Hope for Exiles

Over fifty years ago, John Lennon released the title track for his hit album Imagine. I’m sure by now we’ve all heard it before, I’ll spare you my karoke rendition. But in that song, Lennon describes the world which he dreamed of, his paradise, what he believed we could get to if we abandoned the dogmas, the greed, the borders, and the violence and just simply lived. While I don’t agree with his solutions in the least bit, Lennon does tap into something that we all experience. The song hangs on the reality that the world in which we live is not as we would have it. Things are not as they should be.

I do not think that I have to convince you of this reality. To say that the last three years have been hard is an understatement. Many of us have lost loved ones to one form of death or another. We have dealt with grief that is already hard enough as it is, during a time in which we haev all been pushed to our limits. We are still dealing with life this side of the pandemic. Our nerves are shot, are emotions are fragile, we are worn out. And we need only to turn on our televisions and see that it is not just isolated to us. There’s the economic instability, the rising prices, the shrinking dollar, the ongoing war in Ukraine, the bombings in the Middle East, tension in the government at all levels; it is very clear things are not as they should be.

This is why the Book of Ezekiel is for us this morning. It is a remarkable book, full of these vivid, and sometimes even crass word pictures. It is a book written before and during exile in Babylon, and Ezekiel has been taken along with them and the young king Jehoicin. Ezekiel is from a priestly family, and has trained for the last few years for service in the Temple. But now, taken from the promised land and from the Temple of God, his profession and future would seem to be doomed, right along side the rest of those who had come out. Could you imagine? Being attacked by a foreign army, seeing friends or family brutally killed, removed from everything you’ve known, and being led to a foreign land where life is radically different? Faced with the uncertainty of life, surely they felt things are not as they should be. We don’t have to speculate about what the emotional state of those who had been taken, they record it for us in Psalm 137 “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres. For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?”

This is the same question that we may be asking ourselves this morning. That tension; that longing that things are not as they should be, exists because we too are exiles and sojourners. Granted, we live in our own homes. We have not been conquered by invading armies. We go to work and school with relative ease. How can I say that we are exiles or sojourners. I say it because regardless of whatever our nationality, we are primarily citizens of the Kingdom of God. In John 17, Christ prays for us His people saying that we are not of the world. Paul takes up the same idea across several Epistles. In Ephesians 2 he says that we aren’t strangers and aliens from each other but in Christ we are “fellow citizens with the saints”. In Philippians he speaks of unbelievers who have minds set on earthly things and then contrasts it with, “But our citizenship is in heaven”. Peter urges us as “exiles and sojourners”. The author of Hebrews speaks of the saints living by faith, Heb 11:15-16 “If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” and later on says, “here we have no lasting city.” That while we may live in this earthly city, we are citizens of a better one. We feel the tension, we see the reality, we long for a better city. So then when faced with this tension, that things have gone wrong, that the world is broken, how should

What we will see this morning through the whole book of Ezekiel is that though we are surrounded by many temptations, because we are God’s people, we live as hopeful exiles waiting for our better city.

First, what are the temptations that we face while living as exiles? One way we are tempted is to doubt God. I don’t think it is a stretch to say that those who had been carried off in the first deportations would’ve questioned God’s love and care for them. They had been taken from their homes, had watched friends and family executed, and brought to a strange land. Their life was seemingly over. The wealth of the Temple had been taken for the treasure houses of Babylon, and they had been mocked by their captors. Often when a nation conquered another, it was also cast in these theological framework. If the Yahweh’s people were conquered and taken out of their land, then it would appear that Babylon’s gods were stronger than the Lord. This is what is meant in v. 20 of our text; the people profaned His name because it was said that the Lord couldn’t keep them there. Perhaps then God had abandoned them.

At the same time Jehoiachin was also brought into exile. The young heir of David had only reigned during the seige of Jerusalem, and was replaced by Babylon’s puppet, Zedekiah. But God had promised David hundreds of years before that he would always have an heir on the throne. His house would reign over Judah forever. But if the real king is here, and later even Zedekiah is removed, then surely many would think that the Lord has not kept His covenant. At the end of the day, all doubts have at their root the thought that God is not in control. They are based on the fear that we cannot trust Him. That He is not good. The exiles by the rivers of Babylon were tempted to see their surroundings and their circumstance and to say, “Where is God? Why has he abandoned us?”

But we too are tempted this way. We too see the chaos of this world, the wars, the instability, the brokenness that sin creates and are tempted to doubt that God will keep us. We are tempted to not trust that He blesses and keeps us. This can happen in moments of intense heartache or just living day to day. One of the hardest parts about grieving Allyson’s death was not just the fact that she was gone. It was that I was prone to believe that God had stopped caring for me. That He decided to take His hand off the wheel. But in the first three chapters of Ezekiel, God calls the priest now prophet while he is by those same rivers where the people wept.

Ezekiel 1:1-3 “In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin), the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there.”

In these early visions Ezekiel sees the glory of the Lord with him in Babylon. These fantastic visions of living creatures and a wheel within the wheel. God was not silent. God had words for His people. He had not sent them out into the wilderness to die. Though His glory would leave the Temple, He is not bound to such things. He has not abandoned us. In that same vision Ezekiel also sees someone in human likeness seated on what appears to be a throne in full splendor, like that of a rainbow, a sign of his Covenant promise to Noah. So then we should see not only does God come to His people, but He remains on his throne, keeping His covenant promises. We need not doubt God’s goodness to us, because even when we are in a place of hopelessness, He remains faithful to us and providentially cares for us.

Second, we are tempted to return and find our hope in the Earthly City. While some were taken in exile, there were still many who stayed in Judah, continuing to practice the same sins as they always had. From Chapters 3 through 24, this is the Lord’s indictment against them. They took the crops of the land, the gold and silver of the hills, and fashioned them into idols. In Chapter 16, God spells this out. He describes how he took the people who’s ancestors were nothing and gave them everything. Even the Temple, which God gave for their worship of Him was defiled and used for pagan worship. But they took the Lord’s blessings and trusted in idols. God here uses strong language comparing the people to and adulterous wife who found her hope in other lovers. Though they were God’s people, they found their hope and joy in their riches, in their safety, and in the false gods of their neighbors. These false gods Ezekiel calls “round things” what is most likely meant to be under stood as dung. The true worth of where the hope of the people lies in worthless filthy things.

Now for us, it is not so much that our neighbors call for us to adopt their pagan practices. Nobody would expect us to make an idol out of gold or wood. But they do call for us to replace our hope in God for hope in their city. Because they too feel the tension. The world also knows that everything is not as it should be. But they place their hope in a pantheon of little things in order to set everything right. If we could just find the right economic theory, we would all have enough. If we could just vote in the right party with the right policy we won’t feel as threatened. If our country can gain or maintain dominance, then we can guide everyone to the right direction. If we can enact the right social policy, then everyone will be happy.

Maybe it’s more local than that. Maybe they would have us hope that if we would just land this promotion. If our kids could just get into this school or on this team, then everything will be OK. If I can just buy this one thing, then maybe I’ll be happy and the world won’t seem as small. When we find our hope and security in stuff, experiences, people, parties, politics, and ideologies that the earthly city shows us, we are just as idolatrous as they are.

But we’re craftier than that. We’ve found a way to make our own idols with a veneer of God painted over them, and call it redeeming the culture. We’ve taken their idols and put them in temples that we’ve built and called it acceptable. How often do we equate the future or the cultural climate of our country to that of the Church? How often do we ourselves elevating our earthly citizenship above our heavenly one? How many times have we hear or seen, or even ourselves have declared the faith of someone illegitimate, not because they aren’t hoping Jesus, but because they hold to a different pet view than ours on any number of issues? How often do we let cultural boogeymen divide us from ourselves by calling something a “gospel issue” when it has nothing to do with the Gospel. How often do we seek the glory of performance and praise based on a standard that we’ve set up. How often to we base our own identity in others

I did not do well on my Hebrew paper,and found out Wednesday when Kevin and I talked about it. When he called around lunch to give me the heads up that I hadn’t done well and he wanted to talk, it was a small series of panic. I realized that I have a fear of disappointing my superiors. I have a pride issue rooted in the fear that if Kevin is disappointed in me, then I’ve lost my identity. If he’s not pleased with my paper or this sermon, if he doesn’t praise me, then I’m tempted to be anxious. If he’s not proud of me I’ve failed. I struggled with not having his acceptance in the moment. But what I had to be taught by the Spirit in that moment was that Kevin’s opinion of me, even in my abilities as a candidate for ministry does not speak a truer word of me than Christ. My hope cannot be found in acceptance or that I preached a good sermon or wrote a good paper; because even those good things become idols.

We must flee the temptation to find our hope in this city, because even if we paint it with a veneer of acceptability, is sin. And sin defiles us and profanes God’s name. And God in Ezekiel’s name vindicated His name by sending Babylon back to Judah. The glory of the Lord departed the Temple and Judah is thrown down. The Temple is destroyed. God does this to take away the things which Judah clung to that were not Him. He sends the rest of the nation into exile, removes them from the land so that they will learn that He alone is God.

Before doing this He calls Ezekiel to picture this in a dramatic way. Ezekiel 24:15-26 “The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, behold, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke; yet you shall not mourn or weep, nor shall your tears run down. Sigh, but not aloud; make no mourning for the dead. Bind on your turban, and put your shoes on your feet; do not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.” So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died. And on the next morning I did as I was commanded. And the people said to me, “Will you not tell us what these things mean for us, that you are acting thus?” Then I said to them, “The word of the Lord came to me: ‘Say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the delight of your eyes, and the yearning of your soul, and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword. And you shall do as I have done; you shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men. Your turbans shall be on your heads and your shoes on your feet; you shall not mourn or weep, but you shall rot away.

Their greatest joy taken from them, the height of their earthly glory, their sign of hope and blessing, gone. Judah is indeed destroyed, and elsewhere we see that it is essentially razed. The city, the walls, the Temple, are gone. Jerusalem is a wasteland.

We cannot cling to these idols or to this earthly home, because there is a Day coming where the Lord will judge the world. He will render His righteous judgement against those who do not repent of their sins. Ezekiel spoke of God coming to those nations who threatened Judah and participated in their destruction, they one day would be destroyed. That Tyre and Sidon would fade away. That Egypt would be thrown down. This promise comes and this is not done sadistically, rather it is so that the people learn to repent and turn to Him. Some would say in Ezekiel’s day, the Lord is not just. But a holy God vindicating His name is just. A holy God who does so in order to to call a people to repent of their sins, is just and gracious. Even in thirty-two chapters of indictment and vindication there is the plea of repentance and the promise to forgive and restore.

And yes, even this heartache, even the hardness of the last three years calls us to look to God by faith and to trust Him. The ongoing conflicts, though truly caused by the sins of wicked men, do also call us to seek the peace found in God. The economic fears of the city of man, call us to put or hope and security, in God instead of gold. God’s grace and forgiveness is not an oil drum, where the cost changes from day to day, there are no grace shortages in God’s Kingdom. His grace is free and His pardon is ours. So then yes, this world is not our country, it is not our city. So then we live as hopeful Exiles. Where do we find this hope?

We find it in Christ. Christian, the good news of the Gospel for you this morning is that God has sent His Son to bear the sins of His people. That Christ has, on the cross taken your sin and the wrath of God for that sin in your place, and by His death He has conquered sin, death and the Devil. And by the Spirit uniting us to Him He has made us citizens of His Kingdom. As His kingdom citizens we take heart of God’s promises

Ezekiel 36:24–38 ESV

I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel. “Thus says the Lord God: On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt. And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, instead of being the desolation that it was in the sight of all who passed by. And they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.’ Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the Lord; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it. “Thus says the Lord God: This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them: to increase their people like a flock. Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

God promises us in four things in Ezekiel 36 which we’ve read already, but they’re all wrapped up together. They’re hard to tease out. First is that we are given a new heart and a new spirit. Under the Law, the people of Ezekiel’s day found that they could not keep it. That they failed and sinner every day. And we too find that when we come to the Law, it condemns us. Our hearts are made hard by sin. But God has promised us His people that He will change our heart. He goes all the way back to Deuteronomy 30 and says I will bring you back and give you a heart that loves me, that obeys me. I will give you a new spirit so that you can walk in my ways. Though you are spiritually dead I will make you alive. You will be able to come back to me and walk in my ways. It is not that we have merited God’s favor, but by His grace He renews us and frees us to obey Him. And Christian, this is yours today. If you are looking to Him your heart longs for Him, you are free to obey today. We are free to seek t he good of our neighbor with God’s means. We walk in His holy ways because He has caused us to do so. So then we have hope because he has made us alive

Second, He promises to forgive our sins and cleanse us. He promises to wash us clean from everything that defiles us. The idols that we clung to God sets aside. And Christian, this too is already a reality for you. Christ has died and so therefore your sins are forgiven. No one can speak a truer word about you than what God has already said. Though we were guilty, filthy, and broken God has cleaned us and declared us holy. So then have hope! Because of the finished work of Christ, you are clean. There is no record of sin or condemnation hanging over your head. You’re forgiven.

Third we are declared to be and restored as His covenant people. God says that He will take all of His people from the nations and they will be gathered in and brought into God’s land. This morning what we should see is that we are exiles, but not alone. we are gathered as God’s people. He keeps us, He provides for us. God has called us to be His covenant people, and it is in the Church that we see this the clearest. This, this service this morning is God’s Kingdom visibly in the world. We are His people. This who we are. This Day of the Week is our holiday, where we rest as God’s people from the labors of the world. This baptismal water is our birth certificate, where God declares His promises to us that we are His people. This meal is His pledge of allegiance to us, a visible sign that Christ has died for us and therefore we declare in it that everyone in Christ is our fellow citizen. We are the Temple that Ezekiel saw in glory and splendor. The spiritual house being built on the foundation of Christ. This is the reality. This is home. This is where we belong. So then we should take heart. Because we do not walk as exiles alone.

But finally, we see that He promises us a better land to come. God has promised that when He judges the world of sin, He will also restore the earth back to a better Eden. With sin destroyed, He will set all things right. He will make all things new. We wait we eager joy knowing that one day everything sad will become untrue. That death will not put us to grief. That wars will be a distant memory, and weapons will be our harvesting tools. That there will be no sickness, no heartache. Christ will dwell with us and we will live forever in our better city. There is a day coming when we are restored and delivered, and make it home into our better city. So we take take heart. For Christ has died, and by his death we are cleansed, forgiven, made alive, and united together. And one day we won’t be exiles, but Kingdom Citizens, and everything will be as it should be.