Exile

The starting point for rightly understanding the theme of exile is Genesis 1–3. God created human beings as his image-bearers to dwell with him in the Garden of Eden (Gen 1–2). Adam and Eve were the first people of God, given a place to dwell where they would experience his presence as they walked in obedience to him. Adam was given royal, priestly, and prophetic responsibilities by God. But at the instigation of the serpent, Adam and Eve rebelled against God by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 3:1–7). Their sin disrupted the perfect fellowship they had with God and plunged creation under the curse. The culminating judgment for their sin is exile—God drives Adam and Eve out of the Garden away from his presence (Gen 3:22–24). Humanity’s physical exile away from the garden was a picture of their spiritual exile away from God himself.

Yet even in the midst of announcing his judgment of exile upon humanity, God promised that restoration from exile would one day come. A descendant of Adam and Eve would crush the serpent’s head (Gen 3:15) and fulfill Adam’s commission. God reveals his plan for bringing the serpent-crusher and restoring humanity from exile in his promise to Abram (Gen 12:1–3). God promises to Abram and his descendants (people) a land (place) where he will dwell with them (presence) and ultimately bless all the nations of the earth. From the promised line of Abraham’s descendants, God creates the nation of Israel. After he brings them out of slavery in Egypt, God establishes a covenant with them to make them his “own possession out of all the peoples” of the earth (Exod 19:5). As part of this covenant God instructs Israel to build a tabernacle so he can dwell with them even as they migrate towards the Promised Land (Exod 25–31). God’s people have God’s presence (though, unlike the garden, God dwells at a distance within the midst of his people), but they do not yet have the place where he intends to dwell with them.

As part of God’s covenant with Israel, he warns them that if they break his covenant he will send them into exile away from the Promised Land (Lev 26:33–39; Deut 28:36–68). Just as with Adam and Eve, their physical exile away from the place that God gave them will be a picture of their already existing spiritual exile away from the presence of God. Although Israel does eventually take possession of the land (place) and God’s presence dwells with them there (initially through the tabernacle and then through the temple), God continues to warn his people that he will send them into exile if they continue to rebel against him (e.g., Hos 8–10; Isa 39:1–6; Jer 18:1–17). Given the Israel’s persistent unfaithfulness to God’s covenant with them, exile from the land looms like a dark cloud on the horizon.

That dark cloud would eventually burst on both the northern and southern kingdoms. Despite the repeated warnings of Yahweh’s prophets, the people refuse to repent of their wickedness and idolatry. In 722 BC the Assyrians conquer the northern kingdom and take most of the people away into exile (2 Kgs 17). The southern kingdom, under a dynasty of Davidic kings, lasts until the Babylonians conquer and destroy Jerusalem in three stages (605, 597, 586), with each stage including the taking of people into exile (2 Kgs 24–25; Dan 1:1–4). Because God’s people broke the covenant and separated themselves from his presence through their sin, God removed them from the place where he intended to dwell with him.

Life in exile was difficult for God’s people. During the early stages of exile false prophets promised that their time in exile would be short; in response Jeremiah writes a letter to them explaining that their exile will last seventy years and that they should establish new lives there in Babylon (Jer 29:1–23). Beyond the physical hardships of establishing new lives in a foreign land, the people wondered whether God had abandoned them altogether (Lam 5:21–22).

Despite these hardships, a remnant of exiles remained faithful to Yahweh as they listened to and trusted in the word of the Lord spoken through prophets such as Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel. Through them God promised a new covenant (Jer 31:31–34; Eze 36:24–28) that would include restoration to the land (Isa 51:3; Hos 2:18–23), a renewed temple surpassing that of Solomon’s (Eze 40–48), a renewed and obedient people (Zeph 3:11–13), and a Davidic king (Amos 9:11–12) ruling over God’s eternal kingdom (Isa 11:1–10). God promises that his people will one day be in the place where his presence will dwell with them.

When, in fulfillment of God’s promise (Jer 25:11–14) a remnant returns to the land after seventy years in captivity (Ezra 1:1–4), they are met with further hardship and disappointment. Although they are back in the land, they are under foreign rule (Neh 9:36–37), the rebuilt temple is a shadow of its former glory (Ezra 3:1–12), there is no Davidic ruler (Neh 9:36–37), and the people struggle to obey God’s law (Mal 3:5). The reality of their experience makes it clear that although they are physically back in the land, the promises of restoration from exile remain unfulfilled.

During the nearly four hundred years between the close of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament period, the longing for God to fulfill his promises of restoration intensified. With the exception of about a one-hundred-year period, God’s people remained under foreign rule by a succession of different kingdoms, culminating in the Roman Empire. So, when John the Baptist appeared as the one sent to prepare the way of the Lord in fulfillment of Isa 40:3–5, many would have understood him as announcing that restoration from exile was at hand (Lk 3:4–6). As the promised serpent-crusher, Jesus relives Israel’s experiences, but obeys where they failed (Isa 49:1–8; Matt 1–4). By healing (Isa 35:5–7; Matt 11:4–6), casting out demons (Isa 49:22–23; Matt 12:25–28), and teaching God’s word (Deut 18:15–18; Matt 5–7), Jesus inaugurates the promised restoration from exile. Through his sacrificial death Jesus experiences the exile away from God’s presence that his people deserve for their rebellion (Isa 52:13–53:12; Lk 22:37). Through his resurrection Jesus is restored to God’s presence (Eze 37:1–28; Matt 28:1–20). As the last Adam, Jesus embodies the new creation in whom God’s people are given a place to dwell and experience God’s presence. All who are identified with Jesus by faith share in this restoration from exile (2 Cor 5:14–21).

This restoration from exile is inaugurated but not consummated. Even though believers have been spiritually restored from their exile away from God’s presence, we still live physically as exiles in this fallen world. Thus Peter writes:

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (1 Pet 2:11–12)

As we wait for the new heavens and the new earth where we will physically dwell in the presence of the Lord, we are called to live lives of holiness in anticipation of Christ’s return (2 Pet 3:11–13). Like Abraham before us, we are “strangers and exiles on the earth” and who must set our hearts on “a better country, that is, a heavenly one” where we will dwell with God forever (Heb 11:13–16). We announce to others the good news that forgiveness of sins and restoration from exile away from God’s presence is available through the work of Jesus (Isa 40:6–8; 1 Pet 1:23–25). As the eschatological people of God, we experience the presence of God dwelling inside of us by his Spirit and “groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom 8:23) in the place God is preparing for us. 

The Bible ends with God’s people being restored both physically and spiritually from our exile in a new creation with a new Eden (Rev 21–22). The promised New Jerusalem will descend from heaven (Rev 21:1–21; cp. Isa 54:11–12). All of creation will be the sanctuary of God where he dwells with his people in unbroken fellowship (Rev 21:22–27; cp. Isa 60:19 20). God’s restored and renewed people will dwell in a new Eden where they will rule over creation as vice-regents under Christ the King (Rev 22:23). But most gloriously, God’s people “will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads” (Rev 22:4). God’s people will dwell in God’s place and experience his presence to the fullest.

Understanding the theme of exile has a number of practical implications for our everyday lives as Christians. It helps us to understand better who God is—especially his mercy and patience towards his rebellious people. The theme of exile also gives us vital insight into our identity as divine image-bearers who enter the world as rebels against a holy God. We live in a broken world which, although it may not always acknowledge it, lives with this pervasive sense of exile away from God’s presence. As Christians, the theme of exile reminds us that although we have been spiritually restored to God’s presence, we must live in this fallen world as exiles and strangers who work for the good of those around us while at the same time remembering that this world is not our home. Our true home is the new creation, where our restoration from exile will be fully realized as we dwell in the presence of the Lord forever