How the Exile Is Relevant for Christians Today
Come, Let Us Go to the House of the Lord
The Bible traverses a cosmic spectacle from creation to new creation. Genesis 1‒2 describes the original Eden, and Revelation 21‒22 foretells a new Eden. Thus, the Creator’s original intent in forming and fashioning the world is never abandoned in the Bible and is finally accomplished in the end. But between those two poles, we have a multi-layered story of exile and return. Adam and Eve are expelled from Eden in Genesis 3:24, and in Revelation 21:24‒26 the “kings of the earth” bring their glories and honors back into the paradisical presence of God. It is no overstatement to say, therefore, that the Bible is one long drama of humanity’s homecoming.
I contend that the drama climaxes as Jesus’s death becomes his own personal exile, and his resurrection is his own personal return from exile. For in his resurrection, and by extension his ascension, Jesus is the first man to re-enter the very presence of God, “not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (Heb. 9:24). In turn, Jesus’s resurrection secures our resurrection—a historical downpayment guaranteeing the future return of all Jesus’s people to that same presence of God (1 Thess. 4:13‒18).
This means that the Bible portrays a grand theology of history. That is, by narrating a story from creation to new creation, with a consistent hum of exile and return in between, the Bible gives us an intentional narrative that overlays and explains all of history. So the history of the cosmos is not just one random thing after another, on its way to cosmic conflagration, wherein nothing truly matters in between. Rather, the universe, from beginning to end, is the intentional theater of redemption, written by its divine Author. And we are living today in the last chapter of that grand narrative; the last chapter of a story that will certainly end with our homecoming to God! This should give us tremendous perseverance and confidence to endure the race set before us.
Return from Exile and the Renewal of God's People
Nicholas G. Piotrowski
Focusing primarily on the journeys of Abraham, Joseph, and Jesus, Nicholas G. Piotrowski examines exile stories throughout Scripture, showing how they illustrate humanity’s ultimate need for a Savior.
Stories have quite an effect on us. Stories cause us to imagine another setting and another time than our own. And if the story is well organized (easy for the audience to follow) and has a satisfying conclusion, then it also has an orienting effect on us when we read, hear, or see it. Perhaps you’ve read a good story recently and thought how well all the pieces hold together and how you always knew where you were in the developing plot. Equally, perhaps you have recently read a book whose narrative was disjointed, even chaotic. The former made you feel secure and clearheaded in its pages. The latter left you dizzy and maybe even anxious when reading. Either way, at some point you had to put the book down and turn your attention again to “the real world.”
And this is where the Bible’s return-from-exile drama mentioned above really helps us. We live in a time in “the real world” when things feel uncertain and chaotic. What is the meaning of life? Where is history going? What is right and what is wrong? Who is righteous and who is unjust? These are all questions for which different people from different perspectives have different answers. If your ears are open to it all, it becomes apparent just how disorienting our times are. Equally, our own personal lives can also feel uncertain and chaotic. The stresses of job, family, health, etc. can leave us reeling, nervous, and maybe even hopeless. But the biblical story of return from exile through Jesus Christ grounds us, orients us, and restores that hope.
Here is what I mean. If the world is just a series of pointless, random events stuck in an endless and god-less cause-and-effect loop, then it is very hard to get a sense of “where are we” in the story of creation. If history is not going anywhere, not accomplishing anything—no purpose, no goal—then it is equally hard to understand “when are we.” That is, without the Bible’s theology of history we find ourselves in one of those chaotic meaningless stories, and we feel like a lost cork adrift in a whirling current.
We have entered into the time when the man Jesus Christ has launched our homecoming.
And I do believe that even Christians can feel that way. If we understand the Bible as a disconnected series of teachings—a story here, a poem there, a verse out of context to memorize—and don’t see the consistency and continuity of the parts, then we miss that overall narrative that it provides. The Bible is God’s self-revelation and interpretation of the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. To understand the Bible’s theology of history is, therefore, to understand how the divine Author is shaping the story of creation in which we live. And when we see that, suddenly we understand “where we are” and “when we are.”
Because Jesus has gone on his own exile in his death and returned to the presence of God in his resurrection and ascension, we can see that we have one step back into Eden! Christ is the first man to return to the very presence of God! And because of him, we have a “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf” (Heb. 6:19–20; cf. also Heb. 10:20). And he himself is leading us to that place too! Because Christ has gone before us into the presence of God, the next movement of history is the full homecoming of the church into a new creation where God “will dwell with them, and they will be his people” (Rev. 21:3)!
All this will happen, by cosmic standards, very soon! Between Jesus’s first and second comings, we are in the last chapter of history. For in Jesus’s death, resurrection, and ascension, the ages have shifted. We have entered into the time when the man Jesus Christ has launched our homecoming. The major turning point of history, therefore, is not the Enlightenment, the founding of America, or the last election. It’s not your birthday or recent promotion or dismissal. It is the time in history when God entered the creation in Christ and commenced the church’s return to the presence of God—now in the church’s worship (Heb. 12:18‒25) and soon in that new creation world without end (Heb. 12:26‒27).
For sure, “all the world’s a stage”: God’s stage for his purposes in creation and redemption. “And all the men and women [are] merely players”: God’s actors in his drama, driven away from his life-giving presence because of sin, but now coming home through our Savior and forerunner Jesus Christ, and soon to fully and finally rest at home with him in God’s presence again.1
In “the real world” where people are profoundly confused about who they are, what is good, what is true, what is beautiful, and what is the meaning of life, this biblical narrative of homecoming is beautifully refreshing, inspiring, motivating, hope-giving, grounding, and identifying. It gives us the understanding of God’s place and God’s timing so that we can endure suffering, resist sin, hope in our resurrection, lean on one another, and minister to the world. For, from beginning to end, God’s creation cannot be marked by “mere oblivion” and end “sans everything.” It is marked with God’s purposes and ends in his presence in a new creation.
Notes:
- “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players” comes from Shakespeare’s As You Like It (ca. 1599). The character Jaques concludes that each “player” (actor) ends their script in “mere oblivion; sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” The biblical metadrama of return from exile to a new creation had the exact opposite philosophy of life. Praise God for that!
Nicholas G. Piotrowski is the author of Return from Exile and the Renewal of God’s People.
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