So I think this will be our final devotion relating mostly to the Old Testament, but we do need to cover just a brief bit of history because there's an important theme as we move on that carries over from the Old Testament into the life of believers today. So early in God's Word, all the way back with Moses, it was prophesied that when the people disobeyed, when they stopped living obediently as an example of a covenant relationship with God, they would be removed from the promised land. Deuteronomy 28, verses 64 and 65. The Lord shall scatter you among all people from one end of the earth, even to the other. And there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known, even wood and stone. And among these nations shall you find no ease, neither shall the sole of your foot have rest. But the Lord shall give you there a trembling heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind. So there was this promise of an exile that would take place when the people weren't obedient. And the foundation for that exile began first in the northern kingdom. The ten tribes in the north, often still referred to as Israel. After David's son Solomon died, the kingdom couldn't agree on the succession of the next king. So the two southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin, accepted Solomon's son Rehoboam as king, even though he was quite a knucklehead. You can read about it in 1 Kings 11-14 or 2 Chronicles 10-12. So Rehoboam is crowned the king in the southern kingdom, which adopts the name Judah. An even worse guy named Jeroboam is chosen as king in the northern kingdom of Israel. Since the temple, the place to worship God, was in Jerusalem in Judah, Jeroboam developed a plan to keep his people from going south to worship. He said, essentially, it's too much to ask that you go all the way to Jerusalem. We'll set up two new, conveniently located places to worship. And that's what he did. He made a temple in Bethel and another up in Dan. He made golden calves in each for the people to offer sacrifices to. So Israel, that northern kingdom, declined quickly. Even though the Lord sent prophets to appeal for their obedience, of the 20 kings in their history, there was never a good one. Spiritual decline and idolatry led to Moses' prophecy being fulfilled for them in 722 BC. God used the cruel kingdom of Assyria to conquer northern Israel and take them off into slavery and exile. The southern kingdom of Judah fared better. They also had 20 rulers in their history, and just under half of them are described as righteous or good. Between the prophets of God and those good kings, the spiritual life with Judah was kind of a roller coaster. You know, sometimes the people followed God and there were reforms, but never completely obedient. It was a slower decline, but it was still a decline. And let me read to you what I think is one of the saddest passages in the Bible. 2 Chronicles 36, verses 15 and 16. the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes and sending because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy." Eventually, there's no remedy, no cure. No hope of correcting the spiritual rebellion. They failed to be that showcase for the world of a covenant relationship with Yahweh. And so, instead, the Lord uses them as an example to the world of his judgment. Judah lasted about 150 years longer than northern Israel, but in 586 BC, God uses the kingdom of Babylon to judge them. They are conquered and dragged away as slaves and exiles. But if anybody was paying attention, even though the nation rebelled and was sent away as exiles, just as Moses predicted, that is not all that Moses had to say. Deuteronomy 30, verses 1 through 3, he said, It shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord thy God has driven thee. and shall return unto the Lord thy God, and shall obey his voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all thine heart, with all thy soul. that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whether the Lord thy God has scattered thee." God excels at restoring exiles. His people might be slaves in Babylon, but he can bring them out of Babylon. After all, he dramatically delivered the nation from Egypt. And he can do the same thing again. In the greater story of scripture, Adam and Eve had rebelled and become exiles from Eden, but God has this grand plan of redemption to restore his people to that communion with him as well. So exile was not the end of God's plan for his people, but it was part of God's plan for his people. He works with them during the exile. He sends prophets like Ezekiel and Daniel, and he works with them during the exile and the life of Esther to rescue the people from a planned holocaust. In Ezra and Nehemiah, you can read the story of that second exodus where God again delivers his people from slavery, restores the exiles to their land, and then he starts sending prophets like Haggai or Zechariah to encourage them to rebuild the temple and restore worship. But it was still a disappointing return in many ways. They rebuild the temple that had been destroyed in 586, but it didn't become the temple like Solomon had built. It wasn't close to the glory of Solomon's temple. There's a fascinating description of this in Ezra 3 where they finish the foundation and some folks are cheering and some are crying, right? They're cheering because the temple's been rebuilt and they're crying because it doesn't compare to the old one and so And there was that disappointment, and also, they're still in a land that's really not their own land. When you read Ezra and Nehemiah, it's clear that even the restored people still answer to Babylon, they're home, but they're not home yet. And to understand why this is important, I want you to listen to what God had said through the prophet Jeremiah. Poor Jeremiah had the difficult job of telling people that there was no remedy. Babylonians are coming and God's going to use them as a tool for judgment, carrying away the people to exile. And so as God uses Jeremiah to prepare the people for living in exile, there's sort of a surprising command in Jeremiah 29, verses 5 through 7. This is the message to those who are in exile, build ye houses. and dwell in them, and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them, and take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters, that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city, whether I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it. For in the peace thereof shall ye have peace. Build houses. Plant gardens. Live your lives. Get married. Have kids. Have those kids have kids. Flourish while in exile. As you're there in Babylon, pray for the peace of Babylon. Pray unto the Lord for it, he says. Not pray about it. Pray for it. Pray for the good of Babylon. You see, as God's people, we're called to be an example to the nations of what a covenant relationship with God is. And even in exile, that is still their calling. And so keep that in mind when you read stories about Daniel, and Hananiah, and Mishael, and Azariah, or as you might know them by their Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. How did they live as exiles? Well, they sought the best for Babylon. They actually served in Babylonian government and yet always represented what a covenant relationship with Yahweh really means. There were lines they would not cross. Daniel would not pray to the king. His three friends would not bow down to the king's statue. They were God's people in exile, seeking the good of Babylon, but making their service to God primary. And so they're in captivity, in exile. It's that prophet Daniel who God gives a vision of the coming kingdoms on earth. Even as the people are released to return back to their homeland and rebuild the temple, Daniel's visions of these coming kingdoms on the earth begins to unfold. None of them are quite the kingdom we would hope for. In fact, 400 years after the final prophet of the Old Testament, the New Testament opens. And the people are still home, but not home, right? As the Old Testament closes, Babylon's in control of the nation. As the New Testament opens, Daniel's vision of the coming Roman Empire is fulfilled and Rome controls the Holy Land. And so you see people struggling with that. Some of them want to cooperate with Rome. Some of them want to wait for the Messiah to overthrow Rome. And it's into that scene that the perfect example for all exiles comes. And it may seem odd to think of Jesus that way, but he willingly, he left the glory of heaven to enter this world, though it was not his own home. And he said as much when he told the disciples Remember he said, foxes have holes, birds have nests, the son of man doesn't have a place to lay his head. And that's how he lived. Even as an infant, whisked away to Egypt for his protection, he came out of Egypt, just like Israel came out of Egypt. But he did it right, in righteousness and in obedience. And what was his message to the people about Rome? Go ahead and pay your taxes. Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. That's part of living your life to show that it belongs to God. And in that teaching, he echoed the call of God through the prophet Jeremiah to live your life in service of God by seeking the good of the nation and the people among whom he's placed you. And at the same time, he opened the door of a new kingdom through faith in him. In the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus for your salvation, Paul says in Colossians 1.13, God has transferred you out of the power of darkness and into the kingdom of his dear son. But do you understand that that means you're still living here in your own kind of Babylon, right? You're home, but not home. Here's how the New Testament writers describe it. If you remember, Jesus talked about living and letting your light shine before men, that they would see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. You live out your life as an example of those around you that they would see what a real relationship with God is. And so in Hebrews, as the writer points to these great examples of faith in the Old Testament, He says how we should follow their example. This is what he writes in Hebrews 11, 13-16. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare that they seek, they declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they'd been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is a heavenly. Wherefore, God's not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. They're strangers and exiles on earth. They're looking for a country. Not the country that they came from, but the country which they're going to. A better country, prepared by God. So they lived in this world as if they're not yet home, embracing the promise of God and obedience as a light to those around them. That's the example to follow. The Apostle Peter writes this in 1 Peter 2, 11 and 12. Dearly beloved, I beseech you, I implore you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lust, which war against the soul, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, that they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. He appeals, live like exiles, a life of holiness that those around you will see as an example. The Apostle Paul wrote something very simply to the church at Philippi. Philippi was a Roman colony and so the people were Roman citizens and they were proud of that citizenship. But Paul reminded them in Philippians 3.20, For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our conversation. That word literally is citizenship. Our citizenship is in heaven. They could seek the good of Rome, but our ultimate allegiance is to live wherever it is you call home as if it is not your home. Not sinking into the culture of whatever Babylon you find yourself in, but rising above that as an example to the world of what it means to live in a relationship of obedience to God's son Jesus.