It's hard to imagine what life was like for the people of Israel after they went into exile. Jerusalem had fallen to the Babylonians with great violence and brutality, as recorded by Jeremiah in Lamentations. But empires come and empires go, and in 539 BC, the Persians defeated the Babylonians and absorbed the lands of Israel and Judah into their territory. The next year, Cyrus allowed the people of Judah to return home and rebuild the temple of the Lord. Around 458 BC, another group of Judean exiles returned under Ezra's leadership (ESV study Bible).
The books of Ezra and Nehemiah (often viewed as one book) give us a historical narrative about these returns to Palestine, but with important theological lessons about God's covenant faithfulness. The exile was not the end of the story for God's people, and the book of Ezra shows an amazing turnaround of these pagan rulers giving favour to God's people and actually commissioning them to re-start their religious community centred around the temple. The rebuilt temple was nowhere near as great in grandeur as the first, so it was a bittersweet reopening (see Ezra 3), but the fact remains that God had preserved for Himself a remnant. He had not wiped out the descendants of Abraham. He still had plans to prosper them (Jer 29).
It was a great challenge for this broken, battered community to live distinctively and faithfully to the Lord. They had been in exile for 70 years. As they come back to the Word of God and the Law of God, they have to come to terms with their own disobedience and figure out how to move forwards. Ezra's leadership is bold and strong as he urges the people to obey the commands of the Lord, even at great personal cost (such as the removal of foreign wives and children - see Ezra 9-10). What struck me looking at these narratives was the place of fasting in the post-exilic community, as an integral part of their repentance and turning back to the Lord.
Fasting is not something we talk about very often. It is not something we do very well, I'm guessing (if my own practise is anything to go by). In OT Law, it was only prescribed for the Day of Atonement (see Leviticus 16), which was fundamentally about purification from sin. The people were charged to 'afflict' themselves (v29) and 'do no work', which suggests that fasting and prayer was part of this holy day where their sins would be dealt with before God in the Holy of Holies. In the offerings and the goat sent into the wilderness, God gave His people a vivid picture of their sin being atoned for, which ultimately pointed to Jesus' death on the cross. So I'm not suggesting we should go back to OT Law and fast like we're trying to add something on to Christ's work- He said, 'It is finished'! (John 19:30) But it's interesting that during the exile and afterwards, fasting became something God's people did when they realised their need for God. You could look at Esther calling a fast before she was to appear before the King to try to stop the killing of the Jews (a situation of desperation, see Esther 4). You could look at the prayerful life of Daniel and how he fasted and prayed when he realised the 70 years of exile had passed and God had promised through Jeremiah that He would bring the people back (Daniel 9). In Ezra, he fasts and falls on his knees in intercessory prayer when he hears of the mixed marriages of the exiles (Ezra 9). Nehemiah fasts and prays over an extended time when he hears of the state of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1). Why did they fast? Because they were desperate. They were full of grief over sin (not always their own sin, but the sin of the nation, of their community). They wanted to humble themselves before God and pray, and abstaining from food was an important part of that. It showed repentance (you could also look at Nineveh in the book of Jonah for that).
Why don't we fast? Because we're not desperate. We want to see God move, but we're not desperate enough that we're willing to give up the things we rely on each day to get us through - this isn't just our three meals, but other things too like social media, our mobile phones. I read something on Revive our Hearts where the speaker made a point that you wouldn't congratulate someone on being very self-disciplined if they managed to eat three meals a day. Imagine it: 'Well done! You actually managed to eat breakfast, lunch AND dinner!' It's something we take for granted, unless we're ill. Well fasting is meant to show us that the same commitment we have towards feeding our bodies is the commitment we should have in prayer. We NEED God more than we need food to survive (Jesus told the devil 'Man shall not live by bread alone' in Matthew 4:4 when He was tempted to turn stones into bread during a 40-day fast).
I know it's easy with fasting to become legalistic. In fact, Jesus warned His disciples not to fast like the Pharisees, to make a song and dance about it, and do it for human praise and attention (Luke 18:12). But He did teach on fasting as though it was meant to be a regular part of life for His followers - 'when you fast...' (Matthew 6:17). He was questioned on why His disciples didn't fast, and He replied, 'But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.' (Mark 2:19) Until Jesus comes again, there is sin, there is suffering, there is wrong-doing in the world. There is desperation. So fasting is to be part of following Christ until that day when He puts everything right.
If we don't fast, it's like we're saying there's nothing to grieve over. Our culture doesn't do grief. We're told not to focus on the bad things. But biblically, we should! We should grieve over the sins of our nation. We should mourn the hypocrisies and failures of the Church. We should deeply feel the horror of our sin and in the midst of our gratitude to Christ for making our atonement, it's not always wrong to set aside special time to fast and pray for victory over habitual sin. I'm not saying 'fast and God will listen to you'. I'm just trying to recognise that Scripture tells us there IS a need for fasting, and I know I need to do it a lot more than I do at the moment.
Showing posts with label exile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exile. Show all posts
Friday, January 9, 2015
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
His thoughts towards us... Looking at Jeremiah 29
It's probably one of the most popular Old Testament passages of Scripture. You see it on posters, cards, notebooks, bookmarks, plaques... But as I've been reading through Jeremiah, it's really made me rethink what God's promises in chapter 29 actually mean and signify.
Firstly, in the run-up to chapter 29, there are a number of chapters which document Jeremiah's struggle to be heard as a true prophet, and the prominence of false prophets amongst God's people at that time. It was a turbulent political time; Nebuchadnezzar had already carried off certain articles from the temple and members of the royal family along with others to be exiles. The false prophets were giving the people left in Judah false assurances, like Hananiah, who breaks the yoke Jeremiah had made as a visual image and declares that God says he will 'break the yoke of the king of Babylon' (28.4). But God tells Jeremiah that He has 'put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon' (28.14). The impossible unthinkable circumstances that God's people were in - where their land and their identity were under threat - was actually being engineered by God Himself to punish them for their unfaithfulness to Him. Jeremiah's message, that they should submit to exile and not rebel, and seek the peace of the pagan land of Babylon (29.7), was not what the people wanted to hear. They wanted deliverance from Babylon, not a deliverance that featured 70 years of captivity.
And yet, even the fact that they were going into captivity with a promise of deliverance was incredible grace from God to them. As Jeremiah writes in Lamentations, 'Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.' (3:22-23). All God's people deserved was annihilation by foreign powers; they didn't deserve even to be exiled. In this light, the letter which God tells Jeremiah to write to the captives in chapter 29 is full of hope and promise: 'Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit.' (29.5) Exile was not meant to crush them but to give them an opportunity to seek the Lord again.
Although there was little positive reception to Jeremiah's words at the time (see verses 27-32, which show Shemaiah's objection to the letter and God's judgement upon him), godly men like Daniel would take Jeremiah's words very seriously and use them as a spur to seek the Lord as the seventy years drew to a close (see Daniel 9). This is such an encouragement, that the Word of the Lord has power and truth. Even if the majority don't see or accept it, there will be a godly remnant who do.
I don't think we can take verse 11 out of chapter 29 and use it as some kind of promise to anyone that God has plans for their good, as a kind of lucky charm, because the rest of Jeremiah and indeed the letter itself in chapter 29 is about obedience to the Lord. Only if we have true respect for God and honour Him in our lives can promises like these ones of hope apply to us. It's also worth remembering that in the New Testament, the 'living hope' that writers such as Peter refer to (see 1 Peter 1:3) is first and foremost a hope of resurrection, a heavenly inheritance, rather than earthly prosperity. Jeremiah has a compelling message for us today, and if we relegate our study of this book to a few verses pulled out of context and put onto a kitchen wall plaque, we do this to our detriment. I am loving the freshness of this book, and I'm seeing more and more how the different chapters tie together, even though they are not always in chronological order and mix up oracles and messages with narrative story about Jeremiah's life. Praise God for the depth and breadth of His Word, and for its power.
Firstly, in the run-up to chapter 29, there are a number of chapters which document Jeremiah's struggle to be heard as a true prophet, and the prominence of false prophets amongst God's people at that time. It was a turbulent political time; Nebuchadnezzar had already carried off certain articles from the temple and members of the royal family along with others to be exiles. The false prophets were giving the people left in Judah false assurances, like Hananiah, who breaks the yoke Jeremiah had made as a visual image and declares that God says he will 'break the yoke of the king of Babylon' (28.4). But God tells Jeremiah that He has 'put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon' (28.14). The impossible unthinkable circumstances that God's people were in - where their land and their identity were under threat - was actually being engineered by God Himself to punish them for their unfaithfulness to Him. Jeremiah's message, that they should submit to exile and not rebel, and seek the peace of the pagan land of Babylon (29.7), was not what the people wanted to hear. They wanted deliverance from Babylon, not a deliverance that featured 70 years of captivity.
And yet, even the fact that they were going into captivity with a promise of deliverance was incredible grace from God to them. As Jeremiah writes in Lamentations, 'Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.' (3:22-23). All God's people deserved was annihilation by foreign powers; they didn't deserve even to be exiled. In this light, the letter which God tells Jeremiah to write to the captives in chapter 29 is full of hope and promise: 'Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit.' (29.5) Exile was not meant to crush them but to give them an opportunity to seek the Lord again.
'For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me, and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.' (29.10-13)
Although there was little positive reception to Jeremiah's words at the time (see verses 27-32, which show Shemaiah's objection to the letter and God's judgement upon him), godly men like Daniel would take Jeremiah's words very seriously and use them as a spur to seek the Lord as the seventy years drew to a close (see Daniel 9). This is such an encouragement, that the Word of the Lord has power and truth. Even if the majority don't see or accept it, there will be a godly remnant who do.
I don't think we can take verse 11 out of chapter 29 and use it as some kind of promise to anyone that God has plans for their good, as a kind of lucky charm, because the rest of Jeremiah and indeed the letter itself in chapter 29 is about obedience to the Lord. Only if we have true respect for God and honour Him in our lives can promises like these ones of hope apply to us. It's also worth remembering that in the New Testament, the 'living hope' that writers such as Peter refer to (see 1 Peter 1:3) is first and foremost a hope of resurrection, a heavenly inheritance, rather than earthly prosperity. Jeremiah has a compelling message for us today, and if we relegate our study of this book to a few verses pulled out of context and put onto a kitchen wall plaque, we do this to our detriment. I am loving the freshness of this book, and I'm seeing more and more how the different chapters tie together, even though they are not always in chronological order and mix up oracles and messages with narrative story about Jeremiah's life. Praise God for the depth and breadth of His Word, and for its power.
'Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?' (Jer 23:29)
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Why were the Israelites exiled out of the Promised Land?
I've been putting together my notes for OT2 and this is such a huge question, covering all of the Former Prophets.
1. Rebellion against the Lord.
This began even as Moses led them out of Egypt: 'the whole community grumbled' (Ex 16:2). They spent 40 years in the wilderness because of this!
At the end of the book of Joshua, he gives the people a strong reminder that they need to obey the Law (Josh 23:6). If they fail, the consequence will be exile:
'If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, and go and serve other gods... the Lord's anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land He has given you.' (Josh 23:16).
During the time of the Judges, as Joshua's generation dies, 'another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what He had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals.' (Judges 2:10-11). Consequently, they were routed by their enemies and God raised up Judges to save them. 'Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshipped them.' (Judges 2:17)
Even the Judges themselves were dubious heroes; Gideon lacked decisive faith and made a golden ephod which became a snare to Israel, Jephthah made a rash vow which resulted in him killing his own daughter, and Samson's life was full of compromise instead of being a true Nazirite.
The ending of the book shows moral chaos in the gruesome story of the Levite and his concubine, which threatens to destroy the unity of Israel by causing civil war and the near cutting-off of the Benjaminites.
2. Lack of godly leadership.
The chaos in Judges is attributed to the fact there is no king; 'everyone did as they saw fit' (Judges 21:25).
The people in 1 Samuel demand a king. As Samuel presents Saul to them, he gives them a solemn warning:
'if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God- good! But if you do not obey the Lord, and if you rebel against His commands, His hand will be against you.' (1 Sam 12:14-15)
No sooner is Saul declared king than he goes against God's Word and offers up the burnt offering himself instead of waiting for Samuel, the priest. Samuel tells him that because of this his kingdom will not ensure and God has sought out 'a man after his own heart' (1 Sam 13:14). Saul repeatedly tries to do things his own way, instead of obeying God. In the rest of 1 Samuel, we see his deterioration into madness, paranoia and murderous thoughts towards David, despite David's righteous conduct and refusal to touch the Lord's anointed (see 1 Sam 24).
When David finally becomes king, and he is the best of the kings, he commits adultery and murder in a terrible sequence of events (2 Sam 11).
The majority of the kings in 1 & 2 Kings commit terrible acts in the eyes of the Lord, and lead the whole nation into apostasy. Ahab, king of Israel, did more evil than all before him (1 Kings 16:30). He and his wife Jezebel persecute Elijah and install Baal worship as the norm. Even after the glorious display of God's power at Mt Carmel, they remain unchanged.
3. Ignoring the Prophets.
Not only does the dramatic revelation of the reality of God as Lord leave Ahab unmoved, but repeatedly he is shown to ignore and despise God's prophets.
In one incident, a prophet comes to tell him that God will give him victory over Ben-Hadad (King of Aram), and Ahab decides to let the king go. In another incident, Ahab desires Naboth's vineyard (which, according to the distribution of the land and to the inheritance laws, he had no right to claim), and allows Jezebel to have Naboth killed so that he can seize it. Elijah comes to rebuke him for this dreadful action, and Ahab greets the prophet by calling him his 'enemy' (1 Kings 21:20). God says through Elijah 'you have aroused my anger and have caused Israel to sin' (1 Kings 21:22), and the incredible thing is that Ahab does then humble himself. In great mercy, God decides to bring disaster upon Ahab's son instead of Ahab himself.
And yet how much has Ahab really changed? Not much it seems, because when the godly king Jehoshaphat of Judah comes to help him against the king of Aram, Jehoshaphat insists upon seeking counsel from a 'prophet of the Lord', not just a phoney prophet who says whatever the king wants to hear. Ahab acknowledges that there is a true prophet, but he hates him because he never prophesies anything good about him (1 Kings 22:8). Jehoshaphat's reply 'The king should not say such a thing' highlights how wrong Ahab's attitude is towards the prophets and thus towards God, as the prophets speak God's Word to him.
4. Forgetting the Law.
In Josiah king of Judah's day, the Book of the Law is found as they repair the temple. This is a sad indication of how God's Word has been forgotten over the reigns of so many godless kings. Josiah is a great reformer, but he recognises that it is too late: they stand under God's wrath for disobeying His commands (2 Kings 22:13), which the prophet Huldah confirms.
5. Lack of godly parenting.
'Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen... Teach them to your children and to their children after them.' Deut 4:9
Closely linked to the people forgetting the Law is the fact that parents were not training their children in the ways of the Lord, and this is why there was so much moral chaos and apostasy.
Even the God-fearing men were at fault here: Eli was challenged by God ('why do you honour your sons more than Me?' 1 Sam 2:29) and David did not have effective control of his family- the incident of Amnon raping his half-sister Tamar, and David's lack of decisive action to intervene which causes Absalom to act in bloody vengeance, is a prime example of this (2 Sam 13).
6. God keeps His covenant promise.
God had made it clear that if Israel were not obedient, He would send them into exile. That is why the exile happened.
'Therefore the Lord rejected all the people of Israel; He afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until He thrust them from His presence.' 2 Kings 17:20
And yet, in all of this, there is hope in God's grace. Not all the kings were bad (Josiah and Hezekiah stand out as really godly leaders), and Isaiah prophesies the future fall of Sennacherib (king of Assyria) in 2 Kings 19, and reminds the people that God is in control:
'Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass.' v25
1. Rebellion against the Lord.
This began even as Moses led them out of Egypt: 'the whole community grumbled' (Ex 16:2). They spent 40 years in the wilderness because of this!
At the end of the book of Joshua, he gives the people a strong reminder that they need to obey the Law (Josh 23:6). If they fail, the consequence will be exile:
'If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, and go and serve other gods... the Lord's anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land He has given you.' (Josh 23:16).
During the time of the Judges, as Joshua's generation dies, 'another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what He had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals.' (Judges 2:10-11). Consequently, they were routed by their enemies and God raised up Judges to save them. 'Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshipped them.' (Judges 2:17)
Even the Judges themselves were dubious heroes; Gideon lacked decisive faith and made a golden ephod which became a snare to Israel, Jephthah made a rash vow which resulted in him killing his own daughter, and Samson's life was full of compromise instead of being a true Nazirite.
The ending of the book shows moral chaos in the gruesome story of the Levite and his concubine, which threatens to destroy the unity of Israel by causing civil war and the near cutting-off of the Benjaminites.
2. Lack of godly leadership.
The chaos in Judges is attributed to the fact there is no king; 'everyone did as they saw fit' (Judges 21:25).
The people in 1 Samuel demand a king. As Samuel presents Saul to them, he gives them a solemn warning:
'if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God- good! But if you do not obey the Lord, and if you rebel against His commands, His hand will be against you.' (1 Sam 12:14-15)
No sooner is Saul declared king than he goes against God's Word and offers up the burnt offering himself instead of waiting for Samuel, the priest. Samuel tells him that because of this his kingdom will not ensure and God has sought out 'a man after his own heart' (1 Sam 13:14). Saul repeatedly tries to do things his own way, instead of obeying God. In the rest of 1 Samuel, we see his deterioration into madness, paranoia and murderous thoughts towards David, despite David's righteous conduct and refusal to touch the Lord's anointed (see 1 Sam 24).
When David finally becomes king, and he is the best of the kings, he commits adultery and murder in a terrible sequence of events (2 Sam 11).
The majority of the kings in 1 & 2 Kings commit terrible acts in the eyes of the Lord, and lead the whole nation into apostasy. Ahab, king of Israel, did more evil than all before him (1 Kings 16:30). He and his wife Jezebel persecute Elijah and install Baal worship as the norm. Even after the glorious display of God's power at Mt Carmel, they remain unchanged.
3. Ignoring the Prophets.
Not only does the dramatic revelation of the reality of God as Lord leave Ahab unmoved, but repeatedly he is shown to ignore and despise God's prophets.
In one incident, a prophet comes to tell him that God will give him victory over Ben-Hadad (King of Aram), and Ahab decides to let the king go. In another incident, Ahab desires Naboth's vineyard (which, according to the distribution of the land and to the inheritance laws, he had no right to claim), and allows Jezebel to have Naboth killed so that he can seize it. Elijah comes to rebuke him for this dreadful action, and Ahab greets the prophet by calling him his 'enemy' (1 Kings 21:20). God says through Elijah 'you have aroused my anger and have caused Israel to sin' (1 Kings 21:22), and the incredible thing is that Ahab does then humble himself. In great mercy, God decides to bring disaster upon Ahab's son instead of Ahab himself.
And yet how much has Ahab really changed? Not much it seems, because when the godly king Jehoshaphat of Judah comes to help him against the king of Aram, Jehoshaphat insists upon seeking counsel from a 'prophet of the Lord', not just a phoney prophet who says whatever the king wants to hear. Ahab acknowledges that there is a true prophet, but he hates him because he never prophesies anything good about him (1 Kings 22:8). Jehoshaphat's reply 'The king should not say such a thing' highlights how wrong Ahab's attitude is towards the prophets and thus towards God, as the prophets speak God's Word to him.
4. Forgetting the Law.
In Josiah king of Judah's day, the Book of the Law is found as they repair the temple. This is a sad indication of how God's Word has been forgotten over the reigns of so many godless kings. Josiah is a great reformer, but he recognises that it is too late: they stand under God's wrath for disobeying His commands (2 Kings 22:13), which the prophet Huldah confirms.
5. Lack of godly parenting.
'Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen... Teach them to your children and to their children after them.' Deut 4:9
Closely linked to the people forgetting the Law is the fact that parents were not training their children in the ways of the Lord, and this is why there was so much moral chaos and apostasy.
Even the God-fearing men were at fault here: Eli was challenged by God ('why do you honour your sons more than Me?' 1 Sam 2:29) and David did not have effective control of his family- the incident of Amnon raping his half-sister Tamar, and David's lack of decisive action to intervene which causes Absalom to act in bloody vengeance, is a prime example of this (2 Sam 13).
6. God keeps His covenant promise.
God had made it clear that if Israel were not obedient, He would send them into exile. That is why the exile happened.
'Therefore the Lord rejected all the people of Israel; He afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until He thrust them from His presence.' 2 Kings 17:20
And yet, in all of this, there is hope in God's grace. Not all the kings were bad (Josiah and Hezekiah stand out as really godly leaders), and Isaiah prophesies the future fall of Sennacherib (king of Assyria) in 2 Kings 19, and reminds the people that God is in control:
'Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass.' v25
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
