Long ago and far away, God promised a scattered people, “I will be a sanctuary to you during your time in exile,” and, “I will gather you back.” He promised more. But before we look at what God said, let’s look at the people to whom he spoke. Let’s glimpse their lives before exile.

For many generations, the Jews had lived in the land God promised them. Even before they inhabited the land, God had entered covenant relationship with them.

But also for generations, they had treated God terribly. They lived before him like an adulterous wife, seduced by every lover that came along. Their spiritual leaders rationalized the infidelity, covered it up, even led the way.

Refusing to love their God, the people and their leaders lost the capacity to love others. And so they treated people terribly too. Pursuing what they wanted at any cost, they used others, robbed others, destroyed others. They dealt treacherously with their spouses, deceived family and friends, oppressed the forsaken and preyed on the weak.¹

Through it all, most of them would have told you they belonged, in that place, among their people, to their God. They refused to see themselves as anything other than God’s chosen. After all, his Temple stood in their midst. His Temple meant his presence. And his presence meant they were A-OK.

They refused to see their ways of relating to one another as anything other than healthy and good.

But for the oh-so-many who mistook exploitation, manipulation, coercion and violence for relationship, belonging was an illusion. A lie.

Don’t be fooled

Before any of them went into exile, God said through the prophet Jeremiah:

Do you really think you can steal, murder, commit adultery, lie, and burn incense to Baal and all those other new gods of yours, and then come here and stand before me in my Temple and chant, “We are safe!”? (Jer. 7:9-10).

Repeatedly, God exposed what the people denied. Repeatedly, they refused to listen or repent. Then, when they began to reap the consequences of their unfaithfulness to God and injustice toward others, they accused God of forsaking them.

As the situation deteriorated, Judah became prey for its enemies. The nation became subservient to Babylon. Some of the people were carried away and scattered. Those remaining – especially those in the walled city of Jerusalem – wanted to believe the worst had passed. Jeremiah kept telling them, “No it has not, not as long as you keep closing your eyes and ears to the truth!”

Grieve as the Lord departs

A young prophet named Ezekiel found himself an exile in Babylon. He saw visions of God. In a vision recorded in Ezekiel 8-11, the Spirit of God took Ezekiel to Jerusalem. There, the Lord showed the prophet scene after scene of leaders and people committing idolatry in the Temple itself.

“Son of man,” he said, “do you see what they are doing? Do you see the detestable sins the people of Israel are committing to drive me from my Temple?” (Ezek. 8:6).

As Ezekiel watched and the vision continued:

The glory of the God of Israel rose up from between the cherubim, where it had rested [in the holiest place in the Temple], and moved to the entrance of the Temple. And the Lord called to a man dressed in linen who was carrying a writer’s case. He said to him, “Walk through the streets of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of all who weep and sigh because of the detestable sins being committed in their city” (Ezek. 9:3-4).

For decades, the people had tried to silence any voice that suggested: (a) they had done anything wrong, and (b) their situation was dire, and a result of their continued bad choices. The few who mourned aloud over “the detestable sins being committed in their city” were shunned. Some of these mourners had been carried off to Babylon. Some had not. The shunned who still lived in Jerusalem were exiles too. And not one had been forgotten by God.

As the Lord began his exit from his Temple, he marked as his own every person in Jerusalem who grieved over the duplicity going on there.

Then, while his glory hovered at the Temple entrance, God said: “As for those who long for vile images and detestable idols, I will repay them fully for their sins. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken” (Ezek. 11:21).

And with that, God left that place.

Believe what God says about you

Before he departed, the Lord gave Ezekiel a message to the exiles scattered.

Son of man, the people still left in Jerusalem are talking about you and your relatives and all the people of Israel who are in exile. They are saying, “Those people are far away from the Lord, so now he has given their land to us!” (Ezek. 11:15).

Consider the depth of self-deception the people in Jerusalem displayed.²

• They believed lies about the exiles: “Those people are far away from the Lord. [Or they would not be in exile!]”
• They believed lies about the Lord: “So now he has given us their land. [And without one iota of shame, we will take what belongs to others, using God’s name to justify the theft.]”
• Most of all, they believed lies about themselves.

Through Ezekiel, God repeatedly countered lies with truth. In Ezekiel 11:16-17, God said to the exiles, “That’s what they say about you, but this is what I say.”

Therefore, tell the exiles, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Although I have scattered you in the countries of the world, I will be a sanctuary to you during your time in exile. I, the Sovereign Lord, will gather you back from the nations where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel once again.”

Let exile fulfill its work

Reading those promises, we may tend to skip over the “time in exile” part. We may want to jump to the words, “I will gather you back from where you’ve been scattered.”

Yet both Jeremiah and Ezekiel rebuked false prophets who told the people, “The exile will be short. In fact, it’s almost over!”

For the exile itself had purpose. And while that purpose played out, God himself would be their sanctuary, their Temple, their sacred place.

Before they were scattered, the exiles had lived among a people who identified themselves as God’s yet continually defied and dishonored him. In the crucible of exile, they would have the time, space and incentive to cultivate faithfulness to their Lord. They could begin to experience the real belonging he had offered them all along.

With so many unhealthy soul ties severed, they could abide in him as he softened and purified their hearts. Those who did so would finally learn to separate out the precious from the worthless. They would begin to discern genuine love and to recognize all its counterfeits. God would teach them to see and turn from what is not him, and to know and love him as never before.

If they regrouped and returned too soon, they would, instead, pick up where they had left off – using and abusing people, and calling it love; worshiping hidden idols, while claiming to serve God alone.

Only when the exile had fully done its work would the “gathering back” fulfill God’s astounding promise of belonging recorded in Ezekiel 11:18-20.

When the people return to their homeland, they will remove every trace of their vile images and detestable idols. And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them. I will take away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a tender, responsive heart, so they will obey my decrees and regulations. Then they will truly be my people, and I will be their God.

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Scriptures quotations are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Image: (c) Ann Kathrin Rehse / freeimages.com

Posts in the series, To the exiles scattered

• To the exiles scattered (by abuse in the church)
• The world in church clothing
• Shunning in the church
• A promise of real belonging
• The most freeing thing
• A future filled with hope
• And the future starts now

Footnotes

1. See, for example, these passages, just from chapters 5-9 of Jeremiah: 5:1, 8, 26-28; 6:13-14; 7:5-6, 9; 8:6, 10-11; 9:3-8. ↩︎
2. Second Thessalonians 2:10-11 says: “Because they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them … they will believe these lies.” ↩︎