As I sit here and type, I can hear the rain falling on the roof and running through the gutters. It is dark and cold outside. Even the tile floor in our kitchen is chilly. As you can imagine, I have no intentions to move, nor desire to go outside. On the contrary. I made myself a hot cup of tea, put on some soft slippers, and wrapped a warm, cozy blanket around my shoulders. I can imagine you chuckling… Don’t judge me! I am just trying to stay comfortable.
God’s people experienced exile from their home, God’s holy city, and place of worship for 70 years. Their refusal to listen to God’s Word, their hostility toward His prophets, and their lack of obedience resulted in death, destruction, and deportation. 2 Chron. 36:11-21 detailed the events leading to God’s judgment, but promised Israel’s return based on “the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah” (v. 21). Furthermore, according to Isaiah 44:28, God’s people would rebuild Jerusalem and the temple following their return.
That time finally came through the decree of Cyrus, king of Persia, permitting the exiles to return home. Chapter two of Ezra lists the descendants of various clans and families that could verify their ancestry and begin the four month journey to a home whose condition was unknown and whose location many had never seen with their own eyes. Yet despite God’s promises and despite being strangers in a foreign land, many did not pick up their families, gather their belongings, and verify their ancestry to return home. Why? Well, 70 years is a long time. God’s people acclimated, started businesses, married, had children, and so on. The years went on and life happened. They integrated into the Babylonian culture and became comfortable. Jerusalem began to fade in their memory and Babylon became their home. How easy it is to experience the same deterioration, becoming a captive to comfort and a subject to spiritual complacency, while forgetting our true home, identity, and allegiance!
In his excellent book, Evangelism As Exiles, Elliot Clark indicates that “the days of cultural Christianity are fading.” Our country and our world are becoming more and more unfriendly toward the things of King Jesus. Clark states the following in his chapter entitled “Visibly Different”:
… to be an exile – to be other – is central to the Christian calling. We’re strangers in our land. And that’s good news. Sometimes the experience of exile can actually remind us of our identity and home… That’s because if you have everything stripped away, you cling to what makes you who you are. We too, as we experience increased isolation and shame in our country of origin, have an opportunity to embrace the foreignness that comes from being like God and a citizen of his kingdom.
This world is not our home. We are citizens of another kingdom. Let us never forget that “Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Heb 13:14). May the Lord awaken us, break our love for lesser things, and provoke us to hope in the Person we were created for and the place where we belong.
1 Peter 2:9-11 (ESV) – “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.”