These are unsettling times in which to live. We are home more than ever due to the pandemic, yet less at home in our lives in many ways. Upheaval seems a constant in social and political realms. What do we name this sense of being displaced from what we assumed was normal? Who can be our guides in navigating everchanging landscapes? In the past few weeks, I have been drawn to the biblical stories of exile. Here we find people who know what it is like to live with uncertainty. And here we also find hope in unexpected places.
What does it mean to be in exile? There are many ways people experience some degree of displacement.
1) prolonged separation from one's home by circumstances or authoritative decree
2) banishment
3) loss of control over where you live or belong
4) dislocation and separation from what is familiar (voluntary or involuntary)
5) physical exile (removed from home and land)
6) exile in your own home (under foreign occupation, travel restrictions)
7) social exile (cast out from society)
8) spiritual exile (separation from God or religious community)
9) interior exile (not at home in your own life)
10) financial exile (excluded from access to housing, jobs, resources, etc.)
Some contemporary examples of exile are refugees fleeing dangerous homelands, indigenous people displaced by colonizers, and people in prison. Biblical examples of people in exile abound: Adam and Eve dislodged from the garden, Cain expelled from his family, the slave woman Hagar sent into the wilderness with her son, Ruth voluntarily leaving her homeland to adopt a new country and religion, Mary and Joseph protecting their young family by fleeing to Egypt, and lepers who were relegated to living outside the city.
The most persistent biblical example of exile is found in the nation of Israel itself. Rabbi Dovie Schochet notes that "For almost as long as the Jewish nation has existed, it has been persecuted and forced to wander from land to land: starting with slavery in Egypt, to the destruction of both temples in Jerusalem, to the Crusades, the pogroms, the Holocaust, and finally, modern day anti-Semitism." [1]
One of the exiles mentioned in the Hebrew Bible took place in the 6th century BCE. It began when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem and took thousands of the highest-ranked, skilled, learned Israelites to Babylon (the book of Daniel recounts this). The general labourers remained behind, but all metalworkers were exiled so that no weapons could be crafted. Those left in Israel came under the rule of King Zedekiah and soon began to talk of rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah warned against an uprising but was not heeded. Nebuchadnezzar soon quashed the rebellion and sent the remaining people into exile in Babylon. People were devastated by the accumulated losses: their place of worship, their way of life, their freedom, their homes, and those killed in the failed rebellion. Psalm 137 expresses their sense of desolation: "By the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept when we remembered Zion."
The anguish of Israel's exile went beyond the discomfort caused by geographical dislocation. The people of Israel feared that they had been abandoned by God. Rabbi Schochet writes: "On a deeper level, the tragedy of galut [exile] isn't limited to physical displacement, and is not necessarily defined by persecution and suffering. Galut is a time when G-d's presence is concealed, when nearly all perceptible traces of the relationship we share with Him have vanished. We don't feel or see G-d's love for us, and we don't really feel like His children." [1]
In difficult, unsettling times, people look for good news, for messages from God. The book of Jeremiah records two such messages from two different prophets. The first was a message to the exiles still in Israel, spoken in the despoiled temple. The second was to the exiles already in Babylon.
Message one:
"Early in
the rule of Judah’s King Zedekiah, in the fifth month of his fourth year, the
prophet Hananiah, Azzur’s son from Gibeon, spoke … in the Lord’s temple
before the priests and all the people. He said: 'The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: I have
broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. In two years I will restore to
this place all of the temple equipment that Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar
carted off to Babylon. I will also restore to this place Judah’s King
Jeconiah, Jehoiakim’s son, along with all the exiles from Judah who were deported
to Babylon, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon, declares
the Lord.'" (Jeremiah 28: 1-4, CEB)
Message two:
"The prophet
Jeremiah sent a letter from Jerusalem to the few surviving elders among the
exiles, to the priests and the prophets, and to all the people Nebuchadnezzar
had taken to Babylon from Jerusalem. … 'The Lord of
heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims to all the exiles I have carried
off from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and settle down; cultivate
gardens and eat what they produce. Get married and have children; then
help your sons find wives and your daughters find husbands in order that they
too may have children. Increase in number there so that you don’t dwindle
away. Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile.
Pray to the Lord for it, because your future depends on its welfare….
The Lord proclaims: When Babylon’s seventy years are up, I will come
and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.'" (Jeremiah 29: 1-7,10, CEB)
Note the differences between the two messages. One claims that in only two short years, all will be restored. The other tells people to make a home in their place of dislocation because many long years of exile lie ahead of them. The first posits that God will soon break the yoke of their oppressor. The second urges people to work for the wellbeing of their oppressor's city because their future depends on it. The first requires nothing of its hearers but to passively sit back and watch God fight on their behalf. The second insists that the hearers do the hard work of home-making in a foreign place.
If you were in exile, which message would you want to hear? That things will go back to normal in two years or that people will be living in displacement for the next few generations? If we are honest, most of us would probably prefer having our ears tickled with the promise of a quick solution rather than having to do the hard work of reordering our lives in a strange and unfriendly place. In the story in Jeremiah, the first message is found to be false and the second message is identified as legitimate, enduring the test of time.
It is not difficult to identify these two different messages in our current world. Certain political and religious leaders are eager to promise a quick return to normalcy with minimum effort. The more difficult message to hear is the one that requires us to act in ways which not only acknowledge the present suffering but require us to rethink how we live in this world. What does it mean to make a home in a place of dislocation and separation? How do we find God in this uncertain place, especially when we are prone to thinking of God as the one who easily fixes all our problems?
Let's go back to Jeremiah's message (the second one) and read to the end. This is what God says to people experiencing long-term dislocation and separation.
"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. I know the
plans I have in mind for you, declares the Lord; they are plans for peace,
not disaster, to give you a future filled with hope. When you call me and
come and pray to me, I will listen to you. When you search for me, yes,
search for me with all your heart, you will find me. I will be present for
you, declares the Lord, and I will end your captivity. I will gather you
from all the nations and places where I have scattered you, and I will bring
you home after your long exile, declares the Lord. (Jer. 29:10-14, CEB)
Too often, I have heard this message taken out of context to suggest that God has good plans for me personally, that all of my dreams will be fulfilled and God will make my life wonderful. It is often separated from the hard work of calling, coming, praying, listening, searching, and finding God in a godforsaken place. It is rarely presented as a message meant to bring hope to a hopeless community faced with the difficult, long-term task of starting life over after devastating loss and upheaval.
This is no message of quick fixes. There is no instant gratification here. There is no easy solution on offer. But there is hope. And an invitation to live. By planting gardens and eating the fruit of those labours. By getting married and having children. By taking care of the next generation and the next. And by praying and working for the wellbeing of our city, our country, and our world.
Our future depends on it.
----------------
1. Dovie Schochet, "Discover the Four Exiles of the Jewish People," Chabad.org.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3671017/jewish/Discover-the-Four-Exiles-of-the-Jewish-People.htm
Comments