A Recall Election?

Many Are Called...

One of the toughest jobs out there, at least in terms of getting meaningful work, is to be an actor. Think of how many people have dreams of moving to places like New York or LA and striking it big, catching their break and making a name for themselves? I think that’s what the allure of programs like American Idol or The Voice is as well. We live vicariously through the people on the stage facing improbable odds of getting their name out there and making it big.

But often the reality of folks who try to make it on Broadway or in LA is far more tragic than it is triumphant, right? These folks end up taking day jobs like being a waitress or maybe even a cab driver to make ends meet and then in their spare time pursue their passion to be a big star. And every spare dollar they have goes to things like acting lessons, agents, head shots, and other expenses to pursue their passion.

In acting and in professional music, many are called but very few are chosen. And from the perspective of the Old Testament at least, you might get the impression that God was sort of like that too. Many people lived in the earth at the time that Abraham received his summons by God. In fact, Abraham, in the city of Ur of the Chaldeans, was among tens of thousands of people. God could have converted the whole city to the truth at once and had a great big family to start with.

But our God works in what we call mysterious ways, right? God never seems to take what looks to us like the logical path. God is not interested in showy or flashy. Instead, God is involved in the mundane, the earthy. And God often doesn’t go to kings and prelates but instead to the underdogs of the world. God looks at the heart of the matter and not to things like position, power, or prestige.

And so God found something in the heart of a person like Abraham that spoke to God’s heart. So God called Abraham—God chose Abraham—God elected Abraham to be the founder of God’s new people.

This idea of election makes some people uncomfortable. And, historically in the church, it has been the cause of division among otherwise agreeable brothers and sisters. You see there is a great divide among how people view the notion of God’s election of individuals to salvation.

On one side, represented by the Reformed and Presbyterian churches are those who believe that God sovereignly elects only those God chooses to come to salvation. In this view, human free will has become so corrupt that no one can choose God on their own, so that the Spirit must be at work to make this person’s calling unto salvation effective. In this view only those God chooses make it to the Kingdom of God and the rest are outside salvation and ultimately lost.

On the other side is the Wesleyan view, what we share with the broader Wesleyan view as United Methodists. Under this view we would agree that in our natural selves we cannot choose God on our own. However, by the working of the Spirit, all people have the chance through grace to make a free choice to follow God. Now, God in his omniscience, his ability to know all the future possibilities ahead of time, knows who will choose salvation and therefore elects them for salvation.

This is one of those key debates that splits one denomination from another. But for most Christians, a debate like this is above their pay grade. We are more concerned with building God’s Kingdom and bringing good news to people to hear it. But a debate like this does go a long way to demonstrating what God was doing in Israel, right?

God chose Israel above all the other nations. God elected Israel. But God chose Israel specifically because she was not great, not large, not even holy or righteous. Remember, as St. Paul says, “God chooses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.” If I were God I might have chosen Babylon or Assyria, strong military powers to rule the world. But thankfully, I am not God and God chose instead to work through this small, insignificant, and stubborn to the point of intransigent people.

But that Exile though?

But at this point we need to ask ourselves the fact that Israel was allowed to be taken into captivity had on this notion of election. Remember that the Northern Kingdom of Israel was taken into captivity in 722 BCE and other people came in and took their place in the land. So these people were now written out of God’s story, and the story narrows down to a small remnant of people, folks who had made their home in the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

And this people of Judah, while they did live in their land for a while longer, about a century and a half longer, they too went into exile right? God promised that it would happen through the prophets like Habbakuk and Jeremiah, and sure enough, Nebuchadnezzar and his forces came in 586 and destroyed the Temple and took everything away to Babylon, including most of the people—except for the very poorest.

Can we still say that God has chosen Israel? Can we still talk about something like election when it comes to God’s people? Remember this promise to Abraham had three dimensions. First was the land of Israel itself. Well, Israel was no longer on the land. Then there was the promise of many sons and daughters. That had happened but now the few that remained were but a stump of the great tree that was Israel and Judah at their heights. And the final piece of Abraham’s promise was the blessing of the nations. How can one bless the nations when you are in captivity?

God’s Power is Manifest in Weakness

We have to remember though that we are not dealing with the gods of the nations when we read the Old Testament. Our God does not do “flashy” or “showy” in the ways that the gods of wealth, and power, and privilege like to show off. Israel was never going to be the dominant force on the world stage. Israel was never going to be a superpower, that’s not how God rolls.

Instead, Israel was elected by God to demonstrate God’s ways. God works through virtues that go against conventional wisdom. When the world chooses to advance through power, God works in weakness. When the world chooses to advance through wealth, God shows us how the poor can thrive in ways unimaginable by the rich. When the world shows us that might makes right, God shows us that God’s own power is made perfect in the weakness of a child born in poverty, under military occupation, under scandalous circumstances.

So maybe, just maybe, God’s people Israel was at the right place for God to try again. Perhaps the exile had humbled them. Perhaps they were ready to get down to the very real business of seeking justice, loving mercy, and walking in humility with God?

God was willing to try again because God is incredibly patient. God had been dealing with Abraham and his family now for nearly fifteen hundred years. God was willing to give them even more time to make it right.

Post-Exilic Princes and Priests

In our Scriptures today, we learn of just how God is going to get the people back in the land. God knows that the people themselves did not have the capacity to earn the right to get back to Judah. No, the people had begun to live lives there like Jeremiah asked them too. And maybe some of them got a little bit too comfortable, had assimilated too far.

But by this time the Babylonians no longer ruled the territory. A new superpower had arisen. The Persians, a people from what is modern-day Iran had destroyed the Babylonians and taken over their empire. An unlike Babylon, they were a more tolerant people. And God worked through this circumstance to give the people hope.

Cyrus, a new ruler of the Persians, issued a decree that the people would be allowed to return to their land. And what is more, the people were able to rebuild their houses of worship.

Now, from the Bible, it looks like just Israel was allowed to return to their land and rebuild the Temple. That’s because the Old Testament, as one might expect, is wholly focused on the fate of post-exilic Israel and Judah. But we know from archaeological evidence that Cyrus allowed many people to do the same. This is one of the key events, in fact, where archaeology demonstrates something found in Scripture.

In our Scriptures we meet several key figures who played a part in rebuilding Israel. First we meet Ezra, a devoted priest who becomes a leading religious figure in restoring true worship of God to the land of Judah. Ezra returned to the land and instructed the people in the right way of worship. And then there is Nehemiah. Nehemiah was a high official in the Persian Empire and asks the emperor to return to the land and to help the people rebuild the city of Jerusalem, including its walls.

In the end, Ezra and Nehemiah work together as prince and priest to rebuild not only the city of Jerusalem or the land of Judah but the people of God themselves. Nehemiah, as governor encourages the people to stay the course in the face of much opposition to rebuild the city. And Ezra helps rebuild the people spiritually. Ezra and the other religious leaders instruct the people in the Law of God and lead them into a renewal of the Covenant.

Post-Exilic Prophets

But to say that everything went well during the return because the Temple and the walls got rebuilt in the end would be to gloss over all the difficulties that actually occurred.

You see, the people who remained in Judah and the people that had been imported there were not eager to see things rebuilt. And they worked against the rebuilding. And some of the officials in the land too worked against the rebuilding efforts.

And the building of the Temple at one point stopped for nearly seventeen years. Then God did what God does best, raising up prophets to instruct, to challenge, to preach to the people. That’s what is happening in Haggai. Haggai was prophesying to not just the people but to the leaders as well telling them to continue with the work.

And in the end, the Temple was rebuilt. But the people wept when it was built. And these were not tears of joy. They were tears of sadness because the people who remembered the former Temple thought the new one a shoddy representation of once was. They liked the Old Temple better. They felt the New was not worthy of God or of a proud people.

Is the Exile Over?

And this is where the Old Testament ends. It ends on a note of uncertainty. What would the people do? They were in the land yes, but they were not free, they were not independent. They were promised many descendants and now they were very few. What would happen to the remnant? And how could they bless the people if they were impoverished in both spirit and possessions?

And would the people follow the Law of Moses,would they live as people of the Torah? How would the story end?

And that is where we leave the story today…on a true cliff hanger. Israel is back in the land of Promise but do they trust in the Promise? Can they wait until the Promised One comes? After forgiveness, there is a lot of work to do...