How to Find a Way Out of Exile → Allies Praise

How many of us have come face-to-face with the terrors of exile, being forced from our homes and families? In our world we may think of political exile that millions still suffer in. Do you think they ever stop thinking about how to find a way out of exile?

The Hebrew children of the Old Testament were in exile about as much as they were out of it. Moses lived and led an exiled people in the 13th century B.C. Over five centuries later, the prophet Isaiah was still trying to get them in line with God’s will.

You furnish lovely music at your grand parties; the orchestras are superb! But for the Lord you have no thought or care. Therefore I will send you into exile far away because you neither know nor care that I have done so much for you. Your great and honored men will starve, and the common people will die of thirst.

Isaiah 5:12-13 TLB

Can we begin to imagine being driven from our homes and families? It seems beyond our grasp, no matter how many images we see, or interviews we watch. Being taken from the place and the ones we love . . . Sadly for some, exile isn’t a place on a map.

Isaiah tells us that exile was often the penalty for lack of knowledge about God’s presence and work. (What God was up to wasn’t exactly a topic at the dinner table.) Exile can be the result of circumstances, such as war, or consequences of personal or political decisions.

And sometimes demons within, like substance abuse, mental illness, or guilt, drive us into exile. It can be an ugly place no eyes can see but our own.

The more I called them, the more they went from me,
they kept sacrificing to the Ba′als, and burning incense to idols.

Yet it was I who taught E′phraim to walk, I took them up in my arms but they did not know that I healed them.

I led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love, and I became to them, as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.

Hosea 11:2-4 RSV

Finding a way out of exile begins with a glance, squinting against the pain of where we are in the moment. It begins by letting our hearts listen to God’s reminder of His love and compassion, and being soothed by His promise of redemption. Dear Reader, you can take comfort in knowing we can be cleansed and forgiven through His faithfulness, not our own.

Dear Reader, I have been in an exile of my own making from just one careless decision. It not only hurt me, it hurt my family. I languished in guilt until desperation forced me into finding the way out of exile. And just like the promise of redemption Jesus gave us in the parable of “The Prodigal Son,” God met me there.

So he set out and came to his father. But when he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

Luke 15:20 NASB