The Exile Reveals the God Who Gives More Grace

In our journey through the biblical narrative so far, we have discovered the God of Creation, the God who Redeems, and the God who Draws Near. We can trace God’s plan of redemption from the very beginning, and we understand that God desired his people to live life wholly with him from the very beginning.

Unfortunately, Israel is not a faithful people. Despite the obvious miracles of the Exodus and the repeated victories over enemies in the wilderness, they are enticed by the gods of the nations around them. In the Ancient Near Eastern world, paganism made more sense than monotheism; everyone knew that the gods ruled over a specific geographical region or a certain realm of society, like fertility, agriculture, or war.

It didn’t matter how often YHWH demonstrated his power over all creation. The people of Israel didn’t seem to care how often God defeated the gods of the nations around them by performing a supernatural victory. They worshipped God for a time, but always returned to the gods of the nations.

There are a few reasons for this, I suppose.

Firstly, the gods of the nations were tangible. You could see their images set up in their temples. YHWH, on the other hand, refused to allow Israel to set up an image in his temple. This is one of the Ten Commandments: “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.” (Ex. 20:4-5)

Of course, if we recall our study in Genesis, we will remember that YHWH did set up his own image in his temple; this image was called humanity, and they were placed in the original temple of God—the garden.

When the tabernacle was built, the only pieces of furniture in it were items that directed worshippers back to garden imagery. There was a table for bread, symbolizing the provision of God; the lampstand was formed like a tree, signifying the many trees in the garden of Eden; the altar of incense recalled the past relationship between God and humanity, where conversations and prayers occurred without shame; the ark of the covenant was God’s seat among his people, symbolizing God’s presence walking among them. The only humans to enter this space were the consecrated, holy priesthood.

Secondly, the rituals required by the gods of the nations were oddly self-satisfying. You can’t argue that a deity who demands cult prostitution as an act of worship will garner more interest than a God who demands ritual purity and an obsession with cleanliness.

The Levitical worship rituals and Deuteronomic covenant reminded the people of the costs and benefits involved in worshipping this God. In short, the people were to live differently from the nations around them. They were to care for the poor and foreigners, treat one another justly, and live in a rhythm of work and rest that trickled down into rest for both the labourer and the land (c.f. Lev. 19, Mic. 8:6). It was a more difficult way of worship than pagan worship, which discarded the poor and vulnerable as insignificant.

The boons of this covenant included God’s provision and protection for the entire nation and all who lived within their borders.

If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. (Deut. 28:1-6)

But like any good ANE vassal treaty, there were conditions which, if failed to be met, would result in disaster.

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 on you and overtake you: You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. (Deut. 28:15-19)

As Israel stood poised to finally enter their Promised Land, their leader, Joshua, knew with certainty that the people would fail to uphold their end of the bargain.

Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.
But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.”
Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.”
“Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied.
“Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”
And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.” (Josh. 24:19-24)

The irony is thick. The people of Israel were insistent on their obedience to God, despite their recent history in the wilderness having revealed dramatic deviances from the covenant. Does anyone recall the golden calf? The complaining about a lack of food and water? The lack of faith from the ten spies? The numerous plagues cast upon the people for their idolatry?

Joshua is right; the people are unable to serve the LORD their God.

The cycle of the judges reveals God’s mercy to his people time and again as they abandon and return to him.

The provision of a king reveals God’s long-suffering as he gives the people exactly what they asked for, and in response, the people spiral into a broken system of errant and corrupt kings.

Even so, God’s mercy is abundant as he chooses a single, faithful man who set the pattern for kings to follow—David, the boy shepherd who became king.

“‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’” (2 Sam. 7:11-16)

Do you see it? Do you see God’s plan of salvation for his wayward people in the anointing of his king? God’s promises are faithful despite the unfaithfulness of his nation.

However, if you know the biblical story, you know that the king fails. David has a less-than-impressive history, and the kings who follow him look more like the kings of the pagan nations than the image of the faithful God.

Sigh.

What are we to do? Will the people never learn? Will they insist on their own selfishness, idolatry, greed, lust, and ambition?

My heart cries out with broken angst as the people are finally led away to exile, captured and defeated by the Assyrian and Babylonian powers. How could they let it get so bad? Why didn’t they turn and repent?

The temple is shattered; God dwells among them no more.

In the cries of the psalmist, the nation of Israel weeps, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far from my deliverance and from my words of groaning?” (Ps. 22:1)

The people are torn from their land and their place of worship. In the ANE, where the deity was geographically tied to the land, it appears that the God of Israel had been defeated.

I used to think that the Exile was God’s punishment on Israel for their years of unfaithfulness and disobedience. I saw it as a crushing of his people because, after all, God is a jealous God, and he’d had enough.

I don’t read it this way anymore.

Instead, I see a God who was patient, waiting hundreds of years for his people to return to him.

I see a God who was merciful, relenting from enacting justice whenever they showed so much as a flicker of repentance.

I see a God who was faithful to his covenant—the terms were laid out in Deuteronomy, so the people really shouldn’t have been surprised.

I see a God who weeps over his people and longs for them to know him.

I see a God whose heart is for redemption, reconciliation, and relationship.

This is what the Lord says, he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the Lord Almighty is his name:
“Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,” declares the Lord “will Israel ever cease being a nation before me.”
This is what the Lord says: “Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done,” declares the Lord. (Jer. 31:35-37)

What undeserved grace! What matchless love!

As the remnant of Israel marches to the land of their captivity, we see a God who relentlessly pursues his people. They return to slavery, awaiting a new Exodus to bring them home again. Ever so slowly, the remnant of the faithful remembered their God. You might argue that there was always a faithful remnant, and you’d be correct. There were always at least some faithful prophets and kings in the history of wayward Israel.

Psalm 137 says it well: “By the rivers of Babylon—there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion.” (Ps. 137:1)

From within this sorrow and utter scattering, a new faith was born. Isaiah casts a vision of a new Israel into which all nations who follow YHWH are welcome (c.f. Is. 56:3-8). Jeremiah declares the possibility of a new covenant written on the hearts of humans rather than on tablets of stone (c.f. Jer. 31:31-35). Ezekiel prophesies a new city that is named “The LORD is There,” out of which a river of life flows to the far corners of the earth (c.f. Ezek. 47:1-12, 48:35).

Through exile, God removed his hand of protection on Israel, allowing them the disastrous consequences of their idolatrous actions. This is God’s justice.

Yet, justice is not complete without redemption. In fact, you might argue that God’s justice is always followed by a plea for reconciliation and repentance. Israel’s exile is not for the sake of punishment, but for yet another chance to return to their God.

(As an aside, please note that I’m using ‘Israel’ to denote the entire Hebrew people, not merely the northern kingdom of Israel.)

Through exile, Israel gains something else—the opportunity to reveal their God to the nations of their captivity. We see this in the stories of Daniel and Esther, as they maintained their faith despite the empire’s courtly expectations. Jeremiah exhorts the captive people to settle down and seek the peace and prosperity of the city where they find themselves (Jer. 29:4-7). There are suggestions that non-Jews joined the return of Israel to their ancestral lands (c.f. Neh. 7:61-65, Ezra 2:59), just as the Egyptians once joined Israel in their exodus.

So we see that the Exile was God’s pouring out of wrath on his own people for their disobedience, but that’s not the end of the story. There is hope and redemption even in exile. There is mercy and grace.

The God who created, who hears, and who draws near is the God who gives more grace to his undeserving people.

If that’s not the gospel of salvation, I don’t know what is.

The Cross and the Quill is all about diving deep into various theological topics and considering how the biblical and historical context informs how we think about these things. If you liked this article, consider sharing it with your friends or subscribing to the newsletter below!

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