How Israel’s Exile Is Fulfilled in Jesus’s Exile and Return

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and Ransom Captive Israel

It might probably come as a shock after we first hear that Israel’s exile by no means actually ended within the Outdated Testomony. I do know I used to be shocked the primary time I thought-about the concept. I wager Daniel was equally shocked when he first heard it from the angel, Gabriel, in Daniel 9:20–24. Nevertheless it is smart after we pause to think about that Israel’s exile (which you’ll examine in 2 Kings 17 and a pair of Kings 24) was not merely the expertise of compelled relocation but additionally introduced with it the lack of the Davidic dynasty and the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. Thus, exile is a theological situation of God’s people who started with the deportation. Certain, whereas some individuals did come dwelling with Ezra, the prophets of Israel forecasted a day when the exile would finish with a brand new Davidic king (Isa. 9:1–7; Mic. 5:1–4) and a wonderful new temple (Isa. 2:1–5; Mic. 4:1‒13). Equally, there can be an amazing end-times atonement on the finish of exile (Isa. 40:1‒2; 52:13‒53:12) and a resurrection (Isa. 25:6‒8; Isa. 26:19; Ezek. 37:1‒14). Thus, the OT prophetic imaginative and prescient for the top of the exile is (no less than) a regathering of Israel’s scattered individuals, the re-enthronement of the home of David, a brand new wonderful, world-wide temple, an end-all atonement, and a bodily resurrection. All of this quantities to “an amazing gentle [for] those that dwelt in a land of deep darkness” (Isa. 9:2).

With that background the opening chapters of Matthew merely leap off the web page! Jesus is the son of David (Matt. 1:1) “after the deportation” (Matt. 1:12). He’s the king of the Jews (Matt. 2:2). His ministry is known as “an amazing gentle” for “the individuals dwelling in darkness” (Matt. 4:16). He gathers up his individuals (Matt. 4:18‒22, 25; cf. additionally Matt. 14:19‒20), and his dying is a brand new covenant atoning sacrifice (Matt. 26:26‒28). John even calls him “the temple” (John 2:21), and Paul says that Jesus’s followers—by union with him—are the brand new temple spreading all through the world (Eph. 2:17‒22). All this stacks as much as current Jesus’s life, dying and resurrection, and ongoing lifetime of the church because the true finish of exile! Let’s take a deeper look into every of these actions: Jesus’s life; Jesus’s dying and resurrection; Jesus’s individuals.

Jesus’s Life because the Daybreak of Return of the Exile

Within the e-book of Isaiah, the prophet describes at size what the top of the exile can be like. He says that on the finish of the exile, “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame man will leap” (Isa. 35:5‒6), the “useless shall dwell; their our bodies shall rise” (Isa. 26:19), the sick can be healed (Isa. 57:18), and “excellent news” can be preached “to the poor” (Isa. 61:1). When John the Baptist wonders if Jesus is the one to come back, Jesus factors to his miracles and teachings as indicators that certainly he’s. And he factors out the particular miracles and teachings that Isaiah mentioned would mark the top of the exile. He says, “Go and inform John what you hear and see: the blind obtain their sight and the lame stroll, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the useless are raised up, and the poor have excellent news preached to them” (Matt 11:4‒5). Certainly, Jesus is the one to come back. And particularly, he’s the one to come back on the finish of the exile. Thus, with Jesus’s ministry the daybreak of return-from-exile gentle is breaking over the horizon!

Cursed and exiled from God due to our personal sin, we’re introduced again into his presence by Christ’s righteousness!

Jesus’s Demise & Resurrection because the Second of Return from Exile

But, the quintessential second of launch from exile comes at Jesus’s dying and resurrection. Moses himself had predicted the exile and known as it a “curse” (see Deut 27:9‒26; 28:15‒68). Paul, in Galatians 3:10, says that disobedience to the regulation ends in a “curse” (citing Deut. 27:26), however then exults that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the regulation by turning into a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). Thus, Jesus’s dying is his personal private exile that he endured on behalf of his individuals. Additional, Hebrews 8:1‒2 tells us that in Jesus’s resurrection, he has gone into the true sanctuary of God. Thus, by the resurrection (and ascension) Jesus now ministers within the true sanctuary of God on behalf of his individuals. By Jesus, due to this fact, Christians can say that their exile is over! We “have been crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20) and “raised up with him and seated . . . within the heavenly locations” (Eph. 2:6). Cursed and exiled from God due to our personal sin, we’re introduced again into his presence by Christ’s righteousness!

Jesus’s Folks because the Ongoing Return from Exile Group

Lastly, it’s extremely important that Jesus’s ministry will not be solely prior to now, however by his Spirit, he’s regularly reaching the world. In Romans 6:4 we’re informed that “simply as Christ was raised from the useless by the glory of the Father, we too . . . stroll within the newness of life.” Which means to be born once more is to expertise the identical energy that raised Jesus from the useless! Peter places it like this: “he has precipitated us to be born once more to a dwelling hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the useless” (1 Pet. 1:3). Thus, Jesus’s return-from-exile resurrection remains to be felt everywhere in the world each time a sinner repents, follows Jesus, and walks within the newness of life.

We will say, due to this fact, that by Jesus, Christians have come out of exile (Jesus’s completed work within the cross and resurrection) and are coming out of exile (experiencing Jesus’s resurrection energy in our lives in union with him). However we are able to additionally go a step additional. Christians additionally will come out of exile lastly and absolutely when Jesus returns. Then, “the dwelling place of God [will be] with man. He’ll dwell with them, and they are going to be his individuals, and God himself can be with them as their God” (Rev. 21:3). Amen! Come Lord Jesus!

Nicholas G. Piotrowski is the writer of Return from Exile and the Renewal of God’s Folks.

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