CHAPTER 9 EXILE AND RETURN

The cost of disobeying God
Return to the Lord
Return and restoration
An everlasting covenant; a contract
Obey my laws and be my people
Home again in peace and safety
A new contract
The Spirit from Heaven
The whole world will be ruled by the Lord from Jerusalem
Vengeance upon the nations
All nations will be judged by God
The Ancient of Days – the Almighty God sits in Judgment

The cost of disobeying God
HOSEA 11:7
I (the Lord) have sentenced them (Israel) to slavery (captivity: people without freedom or personal rights) and no one shall set them free.
HOSEA 9:17
My God will destroy the people of Israel because they will not listen or obey. They will be wandering Jews, homeless among the nations.
JEREMIAH 29:18-19
And I will scatter them around the world. And in every nation where I place them they will be cursed and hissed and mocked. For they refuse to listen to me though I spoke to them again and again through my prophets.

Return to the Lord
HOSEA 3:4-5
This illustrates the fact that Israel will be a long time without a king or prince, and without an altar, temple, priests, or even idols!
Afterwards they will return to the Lord their God, and to the Messiah, their King (to David, their King), and they shall come trembling, submissive to the Lord and to his blessings, in the end times.
MICAH 2:12-13
The time will come, O Israel, when I will gather you – all that are left – and bring you together again like sheep in a fold, like a flock in a pasture – a noisy, happy, crowd. The Messiah will lead you out of exile and bring you through the gates of your cities of captivity, back to your own land. Your King will go before you – the Lord leads on.

Return and restoration
ISAIAH 27:1-13
In that day the Lord will take his terrible, swift sword and punish leviathan (a sea monster) the swiftly moving serpent, the coiling writhing serpent, the dragon of the sea.
In that day [of Israel’s freedom] let this anthem be their song:
Israel is my vineyard; I, the Lord, will tend the fruitful vines; every day I’ll water them, and day and night I’ll watch to keep all enemies away. My anger against Israel is gone. If I find thorns and briars bothering her, I will burn them up, unless these enemies of mine surrender and beg for peace and my protection. The time will come when Israel will take root and bud and blossom and fill the whole earth with her fruit!
Has God punished Israel as much as he has punished her enemies? No, for he has devastated her enemies, while he has punished Israel but a little, exiling her far from her own land as though blown away in a storm from the east. And why did God do it? It was to purge away her sins (her disobedience of God’s Laws), to rid her of all her idol altars and her idols. They will never be worshipped again. Her walled cities will be silent and empty, houses abandoned, streets grown up with grass, cows grazing through the city munching on twigs and branches.
My people are like the dead branches of a tree, broken off and used to burn beneath the pots. They are a foolish nation, a witless, stupid people, for they turn away from God. Therefore, he who made them will not have pity on them or show them his mercy. Yet the time will come when the Lord will gather them together one by one like hand-picked grain, selecting them here and there from his great threshing floor (for beating out the grain) that reaches all the way from the river Euphrates to the Egyptian boundary. In that day the great trumpet will be blown, and many about to perish among their enemies, Assyria and Egypt, will be rescued and brought back to Jerusalem to worship the Lord in his holy mountain.

An everlasting covenant; a contract
JEREMIAH 32:37-44
But I will bring my people back again from all the countries where, in my fury, I will scatter them. I will bring them back to this very city, and make them live in peace and safety. And they shall be my people and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and mind to worship me forever, for their own good and for the good of all their descendants.
And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, promising never again to desert them, but only to do them good. I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they shall never leave me. I will rejoice to do them good and will replant them in this land, with great joy. Just as I have sent all these terrors and evils upon them, so will I do all the good I have promised them.
Fields will again be bought and sold in this land, now ravaged by the Babylonians, where men and animals alike have disappeared. Yes, fields shall once again be bought and sold – deeds signed and sealed and witnessed – in the country of Benjamin and here in Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah and in the hill country, in the Philistine plain and in the Negeb too, for some day I will restore prosperity to them.

Obey my laws and be my people
EZEKIEL 11:16-21
“But tell the exiles that the Lord God says: Although I have scattered you in the countries of the world, yet I will be a sanctuary to you for the time that you are there, and I will gather you back from the nations where you are scattered and give you the land of Israel again.
And when you return you will remove every trace of all this idol worship. I will give you one heart and a new spirit; I will take from you your hearts of stone and give you tender hearts of love for God, so that you can obey my laws and be my people, and I will be your God. But as for those now in Jerusalem, who long for idols, I will repay them fully for their sins (for disobeying my Laws),” the Lord God says.

Home again in peace and safety
EZEKIEL 39:25-29
“But now, the Lord God says, I will end the captivity of my people and have mercy upon them and restore their fortunes, for I am concerned about my reputation! Their time of treachery and shame will all be in the past; they will be home again, in peace and safety in their own land, with no one bothering them or making them afraid. I will bring them home from the lands of their enemies – and my glory shall be evident to all the nations when I do it. Through them I will vindicate my holiness before the nations. Then my people will know I am the Lord their God – responsible for sending them away to exile, and responsible for bringing them home. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations. And I will never hide my face from them again, for I will pour out my Spirit upon them, says the Lord God.”

A new contract
JEREMIAH 31:1-40
At that time, says the Lord, all the families of Israel shall recognize me as the Lord; they shall act like my people. I will care for them as I did those who escaped from Egypt, to whom I showed my mercies in the wilderness, when Israel sought for rest. For long ago the Lord had said to Israel: I have loved you, O my people, with an everlasting love; with loving-kindness I have drawn you to me. I will rebuild your nation, O virgin of Israel. You will again be happy and dance merrily with timbrels (tambourines - flat half-drums with jingling discs of metal attached). Again you will plant your vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria and eat from your own gardens there.
The day shall come when watchmen on the hills of Ephraim will call out and say, “Arise, and let us go up to Zion to the Lord our God.” For the Lord says, Sing with joy for all that I will do for Israel, the greatest of the nations! Shout out with praise and joy: “The Lord has saved his people, the remnant of Israel.” For I will bring them from the north and from earth’s farthest ends, not forgetting their blind and lame, young mothers with their little ones, those ready to give birth. It will be a great company who comes. Tears of joy shall stream down their faces, and I will lead them home with great care. They shall walk beside the quiet streams and not stumble. For I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my oldest child.
Listen to this message from the Lord, you nations of the world, and publish it abroad: The Lord who scattered his people will gather them back together again and watch over them as a shepherd does his flock.
He will save Israel from those who are too strong for them! They shall come home and sing songs of joy upon the hills of Zion, and shall be radiant (beaming and bright) over the goodness of the Lord – the good crops, the wheat and the wine and the oil, and the healthy flocks and herds. Their life shall be like a watered garden, and all their sorrows shall be gone. The young girls will dance for joy, and men folk – old and young – will take their part in all the fun; for I will turn their mourning into joy and I will comfort them and make them rejoice, for their captivity with all its sorrows will be behind them. I will feast the priests with the abundance of offerings brought to them at the Temple; I will satisfy my people with my bounty, says the Lord.
The Lord spoke to me again, saying: In Ramah there is bitter weeping, Rachel is weeping for her children and she cannot be comforted, for they are gone. But the Lord says: Don’t cry any longer, for I have heard your prayers and you will see them again; they will come back to you from the distant land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, says the Lord, and your children will come again to their own land.
I have heard Ephraim’s groans: “You have punished me greatly; but I needed it all, as a calf must be trained for the yoke (the harness). Turn me again to you and restore me, for you alone are the Lord, my God. I turned away from God but I was sorry afterwards. I kicked myself for my stupidity. I was thoroughly ashamed of all I did in younger days.”
And the Lord replies: Ephraim is still my son, my darling child. I had to punish him, but I still love him. I long for him and surely will have mercy on him.
As you travel into exile, set up road signs pointing back to Israel. Mark your pathway well. For you shall return again, O virgin Israel, to your cities here. How long will you vacillate (waver; move to and fro), O wayward daughter? For the Lord will cause something new and different to happen – Israel shall seek him!
The Lord of heaven’s armies, the God of Israel, says: When I bring them back again they shall say in Judah and her cities, “The Lord bless you, O centre of righteousness, O holy hill!” And city dwellers and farmers and shepherds alike shall live together in peace and happiness. For I have given rest to the weary and joy to all the sorrowing.
(Then Jeremiah weakened. “Such sleep is very sweet!’ he said.)
The Lord says: The time will come when I will greatly increase the population and multiply the number of cattle here in Israel. In the past I painstakingly destroyed the nation but now I will carefully build it up. The people shall no longer quote this proverb – “Children pay for their fathers’ sins (their disobedience of God’s Laws).” For everyone shall die for his own sins – the person eating sour (bitter) grapes is the one whose teeth are set on edge (ache with pain).
The day will come, says the Lord, when I will make a new contract with the people of Israel and Judah. It won’t be like the one I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt – a contract they broke, forcing me to reject them, says the Lord. But this is the new contract I will make with them: I will inscribe my laws upon their hearts, so that they shall want to honor me; then they shall truly be my people and I will be their God. At that time it will no longer be necessary to admonish (to warn) one another to know the Lord. For everyone, both great and small, shall really know me then, says the Lord, and I will forgive and forget their sins.
The Lord who gives us sunlight in the daytime and the moon and stars to light the night, and who stirs the sea to make the roaring waves – his name is the Lord of heaven’s armies – says this:
I am as likely to reject my people Israel as I am to do away with these laws of nature! Not until the heavens can be measured and the foundations of the earth explored, will I consider casting them away forever for their sins!
For the time is coming, says the Lord, when all Jerusalem shall be rebuilt for the Lord, from the Tower of Hananel at the northeast corner, to the Corner Gate at the northwest; and from the hill of Gareb at the southwest, across to Goah on the southeast. And the entire city including the graveyard and ash dump in the valley shall be holy to the Lord, and so shall all the fields out to the brook of Kidron, and from there to the Horse Gate on the east side of the city; it shall never again be captured or destroyed.
EZEKIEL 16:62-63
“I will reaffirm my covenant with you, and you will know I am the Lord. Despite all you have done, I will be kind to you again; you will cover your mouth in silence and in shame when I forgive you all that you have done, says the Lord God.”

The Spirit from Heaven
ISAIAH 32:15-17
…Until at last the Spirit is poured down on us from heaven. Then once again enormous crops will come. Then justice will rule through all the land, and out of justice, peace. Quietness and confidence will reign for evermore.
JOEL 2:28-32
“After I have poured out my rains again, I will pour out my Spirit upon all of you! Your sons and daughters will prophesy; your old men will dream dreams, and your young men see visions. And I will pour out my Spirit even on your slaves, men and women alike, and put strange symbols in the earth and sky – blood and fire and pillars of smoke.”
“The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon to blood before the great and terrible Day of the Lord shall come.”
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; even in Jerusalem some will escape, just as the Lord has promised, for he has chosen some to survive.”

The whole world will be ruled by the Lord from Jerusalem
MICAH 4:1-8
But in the last days Mount Zion will be the most renowned of all the mountains of the world, praised by all nations; people from all over the world will make pilgrimages there.
“Come,” they will say to one another, “let us visit the mountain of the Lord, and see the Temple of the God of Israel; he will tell us what to do, and we will do it.” For in those days the whole world will be ruled by the Lord from Jerusalem! He will issue his laws and announce his decrees from there.
He will arbitrate among the nations, and dictate to strong nations far away. They will beat their swords into ploughshares (plough blades) and their spears into pruning-hooks; nations shall no longer fight each other, for all war will end. There will be universal peace, and all the military academies and training camps will be closed down.
Everyone will live quietly in his own home in peace and prosperity, for there will be nothing to fear. The Lord himself has promised this. (Therefore we will follow the Lord our God forever and ever, even though all the nations around us worship idols!)
In that coming day, the Lord says that he will bring back his punished people – sick and lame and dispossessed – and make them strong again in their own land, a mighty nation, and the Lord himself shall be their King from Mount Zion forever. O Jerusalem – the Watch-tower of God’s people – your royal might and power will come back to you again, just as before.

Vengeance upon the nations
MICAH 5:7-15
Then the nation of Israel will refresh the world like a gentle dew or the welcome showers of rain, and Israel will be as strong as a lion. The nations will be like helpless sheep before her! She will stand up to her foes; all her enemies will be wiped out.
At that same time, says the Lord, I will destroy all the weapons you depend on, and tear down your walls and demolish the defenses of your cities. I will put an end to all witchcraft (sorcery and magic) – there will be no more fortune-tellers to consult – and destroy all your idols. Never again will you worship what you have made, and I will abolish the heathen shrines from among you, and destroy the cities where your idol temples stand.
And I will pour out my vengeance (revenge and retribution) upon the nations who refuse to obey me.

All nations will be judged by God
JOEL 3:1-2
“At that time, when I restore the prosperity of Judah and Jerusalem,” says the Lord, “I will gather the armies of the world into the ‘Valley Where Jehovah Judges’ and punish them there for harming my people, for scattering my inheritance among the nations and dividing up my land.
JOEL 3:9-12
Announce this far and wide: Get ready for war! Conscript your best soldiers; collect all your armies. Melt your ploughshares (plough blades) into swords and beat your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak be strong. Gather together and come, all nations everywhere.
And now, O Lord, bring down your warriors! Collect the nations; bring them to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to pronounce judgment on them all.

The Ancient of Days – The Almighty God sits in Judgment
DANIEL 7:9-14
I watched as thrones were put in place and the Ancient of Days – the Almighty God – sat down to judge. His clothing was as white as snow, his hair like whitest wool. He sat upon a fiery throne brought in on flaming wheels, and a river of fire flowed from before him. Millions of angels ministered to him and hundred of millions of people stood before him, waiting to be judged. Then the court began its session and The Books were opened.
As I watched, the brutal fourth animal was killed and its body handed over to be burned because of its arrogance against Almighty God, and the boasting of its little horn. As for the other three animals, their kingdoms were taken from them, but they were allowed to live a short time longer.
Next I saw the arrival of a Man – or so he seemed to be – brought there on clouds from heaven; he approached the Ancient of Days and was presented to him. He was given the ruling power and glory over all the nations of the world, so that all people of every language must obey him. His power is eternal – it will never end; his government shall never fall.
DANIEL 7:22
…until the Ancient of Days came and opened his court and vindicated his people, giving them world wide powers of government.
DANIEL 7:26-27
“But then the Ancient of Days will come and open his court of justice and take all power from the vicious king, to consume and destroy it until the end. Then every nation under heaven, and all their power, shall be given to the people of God; they shall rule all things forever, and all rulers shall serve and obey them.”