Exile From Idolatry
“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”
Jeremiah 29 is a passage that has recently taken on new life for me. Jeremiah’s inspired letter to those who are in Babylonian exile is surprising to me even though it shouldn’t be. Israel and Judah are being disciplined by God for having lost sight of Him and turning to other gods. Having ignored the council of His law and forgetting His love for them, they turned to the made-up gods that seemed more present and engaging in spite of being powerless fantasies. In chapter 21, Jeremiah implores the people to willingly enter exile and accept God's correction. This comes with a warning that anyone who stays behind to fight Babylon and hang onto their homes and lives would die as a result.
Up to this point, false prophets had been telling the Israelites that God would defend their land and protect them from Babylon. This no doubt sounded more reasonable than the voice of the true prophet Jeremiah telling everyone to abandon God’s promised land and willingly live in a pagan land. What seemed reasonable was false and what was true must have sounded like madness, except to those who knew the voice of God.
Over the last few years, Cas and I feel as though we have walked through a situation much like this. Perhaps the Israelites never meant to shun God and slip into idolatry. I’m not sure anyone who has encountered God would plan on this, yet it happens.
Cas and I didn’t shun God on purpose, but we certainly slipped into what we would later recognize as idolatry. At some point in time, I had started to care more about what people at work thought about me than the daily voice of God. My performance at work had begun to crowd out a full pursuit of God. I was making more money than I had ever made in my life. I told myself that the Lord had blessed me in my career and was faithfully providing for us. I have no doubt that He had provided all these things, but my heart had fallen for the blessing, not the Blesser. Cas and I spent much of our time planning and working through home improvement projects even though we felt ourselves growing more empty and irritable with each passing month. We went to church, had quiet times and even helped out at church with worship and the sound board. From the outside, we had it made, both in the eyes of the world and to other Christians, but inside something had gone wrong. Perhaps this sounds familiar to some of you?
The Israelites enjoyed the blessings of vineyards they didn’t plant and homes they didn’t build. They had a magnificent temple in which they worshiped and sacrificed to the One True God, yet in their individual lives, the worship had turned elsewhere. The Lord’s love for them, however, had not faltered and in order to return them to true life, He would take them through difficulty and exile. They would have to choose what looked like death to get there.
By God’s grace, Cas and I heard His voice in spite of our drifting hearts. The call was clear to me; on the eve of being put on a “partner track” at one of the most successful architecture firms in Western Washington, I realized I had to say no. To become a partner would mean being a leader and seeing financial gains and worldly respect beyond what I had yet known. It would also mean serving my career above all else and sacrificing God’s calling and my family. God made it clear that this would be my spiritual death. Some people thought I was a fool, others may have viewed me like a coward, but when I chose God’s direction, I felt a peace return that had been slipping away.
I had listened to Him in refusing the partnership, but my heart was still striving at work and distant from Him. We moved to a nearby town and accepted that I would not be a partner. We congratulated ourselves for hearing God’s voice and heeding it, but we also put our attention into yet another home remodel. We dreamed of shallow things like buying a small boat that we could put in the water near our house, and spending the summer exploring the islands of Puget Sound I remembered from my youth. A year later the Lord shook me up again. This time by taking away my sleep.
The suburban dream that we had run to turned into a nightmare. A neighbor down the street gunned his Harley past our bedroom window each morning at 3:30am on his way to work. This was my new alarm clock to wake me from bed into a world of anxiety. Soon, I dreaded sleep and couldn’t fall asleep either. I was slogging through a high pressure job on 3 hours of sleep each night. I finally broke and laid myself before God, a shattered man. I gave up.
I told my boss and HR what was happening and cut back my hours. We stopped working on house projects and lived out the next year with a kitchen floor of painted particle board. The song “Wasteland” by NeedtoBreathe became an anthem to me and in my despair I latched onto the “crack of light” I could see pouring out from around a door that the song's lyrics speak about. I remembered that with God on my side, who could be against me? God’s grace was my daily provision and I lived and breathed in it. I had been a man that many respected. I was going places. Now I was broken and hurting but ironically more alive than I had been in years.
To submit to becoming an exile and leaving your identity is painful, but to those Israelites who did so, it meant life and per Jeremiah 29, God was clearly with them in their exile. He had plans for their best to the benefit of everyone around them. It was a turning point for the nation of Israel.
As the months went by, I began to deeply heal. I was able to sleep better and the Sheriff's department shut down our noisy neighbor. I heard God’s voice daily in His word and in prayer. We felt a calling to move and as time unfolded, it was clear that we would move to Columbus, OH. In my prideful West Coast ignorance, I had to learn that Ohio was a real place and exactly which of the lower Midwest states it was. When we told people that we were moving to Ohio, they responded with blank looks and questions like: “Why on earth would you do that?” We were warned that we would be living amongst ignorant hillbillies. I once again felt like the idiot in the room. The same people who once held me in high regard now held me with kid gloves and thought I had lost my mind.
I faced these things at work but also with my family. We were swimming upstream, following the voice of God but to do so meant moving grandkids far from grandparents. It meant disrupting the routines that were comfortable, routines that were taken for granted. I felt the pain of tearing away from what I needed to leave, but I was also made to feel the pain my nearby family felt at our leaving. We had the confidence of God’s calling as a balm to our wounds, but my family did not. We were implored to change our minds. Whether intended or not, guilt trips were given and disparaging remarks were made. Those who were once my greatest support in life became, for a time, my greatest foes.
When we latched shut the door to the moving trailer and rolled down our street in a vehicle stuffed with two kids, luggage and a scared cat, we took a step of obedience. We had no place to live in Columbus, only a job offer and a church that I had visited for an evening. But we had hope and a fresh life. The newly obedient citizens of Judah marched as captives of a pagan army to a land they had never seen but did so with a powerful promise from God. They died to their lives but found a greater life.
“He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:39)
What Cas and I found waiting for us here is so much sweeter than anything we left behind, even if we left some good things behind . Our “exile” has proved to be an amazing blessing. If there was ever any doubt that being obedient to God would bear fruit like a tree planted next to living waters, there is no doubt any longer. With each passing week and month, branches that had begun to wither sprout new buds. Fruit is forming and blessing others. Even some of those who opposed our obedience have found new life in it. Stories started to make their way to us of people inspired by our gutsy decision. They had been too scared or comfortable to seriously consider what they felt called to do. Now, they no longer wrote them off.
In the times since we moved here, I find myself taking what the Lord has done for granted, but I pray that He would never let that happen again. We want to seek the welfare of South Columbus and pray to the Lord on its behalf. We want to have a fear of God that keeps us in a godly, joyful life. God reveals His same heart for Israel and the Church in Jeremiah 32:
“They shall be My people, and I will be their God; then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me.” (Jeremiah 32:38-40)
This isn’t a challenge to turn your back on good opportunities or never remodel your home. One person’s idol may not be another’s. But anything that steals your devotion to the One True God and sets it upon something else is absolute spiritual poison. If it can turn the Promised Land into a cursed land, it can do the same or worse in our own lives. We always need to remember where our blessings come from and Who can and will make us a blessing.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)