Exile and Return (4th Sunday of Lent)

Click here for this Sunday’s Readings

The history of the divided Kingdoms of Israel and Judah is a sad tale of how God’s chosen people broke the Covenant that God made with them at Mt. Sinai, and thus incurred the curses that He threatened would befall covenant breakers (Deuteronomy 28). Despite God warning them through His prophets, the people did not listen, but instead persecuted and even killed many of the prophets.

Eventually, Israel succumbed to its fate when the Neo-Assyrian Empire conquered them in 721 BC. Judah managed to survive somewhat longer, with God’s blessings occasionally coming upon them when righteous kings such as Hezekiah and Josiah came upon the throne, but they too ultimately met the same fate under the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 587 BC, and their exile would last for seventy years. Scripture makes clear that these were no mere geopolitical events, but rather Assyria and Babylon were the instruments of God’s wrath against His wayward people.

However, God’s chastisement would not last forever. Eventually, the Jews learned their lesson, and resolved to follow God’s Law more stringently. Eventually, their deliverance would come when Babylon was overthrown by the Median Empire, which was then replaced by the Achaemenid Persian Empire. King Cyrus the Great was known for his policy of religious tolerance, and largely respected the beliefs of his subject peoples, even if he did not hold to those beliefs himself. Rightly then does Isaiah present Cyrus as God’s shepherd and anointed one (Isaiah 44:28, 45:1). God in his providence used his tolerance to bring the Jews back to their land so that they could rebuild their temple, the story of which is recorded for us in Ezra-Nehemiah, as well as Esther.

This is instructive for us today, because we see how seriously God takes covenant breaking. If we take His commandments lightly, a similar chastisement will come upon us. On the other hand, however, if we repent and resolve to live according to His precepts, we will experience deliverance.

J. Luis Dizon