What is the Exile?
If Israel is a body born from the exodus, the exile is its greatest wound. Living in Babylon, the people of God are in exile for seventy years. Yahweh speaks through one of the captives, a young priest called Ezekiel, who has a vision of the glory of God leaving the Temple and walking with his people…again (don’t forget the Exodus).
Persian king Cyrus defeats the Babylonians and frees the Jews, who travel in three waves back to the Promised land. Zerubbabel leads the first, Ezra the second and Nehemiah the third. The Jewish remnant return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. God’s people, back in God’s place, with God’s presence.
The books of Ezra and Nehemiah describe the establishment of worship, the scripture and the walls of Jerusalem. This period is therefore known as Second Temple Judaism. Despite being brought back into God’s place, God’s people fall into disillusionment and cynicism, going through the religious motions. Nevertheless, the OT ends with the prophet Malachi, as he tells of God’s sadness as Judah slips back into idolatry, but laced with hope that God is not done with his people.
In this series called ‘Bible for Strugglers’, this section is called Exile – the departure and return to the promised land. The picture below shows the section of the Old Testament we’ll be looking at for this section.
Jeremiah: Foreteller of the Exile
The book of Jeremiah initially shows God’s warnings for Judah, and judgement for their idolatry. Jeremiah is mocked, ridiculed and even thrown in a ditch for his constant warnings of the Jerusalem elite. Because his words continually fall on deaf ears, Jeremiah even accuses God of deceiving him (Jer 20:7).
Through Jeremiah, God says that ‘a day is coming when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel and the house of Judah…I will but my law within them and write it on
their hearts. I will be their God, they will be my people.’ (Jeremiah 31:31 & 33b).
Eventually, Jeremiah sees Babylon come and destroy Jerusalem, carry his countrymen into exile, sits down and cries. His grief is so deep, he even pens the book of Lamentations.
Life In Exile
Let’s start with the exile. It’s 600 BC. Despite prophet Jeremiah’s predictions about
God’s judgement on his people through Babylon, the final set of Judahite kings do not listen.
Jeremiah laments as he watches God judge his people (Jer 15). The foreigners invade
Jerusalem, burn the Temple to the ground and take captives like Daniel and Ezekiel into exile
(2 Kings 25).
King Zedekiah’s final sight before the Babylonians pluck out both his eyes, is
watching both his sons killed (Jeremiah 52:16). The plan that started with divine rescue for a
forgotten group of slaves over a superpower, seems to end with a superpower making them
slaves once again. The Bible records all the sorrow and anguish through books like
Lamentations and Psalm 137:
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.
Psalm 137:1
However, whilst Ezekiel, Daniel and Jeremiah, prophets of the exile, carry the full
weight of judgement, they also carry a strange hope.
Ezekiel: Judah’s Priest Exiled to Babylon
Ezekiel begins five years after the captivity. The thirty-year-old would-be priest is taken into Babylon and whilst in exile, God speaks. Ezekiel is the prophet sent to preach to the exiles ripped from their homes by the Babylonians (Eze 3:6 – 8). Starting with a captivating vision of the glory of God (Eze 1), Ezekiel laments just like Jeremiah because the Jews in Jerusalem do not repent, despite the disaster they are in (Eze 5:5- 10).
Eleven years into the exile, news of Jerusalem’s complete destruction reaches Ezekiel. Through Ezekiel, God says:
‘I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.’
Ezekiel 36:26b
– 28
Daniel – Prophet within the Exile
From the palaces of Babylon, Daniel mystically prophesies a time when the exile will
end, both literally and eternally. His prophecies predict the coming rule and tyranny of the
Babylonian kingdom, and Judah’s eventual release from exile to rebuild the temple after the
Medo-Persian empire conquers Babylon (Daniel 7-9). Thereafter, his prophecies continue to
explain the subsequent Greek and Roman empires, with God’s eventual and final rule over all
kingdoms (Daniel 7-12).
As the judgement and hope pours from the mouths of the prophets, the Babylonians
ransack the Temple and raze Jerusalem to the ground. What was once a great people of slaves
turned kings, becomes a crushed kingdom of kings turned slaves again. Yet God does not
abandon his people entirely, God goes with his wayward people into foreign lands, promising
to bring a Messiah.
The Return of the Remnant
Just as Daniel predicts, Persian king Cyrus defeats the Babylonians and frees the Jews,
who travel in three waves back to the Promised land. Zerubbabel leads the first, Ezra the second and Nehemiah the third. Zerubbabel rebuilds the Temple. The books of Ezra and
Nehemiah come shortly after as they re-establish worship, scripture and the walls of
Jerusalem. Between these three, they reignite the heart of God’s people, with Haggai the
prophet sent as an encourager and Zechariah sent as a reminder of Israel’s past mistakes. This
period is therefore known as Second Temple Judaism.
One hundred years go by.
Despite being brought back into God’s place, God’s people fall into disillusionment and
cynicism, going through the religious motions. Cue Malachi. The final prophet of the Old
Testament tells of God’s lament and anger Judah slips back into idolatry and injustice.
Nevertheless, laced with hope that God is not done with his people. The final chapter of
Malachi promises a new Elijah who will restore God’s people (Malachi 4:5-6).
From Malachi to Messiah
However, the return is not as triumphant as all may seem, with God’s people suffering under empire after empire, vying for control of their strategically placed lands. After the end of the Old Testament (425 BC), Jewish life evolves. By the first century a Nazarene preacher by the name of Yeshua arrives on the scene. You and I know him as Jesus of Nazareth.
Try answering 8 Simple Questions on Exile
In my experience, the post-exilic period is probably the most misunderstood section of the OT. Trying to figure out who came back, what happened next and how God felt about it all can be very challenging. Have a go at these questions:
- Why do you think Jeremiah wrote Lamentations?
- The Jews hated Babylon. Is there any evidence in the Bible to support this statement?
- Daniel chapter 2 describes four world empires. Which are they? When do they come to power?
- Which king releases the Jews from Bablyon?
- The Jews return to Judah in three waaves. Who leads each wave?
- Explain the difference between the books of Haggai and Malachi
- The final verses of Malachi promise a prophet like Elijah to be raised up. Any idea who this prophet could be?
- Now we’ve reached the end of the Old Testament. Could you summarise the entire thing in a few sentences?
