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Exile

This past Sunday we looked at Jeremiah's letter to the Exiles living in Babylon, in Jeremiah 29. We learned how difficult exile conditions are and how we are prone to long for deliverance instead of the Deliverer. God told the Exiles to make homes for themselves and live their lives - live deeply, live well, live lives of faith trusting in Him - His presence, His power, and His plan.

At the time we are not able to see the end from the beginning. That is why we live by faith, not by sight. Things were bleak and hopeless for the Exiles from Judah. Many years before, the Assyrians had taken the citizens of the northern Kingdom of Israel into exile and relocated foreigners to the Promised Land. The Ten Tribes of Israel were scattered across the globe by the Assyrians and lost to the sands of time. Jewish communities did sprout up all over the world but they were scattered, disconnected, and only a shadow of the the people they once were. The Jews from Judah expected the same to happen to them.

The Persians conquered the Babylonians, and those of you familiar with Ezra and Nehemiah know that the Persians let the Jews go back to the Promised Land. Not everyone wanted to go, and not everyone did. But God did send back to the Land a faithful Remnant from whom Christ would come.

The Greeks rose to power and then the Romans. The Jews living in the remote parts of the Roman Empire could now travel back to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple rebuilt by Herod. So they came from all over the world - Jews from communities located in Asia, Asia Minor, North Africa, and from across Europe. They traveled in the safety of Roman protection; they traveled on Roman roads connecting the ends of the Empire together; they spoke and read a common language, Greek, in addition to the language of the lands in which they lived. They went to Jerusalem to worship.

On one particular occasion as the mass of travelers where in Jerusalem, a group of people stood up in their midst and began preaching to them about a man named Jesus, who they said was the Christ, who died on the cross and was now alive through the power of God. These travelers heard this Spirit-filled gospel message in their own languages. Some in the crowd thought the speakers were drunk until one of them, a fisherman who was obviously from Galilee stood up and set the record straight and called them to believe in Jesus. We know that over 3000 people did believe and then made their way back across the Empire.

Later, Christian missionaries, like Paul, would encounter these Jewish communities as they traveled. And in this way the gospel message spread across the world and you and I are believers today because of it. This is our heritage, our roots. You and I are rooted in the Exile.

What grand plan is God working out on the pages of human history right now in the midst of your exile conditions? You will know it and experience it when you choose to live by faith and not by sight.

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