautions, the walls  of Jerusalem were completed, and its gates rehung. the reestablishment of  God's people in the Promised Land would face many more hurdles. After this, in  the sinfulness of the people was a persistent problem as human sinfulness  always is. But this restoration would continue and become another link in the  chain of something far more expansive than they knew. It foreshadowed God's  plan to bring many more than a few 1000 people out of spiritual exile coming for  from a place where God was not known or honored or worshiped and starting  over by the grace of Jesus Christ, with a new life, lived in service to a new  master