Daniel // Week 2
In Daniel chapter 2, Daniel is referred to as “a man among the exiles from Judah” by a Babylonian official. As a Jewish person forced from his homeland, Daniel’s primary identity in the eyes of the Babylonians was an “exile.” This week we will read about how this identity impacts how Daniel reflects and honors God. Through this story of exile, we hope to discover what it means to have our true home in God while living in a world that does not know Him.
Miriam Webster defines the state of exile as “the state or a period of forced absence from one’s country or home.” As we read about last week, the Babylonians plundered Jerusalem and the Israelites are now forced to live in the land of the people who destroyed their home. Not only are the Israelites displaced, but they are living amongst people who are actively hostile to their God, culture, and way of life. The Jewish exiles have a choice to make. How will they respond to their oppression? Will they remain faithful to God in hardship?
They could choose to retaliate. While they are the oppressed minority, the Jewish people could try to seek vengeance and justice through the same violence that afflicted them.
They could choose to assimilate. Submitting to the ways of Babylon would likely offer them more physical safety and less cultural rub.
God, however, has not abandoned Israel to navigate exile on their own. He, through the prophet Jeremiah, gave them a third way to navigate exile. Here is a portion of what He said,
“5 Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
Jeremiah 29:5-7
God did not call the exiles to retaliation or assimilation. He called them to be a blessing in exile. This does not mean that the Jewish people are to abandon their faith and culture for the faith and culture of Babylon. It also doesn’t mean that they seek to destroy it with violent vengeance.
Rather, they are to build lives, homes, and families that reflect Yahweh God to the Babylonians. Sometimes that might look like planting a garden and sharing with their Babylonian neighbors. Sometimes that might look like humble and peaceful refusal to worship the Babylonian government.
In 1 Peter 2:11, Peter writes to Christians under Roman rule living in Asia Minor, and he calls them “foreigners and exiles.” Peter is relating the situation of Christians living under Roman rule to the Jewish exiles in Babylon. Similarly to God’s call in Jeremiah, Peter urges his readers to “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (1 Peter 2:12).
Peter communicates that the Christians living in Rome are spiritual exiles. They are surrounded by a culture that does not honor God and opposes their way of life. Their true allegiance is to the Kingdom of Jesus, and that is offensive to the Romans who are allied to their earthly empire. God is calling them to use their actions to honor God and display His glory to an environment that doesn’t favor Him or His people.
As it is written in Hebrews 13:14, “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.”
As people who have sworn allegiance to Jesus and His kingdom, we have made a new home in Christ. The earthly home in which we dwell no longer deserves our primary allegiance. In a spiritual sense, we, too, are exiles. If you feel like a stranger on this planet at times, this is because your lasting home is with God. The world as we know it now will not last. Jesus is coming to recreate it into a home where He will dwell with us as king forever.
But until then, what shall we do? Should we war with our neighbors and seek to offend those who oppose Jesus? Should we allow the currents of culture to carry us away from Christ as we seek to assimilate?
If scripture calls exiles to seek peace, prosperity, and upright lives in exile, what does that even look like?
As you read about living in exile this week, ask the Spirit to reveal what it means for you in your city, in your time, to live as a faithful exile.
The truths we read are timeless and applicable to the Christian exile worldwide. At the same time, the specific ways in which we reflect Christ and honor Him are unique to where God has placed us. He placed us where we are for a reason. Let us discover His design for exile.
