When you’ve been pushed out by abandonment, rejection, shunning or other abuse, you may hear a choir of Christian voices singing to you. The tune they croon might be familiar. It might be the old Beatles song, “Get back, get back, get back to where you once belonged.”
Even stranger, you might find yourself singing along.
The Christians who serenade you may believe you’re disobeying Scripture if you don’t get “back in church,” or back to your abusive husband, or otherwise back in your place quickly.
Part of you may believe it too. And a big part of you wants the pain to stop. A big part of you wants to belong again, ASAP. Add to the mix your confusion and disbelief over what’s happened, and an inability to see anything good at all up ahead. In that state, going back, and trying to work things out – or going on, to someplace eerily similar – will often seem the only ways to recover a semblance of life.
Dueling prophets
Centuries ago, a number of Jews from Jerusalem found themselves scattered as exiles in Babylon. They could not just pick up and go home. But a choir of prophet voices began to tell them what the people desperately wanted to hear: “Don’t settle in! Don’t even unpack your bags! You’ll be back where you belonged in no time!”
One prophet in Jerusalem named Hananiah even announced, “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Within two years I will bring all the exiles back to this place.’”1
The Jewish prophets in Babylon cheered Hananiah on.
Only an old man in Jerusalem named Jeremiah and a young upstart in Babylon named Ezekiel disagreed. Jeremiah announced:
“This is what the Lord says: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.”
In other words: “It will be a long time” (Jer. 29:10, 28).
That message did not win Jeremiah any popularity contests.
One prophet in exile named Shemaiah sent letters to all the people and priests in Jerusalem, saying: “You should put any maniac who acts like a prophet into the stocks and neck-irons. So why have you not reprimanded Jeremiah from Anathoth, who poses as a prophet among you?”
Meanwhile, Jeremiah wrote to the exiles:
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the Lord (Jer. 29:8-9).
Scripture and history tell us the end of that story. Though the prophets that promoted a quick end to exile said they spoke for God, they did not. The man they called a maniac for urging, “Wait for God’s timing,” heard the Lord right.
A profound work
Both Ezekiel and Jeremiah delivered messages from the Lord to the exiles. The messages affirmed: God had not forgotten them. He had not left them. He saw how devastated, lonely and hopeless they felt. His words spoke life and hope to them. The post, “A Promise of Real Belonging,” explores God’s message in Ezekiel 11:14-21. In a nutshell, God said:
- I will be a sanctuary to you in exile.
- I will bring you back from where you’ve been scattered.
- As you wait for my timing, I will do a profound work in your hearts, so when you return from exile, you will not go back to the status quo. Rather, you will lead the way into right living and real relationship.
The older Jeremiah said even more emphatically: The transformative process can’t be rushed. And it cannot occur back “where you once belonged.” Your desire to belong again, and the pull to go along to get along, are too strong.
Further, both prophets clearly saw what was happening back in Jerusalem – and what lay ahead for the people there. Both knew: Even if the exiles could go back prematurely, to do so would be disaster.
Prophet of the weeping God
In Jerusalem, the heartlessness, abuse and denial that sent the exiles into exile had not abated, but rather had gotten worse. The target of the abuse was God himself. He was about to leave because of it – and not without warning.
For 30 years, Jeremiah, the prophet of the weeping God, had faithfully delivered messages to people with whom the Lord had made covenant – people whom he loved and who had persisted in acting toward him like an adulterous and treacherous spouse.
Now, he had exhausted every other option. Only one choice remained that would refuse to agree to abuse and, though devastating, would keep the door of redemption open.
Passionately, God had confronted his people’s abuse. He had expressed his anger at being treated so shabbily, with no hint of remorse or turning. Graphically, he had described what lay ahead if the people did not turn around. Repeatedly, he had pled for his own to return to him.
In anguish – and deep anger that it had come to this:
- God would withdraw from his Temple and his people in Jerusalem.2
- He would divorce the wife who had abandoned him and who continued to betray him.3
If those in exile had returned to Jerusalem when Hananiah predicted, they would have lived there just five years, under unspeakable conditions. Then, they would have experienced destruction and exile again, but far worse.
Bondage that masquerades as relationship
It’s normal to want exile to end quickly. It’s normal to ache to belong again. It feels strange, even wrong, not to try to find our way back to where we once belonged. We do it almost automatically.
But if you try to end exile prematurely – whether by giving in and going back to the same place, or by hurrying out to find another place where you think you will fit – you’ll likely find yourself right back in the same dysfunction and ungodliness that landed you in exile in the first place. You’ll find yourself re-enacting the same pain. It will likely be worse, and may be much harder to escape.
The work of exile – the work God wants to do through it – is to free you from bondage that masquerades as relationship, and to draw you to himself. Perhaps the hardest thing you can do in exile – and by far the most freeing – is to stay there until it has done its work.
Image by Public Co from Pixabay
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
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