The Exile of Israel into Babylon has always been a wonderful and inspiring picture of encouragement and hope for Christians. Until Christ returns and we are promoted to glory, Christians will always be God’s chosen people in a time of exile in a foreign land.
BUT this is a tricky subject because most preachers duck the reasons why Israel was in exile in the first place. Most preachers dodge the historical fact that God purposed that the Holy City of Jerusalem should be destroyed and that his chosen people should be taken into exile as a punishment for their sins.
Next week we will pick up on the glorious hope of the remnant – but for this week, what do we have to learn from the fact of the exile?
LAST WEEK we asked, “does God still send judgment on sin?”
The events of the exile were indeed terrible. But time and again the Old Testament speaks of a God who acts in judgment punishing sin and sinners. The flood was God’s act of judgment on the corruption and wickedness and pollution and violence of mankind at that time. God sent punishment on Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins. The Ten Plagues on Egypt were acts of judgment on the sins and the false gods of the Egyptians. The victories God gave to the Israelites wiping out the original inhabitants of Canaan were God’s acts of judgment on the evil practices of the Canaanites – including child sacrifices. And long before the Exile, even as they wandered in the wilderness, God brought punishment on his own chosen people Israel for their complaining and rebellion and lack of faith and worshipping false gods.
We also said very strongly last week that by no means all suffering is an expression of God’s judgment or a punishment for specific sin. Most suffering is not punishment. People do get sick. Traffic accidents happen. None of us has divine protection for the evil actions of others. Most suffering is just a consequence of living in a fallen world where bad things happen even to good people.
But we must also say that God made very clear that certain events in history, of which the Exile is a very clear example, were indeed his acts of judgment on specific sins. Time and again God had warned his people to turn away from sin and turn back to the Living God. But they refused to hear the warnings. So God sent judgment then. And the God of the New Testament and the God of the Old Testament are one and the same God, the God of Israel whose name is Yahweh, So we have no grounds for thinking that God might not still bring his judgment on individuals and nations.
The Fall of Jerusalem and the events of the Exile were physically devastating for the nation of Israel. But they were also spiritually devastating for one obvious reason. This was not God’s wrath falling on foreign pagan nations. This was the Holy God of Israel punishing his own chosen people. The record shows that there were very many in the nation of Israel who thought that because they were God’s chosen people they could get away with anything. They were the people of God, and too often ordinary people as well as Kings and even priests, took their special status for granted.
God had warned the Israelites about such complacency and arrogance in His Word –
Deuteronomy 29
19 When such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself and therefore thinks, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way.” This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. 20 The LORD will never be willing to forgive him; his wrath and zeal will burn against that man. All the curses written in this book will fall upon him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven. 21 The LORD will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.
Time and again God also warned his chosen people through his prophets
Jeremiah 7
2“ ‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD. 3 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. 4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!” … 8 But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.
The Israelites trusted in the fact that they were God’s chosen people. But God still punished them! And this is why the story of the exile should be so disturbing to Christians as well – because it reminds us that God might yet punish us for lack of faith and lack of obedience.
Last week we mentioned God’s judgment on Ananias and Sapphira for lying to the Holy Spirit. We talked about the Christians in Corinth who were falling sick and even dying because when they celebrated Communion they were “eating the bread or drinking the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner,” (1 Corinthians 11:27) and failing to discern the body of Christ. We saw that there are many places where the new testament speaks about God’s discipline on his chosen people, the church.
In Hebrews 12 we read:
5 “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
The Fall of Jerusalem and the Exile were God’s punishment on his firstborn son the nation of Israel. And just as God disciplined his chosen people Israel, so God may also take Christians and churches into times of hardship so they can grow in their faith and obedience
1 Corinthians101 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. 6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.
Paul goes on to list the sins which the Israelites in the wilderness fell into. Idolatry, immorality, putting the Lord to the test, grumbling and complaining. Then he warns Christians, not unbelievers, but Christians:
11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfilment of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
Time and again Scripture warns us that we dare not presume to think that just because we are God’s chosen people, just because we are saved, that we can live however we like and it won’t make any difference. There will always be “Consequences!” I have called this evening’s message “consequences” because I didn’t like to call it “God’s judgment on the church.” But I want us to bear in mind that our actions as individual Christians and as a church have consequences. We can choose to obey God and he promises to bless us. But if we choose not to obey God, if we neglect Him, then there may well be consequences.
What were the sins Israelites were punished for – might we fall into those sins?
In the years leading up to the Exile, Israel fell into idolatry
Deut 29: 16 You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries on the way here. 17 You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold. 18 Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.
Worshipping false gods will bring judgment. Moses warned the Israelites, “The nations around will ask why is God punishing his chosen people Israel with fierce, burning anger?”
25 And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. 26 They went off and worshipped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. 27 Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book. 28 In furious anger and in great wrath the LORD uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”
The people of the world around us have plenty of false gods they bow down to. Money. Success. Popularity. Celebrity. Political correctness. We must make sure that we as Christians never ever bow down to those false gods?
The second sin Israel had fallen into was Neglecting the Word of God
Deuteronomy 28 is a very depressing and gloomy chapter! Before they entered the promised land, Moses gave the Israelites this solemn warning.
Deut 2815 However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. … 20 The LORD will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him. 21 The LORD will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess.
25 The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth.
36 The LORD will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your fathers. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone. 37 You will become a thing of horror and an object of scorn and ridicule to all the nations where the LORD will drive you.
45 All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the LORD your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. … 47 Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, 48 therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
62 You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the LORD your God. … You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess. 64 Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other.
All this judgment – for neglecting the word of God. It is sad but true that the Bible does not have the central place in the lives of Christians and churches which it should. I am saddened by the closure of so many Christian Book Shops because so few Christians are reading any more! The popularity of celebrity authors who write entertainingly but without any depth only compounds the drop in of sales of Bible study notes and commentaries and books on doctrine. Neglect of the Word of God.
Then thirdly the prophets warned Israel time and again that the nation were neglecting truth and justice
Jeremiah 7:4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!” 5 If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 6 if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave to your forefathers for ever and ever. …
9 “ ‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? 11 Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD.
At one time the churches were at the cutting edge of social action and the battles for truth and justice. With welfare state and rise of “secular” charities, are Christians too comfortable nowadays?
The holy city of Jerusalem and the Temple of the Living God was overthrown and knocked to the ground. God’s chosen people were taken captive and transported to a foreign land and lived there for 70 years because of their sins. Because Israel worshipped false gods. Because Israel neglected God’s Word the Bible. Because Israel neglected truth and justice. And because in their arrogance and complacency they thought they could do whatever they chose and they would still be safe because they were God’s chosen people.
In many ways the church in Britain today feels like a remnant, in exile in a foreign land. But we can’t dodge the question of how we got into the state we are in.
On a television program a small boy was asked if he had any pets. “Well,” he replied, “I did have some goldfish but some water softener got into the aquarium and they softened to death.” There is a real risk that Christian in this country are getting softened to death!
Is the present low state of the church in Britain in any respects a consequence of a lack of faith, a lack of prayer, a lack of holiness, a neglect of the Scriptures and a lack of concern for the poor and needy? And in our own lives and our life together as a church as we look to the future, are we seeking God’s blessing with all our hearts and seeking to serve God with all our might? Or is there a risk that we too might face the consequences?
