The Exiles Next Door: Singing the Lords Song in a Foreign Land

In her post, she challenged some current approaches to this context such as imagining ourselves at war with the culture around us and she made some helpful suggestions as to alternative responses [1]. I appreciated her call for us to embrace this uncomfortable 'place' and as she referenced Jeremiah Could being exiled actually be a call to to engage with those around us and to discover anew that God is at work in the world beyond the church, and that there is holy ground right where we live, where He has sent us to remain?

Such a word also speaks to us today. The Garden of Eden, the Promised Land, the city on the hill, the house with many rooms, the streets of gold: We are made to inhabit. It is where [my child] will grow up and I will grow old. It is the shaping and defining place in which we are to live Christ together. As Holt observes— no matter how Babylonian we might imagine it to be,.

To be found together in a place as the people of God is to shift from an attractional enterprise to an incarnational posture. What we often consider to be the concerns of the spiritual life—ideas, truths, prayers, promises, beliefs—are never in the Christian gospel permitted to have a life of their own apart from particular persons and actual places. The New Testament church reflects this reality: The congregations are all identified by their place. In fact, the only factor that separates the church in the first century unlike today is geography.

Paul, Silas and Timothy have moved into the pagan Greek metropolis of Thessalonica and immersed themselves in the life and culture of its residents. Later Paul writes to this new little community.

His letter depicts the humble, alongside posture that he, Silas and Timothy assumed in the neighbourhood as bearers of good news 1 Thessalonians 2: NL has tried to imagine what it means to love our neighbours so much. Paul seems to equate it with being like family, describing their relationships with the Thessalonians, as children among, as a mother feeding and caring, and as a father, pleading, urging and encouraging 2: The intimate relationality of sharing life dominates, reflecting the nature of the Triune Communion.

There is also an authenticity to their faithful presence: Paul and the other disciples are not deceitful not trying to attract with great events or false promises ; they never use flattery, are not greedy for self-aggrandizement, and work hard among the people so as not to be burden. The description of their practices reminds us of the instructions given to the seventy in Luke There is a sense that to bring good news we need to BE good news.

Many, if not all, NL Community would describe their neighbours in a similar way. Jesus, the Incarnate One, always had time for interruptions. We all know how that approach has turned out, for the most part. Sent to Seek the Welfare of the Place. Priests of the Neighbourhood. The people of God, we can then conclude, are sent to a particular place to inhabit and bless it. Once again, we are released from the laity paradigm of the modern church and invited to participate with the Spirit right where we live.

Please try again later. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. It makes you think. It does make you think of your mindset and your attitude as a Christian while living here on earth. This inspirational book is chock-full of thought-provoking information and ideas. I like the fact that this book made me think It also made me reflect on my own life, my personal Christian values and where I fit into the big scheme of things. I often choose to refer to my 'isms' as being a "follower of Christ" or even a "soldier of Christ" instead of calling myself a Christian.

It seems that calling ourselves Christians can almost have a negative connotation rather than the positive one it was meant to be. This description pretty well fits some of the analysis of how we behave as Christians with Sam Whittaker's take on things. I very much agree that, at times, Christians do create exiles or marginalize others who don't agree with their own beliefs or who are different.

In doing so, we can indeed, do great damage and create barriers by trying to convince these people to think like we do. I find that I agree with this author on several occasions as he questions the example we set by our behavior and how it affects those around us. As Christians, do we really emulate Christ? This is the big question that Sam Whittaker is basically asking Not too long ago, one of my granddaughters received an award at school.

It was the WWJD award.

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I had no idea what she was talking about when she shared this good news with me. She then told me what the initials stand for What Would Jesus Do. In other words, how would He act if He were in our shoes? All we need to do is look around us at some of the church structures today and ask that very question. In my opinion, Sam Whittaker's goal is to get his reading audience to reflect on what he has to say and then act To paraphrase his words, eternity starts in the here and now. The text does not mention new or renewed construction. Ezra gathered many of the families of Israel to travel to Jerusalem.

When they were gathered he discovered that there were no Levites to serve as priests among them. When the Levites were located the Lord God blessed them with a family of Levite musicians. The gold and silver was delivered to the priests already there in Jerusalem, weighed-out and distributed in the precise amounts with which they had begun. Ezra delivered the papers from the king to his local officials who then provided assistance to the Israelites in the reconstruction of the temple. Ezra was informed by some of the leaders that many of their fellow leaders, and the general population of Israelites, had both intermarried with the local peoples and mixed their pagan religions in with their right-worship of the Lord God.

He was shocked and tore his clothes, hair, and beard and then sat silent the rest of the day. At the time for the evening offering Ezra cried-out to the Lord God his remembrance of all that He had done for Israel, the many offenses of Israel, His recent restoration of Israel to rebuild the temple, and now the latest offense of Israel against Him.

The high priest confessed the sin of the people to Ezra and proposed that they separate from their foreign spouses.

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All of those of Judah and Benjamin were required to gather within three days or lose fellowship and property. They gathered, trembling in a cold rain, and with an even greater trembling before an offended God. Their leaders asked for time to make arrangements for their foreign wives and three months later the process had been completed. How blessed will be the one who repays you for what you dished out to us! How blessed will be the one who grabs your babies and smashes them on a rock!

It was a symbolic cry for vengeance. The residents in the region surrounding Jerusalem had included the worship of the God of the Israelites in addition to their many false gods, so this would have been an amplification of that worship, rather than something entirely new. Ezra was assembling a representative population from among the dispersed people of Israel. While the Biblical text records that many donated resources in support of the ministry — it was the faithful obedience of Ezra and others which resulted in the work really getting done.

Might Artaxerxes have responded to the prompting of God from a fear-based motivation? Local history would have reported that the early non-Israelite re-settlers of the region surrounding Jerusalem had suffered calamity until they added worship of the God of the Israelites to the worship of their pagan false gods.

Full text of "Sermon: The Lord's song in a strange land"

Artaxerxes had stopped the reconstruction because the locals had appealed to his fear of conflict. Given all that they had experienced why would the Israelites have been so foolish as to mingle with the pagan locals, both with their false religion, and to marry them? The captive Israelites received favorable treatment from the Persians despite their own powerlessness — due to the irresistible prompting of the Lord God.

The text still makes no reference to rebuilding gates or walls or any part of the city of Jerusalem; the emphasis of Ezra at this point was entirely on the temple. The text does not discuss what happened to the spouses, nor the children. It is left to one to presume that the request for more time was to make provision for them. When have you observed an apparently powerless person or group of persons receiving favor from an unexpected source?

When have you experienced or observed someone getting a second chance and still making the same old bad choices? When have you experienced or observed a very difficult choice being mandated to resolve a sin that was discovered in the fellowship of believers? Today I will step out in faith, trusting in the Lord's provision, to serve in the ministry to which He has called me. I will give thanks for a second chance and I will confess and repent and receive the Lord God's forgiveness for repeating errors of the past. It may be financial assistance but I am still being careless financially, relationship restoration but I am still being careless relationally, it may be extra-credit to make up missing school work but I am not giving it my best effort, it may be a job when I had been fired or laid-off but I am being late or lazy or otherwise less-than-grateful and responsible to a Biblical standard.

Whatever it is I will step-up to a Biblical standard, doing my best and giving my best, to bring glory to God. I will courageously and humbly confront the circumstance in my life where a sinful choice has created an environment which is unacceptable to the Lord God. Within the boundaries of Your Word and the limits of my capacity to do so I will make things right.

You eat, but are never filled. You drink, but are still thirsty. You put on clothes, but are not warm. Those who earn wages end up with holes in their money bags. They responded favorably to the message of the prophet Haggai, who spoke just as the Lord their God had instructed him, and the people began to respect the Lord. They came and worked on the temple of their God, the Lord who rules over all.

How does it look to you now? And the vine, fig tree, pomegranate, and olive tree have not produced. Nevertheless, from today on I will bless you. I will overthrow chariots and those who ride them, and horses and their riders will fall as people kill one another. Lord, we easily lose perspective, getting ourselves so focused on the day-to-day struggles that we forget the One who gives it any purpose and us any hope. May we lift our eyes to You frequently so as to never lose sight of Your presence and Your priorities. The Lord, through the prophet Haggai, challenged the people to recognize that their efforts would be thwarted as long as they refused to honor His priorities for their lives.

Haggai was allowed to bring the message of chastising for their obsession with making their homes look nice while the temple lay in ruins, but to then also deliver the message of hope-in-immediate-obedience, and more hope in the future. The Lord had repeated the message over and over and here it was again; one's worldly possessions are meaningless and temporary unless one is right with Him, and that includes not allowing the things of the world to interfere with our relationship with Him.

As much as the temple was a symbol of faith and of national pride why would the people have thought it OK to make their homes more luxurious while allowing the temple to remain a mess? Zerubbabel was as culpable as anyone for the neglect of the temple but because he was repentant and responded rightly and actively was chosen by the Lord to lead in His new plan. When has it been apparent that the less-important was consuming your life and the more-important was being ignored? Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you a place in your life where priorities are out of balance, especially where something worldly has displaced the priorities of the Lord God.

Today I will humble confess, seek and receive forgiveness from the Lord, and repent, then act to restore balance — the Lord God first in all things. And did the prophets live forever? Behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses. I was a little displeased with them, but they have only made things worse for themselves. Flee from the northland! Indeed, I will settle in the midst of you all. May the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Because of Zerubbabel you will become a level plain!

These are the eyes of the Lord, which constantly range across the whole earth. For example, according to the curse whoever steals will be removed from the community; or on the other hand according to the curse whoever swears falsely will suffer the same fate. It will land in the middle of his house and destroy both timber and stones. When it is finished, she will be placed there in her own residence. Walk about over the earth! The ones going to the northland have brought me peace about the northland. Moreover, there will be a priest with him on his throne and they will see eye to eye on everything.

This will all come to pass if you completely obey the voice of the Lord your God. May I celebrate with a life dedicated to You what You have promised to those who are Yours. You control the ultimate fate of all, and You will purge Your creation of evil, and of the evil one. May I never doubt that victory belongs to the Lord.

Zechariah received several visions, the first was to explain that the prophesied time of seventy years of exile was about to end and Jerusalem was to be restored. The second vision was to explain that the four nations who had been allowed to serve as the instruments of the Lord God's judgment would now themselves be punished. The third vision was of the restoration of Jerusalem without walls due to the large numbers of the returning people, and a clarion call for the people to flee Babylon ahead of the Lord's judgment ot it — taking with them great resources.

The fourth vision was of a high priest, Joshua [Jehozadak, identified in Haggai 1: The fifth vision was of the Word of the Lord to Zerubbabel that he would be His instrument to build the new Jerusalem: Zechariah was shown a sixth vision where the law of the Lord God was rhetorically traveling across the earth to destroy all that was in violation; the laws against stealing and swearing falsely in His name were specifically mentioned.

The seventh vision was [from the NET Translator's Notes] of wickedness epitomized by a demonic counterfeit of divine omniscience and power, it was shown as symbolically-contained and relocated to a symbolic Babylon by two agents of the Lord God. The symbolic woman was to be placed in her own home there. A symbolic woman of Babylon appears in last days of end times prophesy.

It was to be given to the four representatives of the people from among the exiles in Babylonia who would place it in the temple. People would come from many places to rebuild the temple, at the behest of Zerubbabel and later Ezra and Nehemiah in fulfillment of the prophesy. The Lord God again calls to the people to choose to turn to Him and then He will bless them.

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He was defining His omnipotence over all of creation, escalating the confrontation between the law and the law-breakers, isolating the powers of deception, and creating a pathway for redemption. Why would the religious leaders of the time of Jesus have missed Him given the clear evidence of the path to His identity and purpose? The religious leaders, who were supposed to serve the people for the Lord, to teach them of the coming messiah the Branch , and to stand ready to step-aside when He arrived — chose to instead monstrously cling to power and to cause Him to be crucified.

When have you become profoundly aware of the hard boundaries of the law and that only Jesus saves? Today I will give praise and thanks to the Lord God for His blessings and I will give Him praise for setting me free from the deception of the world. Therefore, the Lord who rules over all had poured out great wrath. They will be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and righteousness. Then I will allow the remnant of my people to possess all these things. Do not be afraid!

Speak the truth, each of you, to one another. Practice true and righteous judgment in your courts. The eyes of all humanity, especially of the tribes of Israel, are toward the Lord, 9: Gaza will lose her king, and Ashkelon will no longer be inhabited. Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Your king is coming to you: Then he will announce peace to the nations. His dominion will be from sea to sea and from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth.

Then they will drink, and will become noisy like drunkards, full like the sacrificial basin or like the corners of the altar. Grain will make the young men flourish and new wine the young women.

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Therefore the people set out like sheep and become scattered because they have no shepherd. For the Lord who rules over all has brought blessing to his flock, the house of Judah, and will transform them into his majestic warhorse. They will fight, for the Lord will be with them, and will defeat the enemy cavalry. They will be as though I had never rejected them, for I am the Lord their God and therefore I will hear them.

Their children will see it and rejoice; they will celebrate in the things of the Lord. I will bring them to the lands of Gilead and Lebanon, for there will not be enough room for them in their own land.



The depths of the Nile will dry up, the pride of Assyria will be humbled, and the domination of Egypt will be no more. Lord, the faithlessness and hypocrisy of the people continued, but You sought-out the faithful remnant for Your blessing and for the restoration of Your creation. May I grow in the direction of faithfulness rather than empty ritual and double-minded hypocrisy. You punish those who reject You and those who abuse Your people while they worship false gods. May I live with hope and joy in the future of Your promise, serving You today so that more may join me there.

Zechariah responded to the leaders of the people who requested a word from the Lord God as to their religious tradition of weeping and fasting on the fifth month, he challenged their integrity in so-doing for the prior seventy years [since the destruction of Solomon's temple], asking if they had ever truly done so with Him first in their hearts.

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You must not oppress the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, or the poor, nor should anyone secretly plot evil against his fellow human being. And I will bring them to settle within Jerusalem. These are the things you must do: Do not plan evil in your hearts against one another.

He then spoke again of the promise of a distant time when the Lord God would restore peace and righteousness to the land though a king who would arrive on a donkey — the Messiah.