The Greatest Story - In Exile

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The Kingdom of Israel in a nutshell

David - GREAT king

Solomon - also a good king

Rehoboam - Solomon’s son. Not a great king. The kingdom divides.

Series of successive kings, that generally walk between ‘I guess they’re not horrible’ and ‘they are SUPER bad’. eventually, the assyrians destroy the northern kingdom, and just Judah is left in the south.

Israel Going into Exile

Jeremiah 25:4–7 NIV

And though the Lord has sent all his servants the prophets to you again and again, you have not listened or paid any attention. They said, “Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and your evil practices, and you can stay in the land the Lord gave to you and your ancestors for ever and ever. Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not arouse my anger with what your hands have made. Then I will not harm you.” “But you did not listen to me,” declares the Lord, “and you have aroused my anger with what your hands have made, and you have brought harm to yourselves.”

Israel had reached a tipping point where there was no more remedy

So there’s this thing going on in Israel. They had walked completely away from God. They were worshipping other Gods, mocked people who stayed faithful to God, and were generally doing evil things.

Says it well:

2 Chronicles 36:15-16 “The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.”

And so here we see a different side of God fighting for His plan for humanity.

Sometimes there’s a fix. And sometimes there isn’t. And God has pity and mercy on people - but he’ still has a rescue plan.

So with Israel, God got to this point of saying - there’s no more remedy here. He WANTS a remedy, he WANTS to restore people - but they don’t want to be restored.

So God outlines the next steps of the plan:

Jeremiah 25:11 NIV

This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

And this may seem harsh, but you’ve gotta put it in context. God’s already pointed out - they’re past the point of remedy here

This isn’t physiotherapy - this is amputation. Worst case scenario.

And if anything, this shows how much God really does have a plan.

MY KIDS - If I didn’t want anything good for them, I wouldn’t bother ever correcting them.

Even in judgment, God did not abandon his people or His plan

Jeremiah 29:10 NIV

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.

So God says, don’t worry, there’s a cap on this. And when this time is finished - I’ll be able to bring you back in.

It’s really important to understand THIS context when we read the next verse:

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

This is such a famous verse. And it’s used really badly all the time.

When we hear this, we picture God standing and handing over the card to an unlimited bank account, a handful of travel tickets and a set of car keys. ‘Don’t worry’, God says, ‘I’m doing whatever I can to make sure you’re prosperous’.

In this picture, God has just sent Israel to it’s room for 70 years, and as Israel sits in despair, he reminds them - I still have a plan that will result in your prosperity. I am making you a future and building you a reason to hope through this’.

God is reassuring an unrepentant israel -even though they’ve totally abandoned HIM - He will never abandon them

What is it God is holding out for? What’s the end goal here?

Jeremiah 29:12–14 NIV

Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

So he’s making a double promise. He’s saying,

First, that through this, you’ll learn to come back to me. And that’s the big goal here.

The big problem is, they’ve turned away. And the big goal is, that they would turn back. Not that God would get rid of them - that God could finally have them back again.

Second, that in coming back to me, you WILL succeed, you will find me. And remember, God is telling this to a group of people who had just been punished - severely - for completely rejecting God.People who had no interest at all in talking to God - God was telling them, He was ready to listen, and he’d respond when they were ready to talk.

How does this translate today? If we don’t obey God in our life, he’s going to send us to exile?

God’s biggest priority is on the inside, and our relationship with Him

God’s not here to pad our bank accounts. It’s not His goal for us to be able to say, ya, God really did everything I wanted Him to!

So, even when talking about exile and punishment, God says, ‘Don’t worry, i know what I’m doing. I’m aiming to prosper you , to give you a hope and a future.’

That God, in prospering us, is attempting to bring us into further reliance on Him. And God, even through the bad times, is attempting to bring us into further reliance on Him.

Romans 8:28 sums it up really well

Romans 8:28 NIV

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

We can be confident that in every situation - bad or good - God’s plan works towards strengthening and deepening our relationship with Him.

but the key is, that we respond. We say, God, I want to grow closer to you, no matter what. I want to follow you, I want to do what You want me to do.

And here’s a secret I’ve learned over the years.

What we DEFAULT to is basing our thoughts about God on our outside circumstances

God must not be good if BLANK or God is only good if BLANK

We’ve got it backwards.

We should base how we see the world on God

God is good, and so even in this, God will do His work

Suddenly, challenges aren’t times where we doubt God. They’re times where we expect God.

But, on the flip side, the GOOD times become reminders that we serve a god who’s even BETTER