Exile and Regathering

[Guest]

Hi again!

I wanted to post a study on the cycles of exile and regathering in the bible. I thought that it would be interesting to look at this in terms of end-time events.

As I've posted before (in the Isaiah 11 thread), Genesis 1-3 is structured as an inverted chiasmus which begins with darkness, culminates in the Sabbath rest, and ends in exile.

There are a number of things going on even in these first three chapters, but I'm only going to focus on two things: the exile itself, and what caused it in the first place.

We have the following five points:

1. There are a number of ideas on what the sin of eating the forbidden fruit was all about. I'll save discussion on that for another time and just get to what happened immediately afterwards. Instead of taking personal responsibility for his sin, Adam pointed the finger of blame at God and at Eve. This act sabotaged the relationships that Adam had with God and with Eve, damaging their mutual love and trust. (This is just basic psychology.)

2. When they were exiled, Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden eastwards. In the bible, the direction of east often symbolizes rebellion or exile.

3. Notice that God could not dwell with sin. When Adam and Eve sinned, they were cast out of the presence of God and exiled.

4. Notice that God's response to their sin was to talk about a descendant of Eve crushing the head of the serpent. As we've seen (again, in my post on Isaiah 11), Genesis 3:14-15 has to do with overcoming. Specifically, we first see the idea of the promised son here, which would be born in pain.

5. God cursed the ground as a result of Adam's sin. Not only would Eve bear "fruit" - that is, children - in pain, the ground would bear "fruit" or crops only through hard labor.

To summarize:

1. Mutual love and trust damaged
2. Exiled eastwards
3. God cannot dwell with sin
4. The promised son - born in pain
5. Ground cursed - bears fruit through hard labor

Beginning in Genesis 5:28-29, we already begin to see signs of a promised redemption:

"And Lamech lived a hundred and eighty-two years and begat a son. He called his name Noah, saying, 'He will comfort us concerning our work and hard labor because of the ground which the Lord cursed.'"

In Genesis 6, we're told that the earth had become filled with violence. As I've mentioned before, violence is simply the result of total insensitivity to others - a total lack of love and trust.

So, we're only seeing some of the above elements mentioned here, but there is also the promise of "rest" - Noah's name literally means "rest."

In Genesis 12, we see Abraham told to journey from Ur towards the land of Canaan, westwards. Once there, he is told that he and his descendants would inherit the whole land of Canaan, and he is also told of a promised son whom God would give to him and Sarah.

So here's a sixth element to add to our list:

6. The promised land

Notice that the events of Abraham's life all have to do with developing trust in God, even under circumstances which appear virtually impossible - such as the birth of a son with both parents are very old.

Now, the Jews teach that when God changed Abram's name (Hebrew Aleph-Beth-Resh-Mem, A-B-R-M) to Abraham (Hebrew Aleph-Beth-Resh-Heh-Mem, A-B-R-H-M), God was giving Abraham part of His name (Hebrew Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, Y-H-V-H). (Sarai's name was changed to Sarah in the same way, from S-R-Y to S-R-H.) God was, as it were, "entering in" to Abraham. The Hebrew letter "Heh" represents the sound of breathing, so as it were God breathed part of His name into Abraham. Christians would put it in terms of receiving the Holy Spirit. It's significant that almost immediately after this is when their son Isaac was born. By receiving the Holy Spirit, Abraham's ability to love and trust - which was there before, although it was far from perfect - was restored. This is evidenced by how Abraham responded to the next test of love and trust that God gave him: to sacrifice his son.

When the Israelites came out of Egypt, we again see a test of love and trust being put before Moses, and then all of the Israelites. It was Moses' love and concern for the people, coupled with his trust in God's deliverance under seemingly impossible circumstances, that made him fit to be their leader. (That's why he's a type of Christ, by the way.) There is a further test of trust when the Israelites are about to enter into the Promised Land and they send in the twelve spies. Most of them bring back a report based on their fear of the present inhabitants of the land, and the Israelites once again can't trust that God can bring them in anyway.

After the Jews were exiled to Babylon, we read in Daniel that they would take possession of the land of Judah and rebuild Jerusalem "in troubled times" (Dan. 9:25). This harks back to the idea in Genesis 3 of the cursed ground which bears fruit only through hard labor. Why was it so hard for them to rebuild? Because their enemies made trouble for them and attacked them at every turn, which harks back to the "violence" of Genesis 6 - a lack of love - which filled the earth.

When Jesus came as the Messiah, the Jews were expecting a conquering king to deliver them from the hated Romans. What they didn't see is why they were in their circumstances! The Romans lacked love for the Jews. The Jews themselves lacked love for one another, and so God was punishing them through others who lacked love. In order to be redeemed from bondage, their love and trust had to be restored! And like we saw with Abraham, the only way to restore that love and trust, in the midst of very difficult circumstances, was through the Holy Spirit.

Now we come to the end-time, the modern day. Once again, the Jews are back in the land of Israel. They're as foreigners dwelling in the land, just like Abraham, because their possession of it isn't secure as long as their enemies cause trouble for them and attack them at every turn because they lack love. They await rest from their enemies. They await the promised son, the Messiah, who will deliver them from their enemies. But God cannot come and dwell with them if they themselves lack love and trust in the midst of very difficult circumstances, something that can only happen through the Holy Spirit.

The purpose of the Great Tribulation, by the way, is to force people to choose whether they will put their love and trust in God, and love others, even in the midst of impossible circumstances. (See Mat. 24:12-13) It symbolizes the promised Son - the Messiah - being "born" in "pain." It also represents the promised sons - the saints, also known as Israel - being "born" through the Holy Spirit in "pain."

Does it now make sense that the Jews returning to the land of Israel is a sign that Jesus' return is near?

Anyway, there's much more to this subject. I haven't even touched upon how the "house of God" fits into this, and it's a major part of it. But I hope that everyone can see that it really is all about pure love and trust no matter how difficult things get.

Damon