1. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word as we continue our Lenten sermon series, “Coming Home From Exile: The Exoduses of the Scriptures,” is taken from Ezra 1:1-4 and is entitled, “Exile and Return from Our Babylons,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. God isn’t a cantankerous hothead who’s ready to blow up at the drop of a hat. He’s long-tempered, slow to anger, quick to forgive. In the days of Noah, he gave the world’s population 120 years to repent before drowning them in the worldwide flood. He put up with Nineveh’s murderous ways for many a day before sending Jonah—and even then he gave them 40 more days to repent before He would bring His judgment upon them. And He put up with Jonah’s bellyaching at the same time! He was patient with Jacob’s deceptions, Solomon’s womanizing, and—most amazing of all, the example of divine self-control—he’s patient even with the likes of you and me.
3. But be warned. There’s a limit. There does come a point when the Heavenly Father puts every kid’s least favorite proverb into practice, namely, “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” Just ask His rebellious son Israel; He’ll tell you all about how that rod of fatherly discipline feels across one’s backside. For over 200 years God bombarded his people with prophet after prophet, all preaching variations of the same sermon: “Turn back to the true God, or He will turn His face away from you.” From Amos to Isaiah, Hosea to Jeremiah, they all read Israel’s upcoming obituary, but the hearers by and large either laughed or shrugged the message away. Or they killed the messenger. After all, they’d heard this stuff before. “Yeah, the last prophet preached the same thing and, lo and behold, Rev. Chicken Little, the sky hasn’t fallen yet.”
4. Oh, but fall it did, with the whole weight of Babylon pressing it down. This superpower, under King Nebuchadnezzar, bulldozed Jerusalem, ground her temple to dust, and reduced even her most powerful, rich, and wealthy citizens to a ragtag band of prisoners of war. Like Lot’s wife, no doubt many of them looked back to see their leveled city, salty tears drenching their once happy faces. To Babylon they were marched, their backs reddened by the rod of discipline, their ears full of the divine words that had gone unheard. Homeless and hopeless into exile they went.
5. Well, actually, homeless, yes, but hopeless, no. For as the Lord had informed Abraham how many years Israel would be stuck in Egypt, so he had told Jeremiah how long his nation would call Babylon “home-sour-home.” It would be 70 years, plenty of time to take stock of how much they had invested in idolatry. For the wages of rebellion is exile, but the gift of God is homecoming, in God’s time and in God’s way, but all according to grace.
6. And so, according to grace, Babylon’s bubble burst as Persia moved up to the number one world power. According to grace, Cyrus, king of Persia, issued an edict that all exiled Israelites were free to head home. And according to grace, men such as Ezra stepped into Moses’ shoes to lead the children of Abraham out of the sewer reeking of idolatry and falsehood back into the land flowing with milk and honey.
7. That’s the kind of God the Israelites had. And that’s the kind of God you have too. He’s the same yesterday, today, tomorrow, next year, and forever. He provides Noah with an ark for the salvation of his household. He brings Abraham out of exile. He takes Jacob by the hand and brings him back to his fatherland. He escorts Israel out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. He pulls his people out of the quicksand of Babylon and sets them on the solid ground of Canaan. And he has done the same for you, no matter what or where your own Babylon may have been.
8. Is your Babylon the land of addiction, where your whole life revolves around the next drink, the next fix, the next porn site, the next whatever that provides that high you don’t think you can live without? From the Babylonian land of addiction, Jesus has delivered you. He’s the God who welcomes all, from the needle-scarred prostitute to the white-collared CEO. He’s no respecter of persons. He tears down your prisons, keeps the enemy at bay, and carries you out of Babylon. He will do it, and he has done it. For he wants you to be His, and His alone. And He has done and will do what it takes to make that happen.
9. Or is your Babylon the land of pleasure, where every dime you earn, every free hour you have, is spent in doing whatever makes your skin tingle, feeds your sexual appetite, or just puts a self-satisfied smile on your face? From the Babylonian land of pleasure, Jesus has delivered you. He has come to show you that true and lasting pleasure is found solely in Him and His love. The joy with which He fills you outlasts every passing pleasure that this world holds before your eyes. There’s no greater joy than being able to lay your head down on the pillow every night with a clean conscience—a conscience clean not because you’ve passed the day without sinning, but because you know and believe that your sins are forgiven in Christ. However big they are, the love of Jesus is always bigger.
10. Or is your Babylon simply the going-through-the-motions life, a sad existence covered by a smile and well-practiced laugh? You have your career, your family, your friends—all of which give the appearance that life is fine and dandy. But under this outward disguise is sheer emptiness, a black hole of despair that sucks into it every single aspect of your life. From this Babylon too, Christ is your deliverer. He’s not content merely to take away your sins and death; He also fills your life with Himself, with His own life. And where He is, there is contentment, no matter what your circumstances, rich or poor, healthy or sick. It is the contentment of knowing that you really do matter to God, that your life, your job, your marriage, your children, your all, really and truly matter to Him. It’s the contentment of knowing that in your actions as spouse, parent, or worker, Christ is active, using what you do, to do good to and for your neighbor.
11. Whatever your Babylon, whatever that place of captivity and exile, it can’t keep captive you for whom Jesus died. His crucifixion tree is the sledgehammer that pounds away at every wall that bars you in. As Samson once tore the gates of a city from the earth and carried them high on a hill, so has the greater Samson, Jesus, wrecked the gates of every Babylon of addiction, every Babylon of pleasure, every Babylon of a lifeless life to bring you home to himself. He didn’t rest until it was done. As He brought forth His own resurrected body from the tomb, so has He raised you to life in His name and brought you forth alive again into the kingdom of God.
12. No, God isn’t a cantankerous hothead who’s ready to blow up at the drop of a hat. He’s long-tempered with you, slow to be angry with you, quick to forgive you. And that’s the way He is because, well, that’s just the way He is with you and for you in Christ Jesus. And He won’t change. Not ever. He’s the God who is on your side. And because of that, you need fear no Babylon. The Lord Jesus has conquered them all for you. According to His Grace, God Delivered Us Home from Babylon. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
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