Daily Devotion: Choosing Exile from God’s Love

Bible Readings for Friday February 11th, 2011 – The 6th Week of Epiphany

*Click on each bible passage to expand the text.

Psalm 119:1-8

1. Happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD.
2. Happy are those who keep his decrees, who seek him with their whole heart,
3. who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways.
4. You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently.
5. O that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!
6. Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
7. I will praise you with an upright heart, when I learn your righteous ordinances.
8. I will observe your statutes; do not utterly forsake me.

Leviticus 26:34-46

34. Then the land shall enjoy its sabbath years as long as it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its sabbath years.
35. As long as it lies desolate, it shall have the rest it did not have on your sabbaths when you were living on it.
36. And as for those of you who survive, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall though no one pursues.
37. They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though no one pursues; and you shall have no power to stand against your enemies.
38. You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall devour you.
39. And those of you who survive shall languish in the land of your enemies because of their iniquities; also they shall languish because of the iniquities of their ancestors.
40. But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their ancestors, in that they committed treachery against me and, moreover, that they continued hostile to me–
41. so that I, in turn, continued hostile to them and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity,
42. then will I remember my covenant with Jacob; I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
43. For the land shall be deserted by them, and enjoy its sabbath years by lying desolate without them, while they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they dared to spurn my ordinances, and they abhorred my statutes.
44. Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, or abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God;
45. but I will remember in their favor the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, to be their God: I am the LORD.
46. These are the statutes and ordinances and laws that the LORD established between himself and the people of Israel on Mount Sinai through Moses.

1 John 2:7-17

7. Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard.
8. Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
9. Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness.
10. Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling.
11. But whoever hates another believer is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.
12. I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven on account of his name.
13. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, because you have conquered the evil one.
14. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young people, because you are strong and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
15. Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world;
16. for all that is in the world– the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches– comes not from the Father but from the world.
17. And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever.

• Happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD. – Psalm 119:1
• But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their ancestors, in that they committed treachery against me and, moreover, that they continued hostile to me – Leviticus 26:40
• … for all that is in the world– the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches– comes not from the Father but from the world. – 1 John 2:16

Let’s do some simple math here:

1. Walk with God in observance of his commandments = happy and with God.
2. Do your own thing, ignore God’s commandments = unhappy and apart from God.

Exile from God. This motif is as ancient a concept as Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the garden of Eden. To be separate from the source, to be outside of God is a universal experience. It’s a feeling of home-sickness we just can’t shake, and I believe is the founding motivation for all things religion: we are trying to get back home, out of exile.

“Wait,” you say,“are you saying we’re all in exile right now?”

That’s right. We are all living in a self-imposed, perpetual state of separateness from God. When we do not keep God’s commandments, we are exiled from God and we no longer can see him. And the tragic reality is, this is not of God’s doing, it is entirely our choice.

When we choose to ignore injustice, we are separated from God.

When we choose judgment and hate, instead of love, we are separate from God.

When we choose to worship “stuff” instead of God, we are separate from God.

This does not mean God turns his back on us, not at all! In fact, God is constantly working in our lives and in our hearts through the Holy Spirit to catch our attention, to show us glimpses of what-could-be.

Leviticus 26

44. Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, or abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God;
45. but I will remember in their favor the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, to be their God: I am the LORD.

It reads a little hard-edged, but this passage in Leviticus reflects that loyalty and fidelity that I’m referring to, that is intrinsic in the nature of God. God will not abandon us. Even when we feel like all hope is lost, and we are truly forsaken, God is still there, working away.

Some might say, “But what kind of God is this that would let his children suffer in such a way. No parent wants their child to experience such pain!” Believe it or not, much of this is out of an all-powerful God’s hands, by choice, because God blessed us with the same characteristic: free will. And with free will comes natural consequences, that if God were to abate, then the blessing of free-will would be negated also. With tremendous blessing is included the potential for tremendous curse.

Imagine you are a parent:

If your child’s actions result in academic honors and scholarship, this is a blessing of free-will.

If your child’s actions result in felony charges and prison, this is a curse of free-will.

At certain point in a child’s life, the parent must step away, let go of their hands and watch them live and choose their own life.

It’s terrifying, it’s nearly impossible, and it’s love. God’s love.

And it never stops.