Life as they had known it came to an abrupt end. Everything that gave structure to their life was taken away from them, destroyed, along with everything that gave their life meaning. They loss every material possession they had ... homes, land, wealth, even country. They now lived with a new reality in a place that was foreign to them, unfamiliar and strange.
Such was the reality for the people of Judah after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 C.E. Having been defeated by the Babylonians, the people were taken against their will to Babylon. Someone else dictated their lives and determined their reality. They lived as refugees in exile.
The experience of defeat and loss created a spiritual crisis in the life of the nation. The question "Why?" filled their thinking. They were a covenant people, God's chosen. Why did God let this happen to them? And the LORD had made a covenant with David that one of his descendants would always rule as king. Had God gone back on that promise? Could God not be trusted? Was Yahweh their God weak and powerless? Had Yahweh been defeated by the gods of Babylon? Or, worse, was Yahweh just a figment of their imagination, the product of wishful thinking?
Their spiritual struggle led to a variety of responses.
Some of the responses were predictable - the kind of responses we have today. "God doesn't care. He isn't interested in what is happening to me." "Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, 'My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God'?" (Isaiah 40:27)
Another predictable response, also heard today, was to say God was punishing them for their sins. This response is seen in the five laments found in the book of Lamentations. This understanding was embedded in a history of the nation written during their years of Exile. This history is found in our Bibles in the books of Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings. It has been called Deuteronomistic History because it is based on the teachings of the book of Deuteronomy. "If you do forget the LORD your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the LORD is destroying before you, so shall you perish because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God" (Deuteronomy 8:19-20). This kind of if ... then thinking is a normal pattern for us as humans. We commonly make relationships conditional, including our relationship with God. It is not surprising, then, that the people viewed their experience of Exile as God's judgment.
This if ... then thinking gave birth to another response: the resolve "to get it right," to be faithful. They resolved to keep God's law so they would never experience God's judgment again. They began to collect the stories of their history and their laws so that they could know and follow God's laws. This collection became our Old Testament. A group of scholars developed around this effort, copying and interpreting those stories and laws. In the time of Jesus, this group was known as scribes. A new religious sect, committed to faithfully living God's laws, came into being. The called themselves "the set apart ones." In the time of Jesus, this group was known as the Pharisees. An interesting side note: after the Exile experience, there is no record of the people of Israel ever worshiping other gods again.
Beyond these predictable responses were some out-of-the-box conclusions. These understandings represented new ways of thinking. They led to deeper spiritual insight.
For the first time in their history, the people began to think of God as more than the God of Israel. They began to see God as the Creator and the Lord of history. Read Isaiah 40-55, looking for references to God as creator and Lord of history. Such references do not occur before this time period. The great creation poem found in Genesis 1 came out of this period of Exile. In describing creation, the poem proclaimed how God works creatively in the midst of chaos to bring forth order, in the midst of emptiness to bring forth fullness. It reassured the people living in Exile that God works in the midst of life's challenges to bring forth that which is good.
Another understanding had to do with suffering. It was common to view suffering as God's judgment on sin. (The book of Job was written to refute this misconception.) An unknown poet in the Exile went beyond this common understanding to suggest one person's suffering could be redemptive for others. This understanding is seen in Isaiah 53, a text we Christians associate with Jesus' suffering and death.
"He was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way,
and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:5).
This great poem ends with a hint of resurrection, a concept that was unheard of in that day.
The New Testament writers built upon this redemptive understanding of suffering. They taught God uses times of suffering and pain to mature us spiritually.
"We boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us" (Romans 5:3-5).
"We know God works in all things for good to those who love him" (Romans 8:28). That good is defined in verse 29 as growing us up spiritually so that we are "conformed to the image of his Son."
"Whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing" (James 1:2-4).
"Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children ... he disciplines us for our good in order that we may share his holiness" (Hebrews 12:7, 10).
In addition, the New Testament writers understood that death and resurrection was the spiritual pattern embedded in all of life.
The COVID19 pandemic has disrupted our lives. Our experience of disruption is not to the degree the people of Judah experienced in their experience of Exile, but the disruption is real, none-the-less. As I write this blog, we do not know how long the disruption will last. Nor do we know the long term results of it. We can see the devastating loss of life it brings. Some in leadership positions view the pandemic as a threat to our economic well-being and, thereby, as a threat to our strength as a nation. Some fear it opens the door to authoritarian policies and will lead to the destruction of our democratic way of life.
Some of the ways people are responding to the pandemic are predictable. The uncertainty we are experiencing stirs fear, our most basic human reaction to any threat. The fear of scarcity and rationing has led to stock piling and hoarding of certain goods. (For the first time in my memory, shelves in grocery stores are empty.) This practice reflects a a me-and-mine mentality, driving us further into us-them thinking and functioning. Such reactions, driven by fear, are not surprising.
But what other, less predictable ways of thinking and responding might come out of this experience? Could different ways of thinking and responding be possible? Could new, creative ways of doing things come into being? Could new thinking and policies develop? Could a different set of values begin to shape how we function as a nation or, at least, our individual lives? Could we learn to view others beyond the value of what they can contribute to the economy? Might we even be more open to the ways of God and the ways of the Kingdom because of this experience?
Such new thinking and functioning will not come out of fear-based thinking. Nor will it come out of seeking to protect and hold onto an old way of doing things. It probably will not come from our elected leaders whose identity, position, and power are tied to the status quo.
Hopefully, new ways of thinking and functioning will come from us, the followers of Jesus. We are the ones who believe in resurrection. In the face of challenge and chaos, even death and loss, we can move beyond fear-based thinking and reacting because we believe in a God who brings life out of death, good out of evil. We understand death and resurrection is the spiritual pattern of life.
And so, in the midst of the death and destruction being wrought by the pandemic, we anticipate God's redemptive work. We anticipate resurrection.
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