There are two frequent biblical images that apply to the church in America today: exile and plague. While we are not in exile from our native land, we are experiencing a form of exile. And while the coronavirus pales in comparison to the Black Death, it is still a sickness that has swept the globe causing death and panic.
Naming our situation with these biblical images helps us to analyze it and begins to show us how to live faithfully in the present day. For the next few weeks, I want to explore several lessons of exile and plague. But today, to set the stage, I want to offer a brief overview of these images:
Exile and plague are the result of unfaithfulness to God and his commandments. When the people of God are idolatrous and ignore the will of God, plagues and exile follow. God is not the author of evil—the Bible is explicit on this point—yet he does at times remove his protecting hand and allow the natural fruit of sin to afflict his people when they are persisting in it. The natural fruit of sin is exile and death (plague is a subcategory of death). We see this in the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden. Afflicted with mortality, they are driven from their true home. Deuteronomy and the prophets are full of warnings to this effect: reject God and his commandments, and plague and exile will follow.
Yet God never allows plague and exile for the sake of destroying his people. These two natural results of sin are always allowed by God so that his people would repent. Every plague that afflicts Israel is an invitation to repentance; every period of exile is an invitation to repentance. God’s desire is the flourishing of his people, yet there are times when their disobedience and idolatry must be stopped before it destroys them forever. God allows exile and plague to call them back to himself.
The experience of plague is self-explanatory, and the fact that I am applying it to our current situation likely self-evident. But it is probably necessary to state why the biblical image of exile fits the situation we are in. Simply, one of the marks of exile is the inability to worship God in the way and place that he himself commanded. We hear this in the Psalm 137, which was quoted last week. “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres…How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” The people of God were banished from the temple of God and forbidden the sacrifices that God himself instituted. We too have been shut out of churches and kept from the worship that God himself instituted—the sacraments! Sabbath is also intertwined with exile, and also applies to us. Judah refused to listen to God in this regard, and so he drove them from the land so that the land could have its Sabbath! The seventy years of exile fulfilled all the Sabbath days that the people failed to keep. They had worked when they should have rested because they did not trust God and desired material prosperity more than obedience. We too live in a culture that prizes material prosperity above obedience and struggles to trust that God will provide. The church has effectively disregarded God’s command to honor the Sabbath. Thus we too have been forced into a type of Sabbath as our economy has ground to a halt.
Before I close, I must state the obvious—I am not a prophet. I do not know without doubt that God has allowed this period for these particular reasons. I cannot state without hesitation that this period is his judgment, or even his discipline. I also must acknowledge that there are righteous people in churches across America who have faithfully followed God. Yet we will not be harmed by hearing the lessons of exile and plague, and should always be willing to hear the call to repentance. You might also wonder why I am speaking simply of the church, as secular America has rejected God and his will in a far greater way than the church has. I am addressing the church because repentance must begin with the household of God. We cannot call our nation to repentance if we refuse to let God’s word examine us. We would be negligent and unfaithful if we refused to ask, “God, what do you want us to hear in this time?”
We will explore over the next few weeks what is supposed to come out of a period of exile and plague. Particularly, we will explore repentance, worship, and Sabbath. I hope and pray that the church in America emerges from this time with a greater willingness to follow God and a greater desire to participate in the redemption of our land.
Steven+