by Eric Gagnon
I’ll never forget the day my Dad dropped me off at college in Waxahachie, Texas. I was 2,000 miles away from my home in New Hampshire. Up until the point he gave me a hug and said goodbye I was feeling nothing but hopeful and excited. But when he drove away, and I was by myself in my dorm room, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I had a sinking feeling in my chest. There was no turning back now. The campus was nearly empty because I arrived early a week or so before classes would begin. I was 2,000 miles away from the only place I ever knew with no way on my own to get back. I had just turned 18 that month. The one-way plane ticket had been used. I had no job. I had no money. The decision was made, and there I was, away from home and with no hope of returning, at least not anytime soon. I’ll never forget the weightiness of that moment.
Today I want to look at the theme of exile in the Bible. The truth is, I really can’t compare my experience as a college student to the serious kinds of exile we see in the Bible. Many of those around the world today do have even deeper experiences of being removed from their homes or their homelands. We see all around us in our world today examples of people experiencing the hardships caused by war or other disasters causing people to flee their homes. They leave all they’ve ever known in hopes of finding a better life in a country completely foreign to them.
Oxford dictionary defines exile as “the state of being barred from one’s native country, typically for political or punitive reasons.”
In the Bible, the word we translate into English as “exile” from in the Old Testament is the Hebrew word galah and it’s first used in 2 Samuel 15:19. There, king David is fleeing a mutiny. His men want to go with him, even his men from the foreign lands Israel conquered, the Philistines. David had good reasons to be cautious. He may have wondered if these foreigners were going to be loyal to him, or if they were lying to him only to betray him later. David “said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why do you also go with us? Go back and stay with the king.” Perhaps as a test, David referred to Absolom as the king, the man who was leading the mutiny. David continued speaking to Ittai, “for you are a foreigner and also an exile from your home. You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander about with us, since I go I know not where? Go back and take your brothers with you, and may the Lord show steadfast love and faithfulness to you.” But Ittai answered the king, “As the LORD lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be.”
That word galah in Hebrew translated “exile” literally means one who is removed. Now, galah is being used here by David to describe Ittai the Gittite, a foreigner from Gath, which was a major Philistine city. In other words, Ittai was a Gentile; a person of non-Jewish descent, who was removed by Israel from his home in Gath. So that’s literal exile being described. But I’d like to point out two more instances of exile going on here.
We also have David, an Israelite and the rightful king, experiencing a sort of exile; he’s being forced from his home, from his throne, by his own people in Jerusalem.
And isn’t it remarkable? We see these two people from different nations, both exiles, talking to each other, and they both show loyalty and kindness to one another. David has good reason not to trust Ittai. So telling him to go back to the king might be a test, but he still said it in a gracious way. It’s like David said, “Don’t risk your own life by coming with me.”
That leads us to the third and most remarkable part of this short section,. We can easily skip past this if we’re not careful. We also see a third kind of exile, a spiritual exile (or really what is a reversal of spiritual exile) when this Gentile Ittai says something incredibly wise. I don’t want you to miss the magnitude of this statement made by a Philistine. Remember the Philistines were Israel’s notorious former enemies. Ittai says, “As the LORD lives, [As Yahweh lives]” We need to stop there and notice Ittai is not just saying Lord as in sir or master or king. He is invoking the name of the one true God. That’s capital LORD for Yahweh. By doing that Ittai is swearing, not to Philistine gods or even to one anonymous God, but to Israel’s God. He is also acknowledging that Yahweh is alive. Yahweh is real. He is not like dead, false, imaginary gods, carved into wooden figurines, like good luck charms. This Gentile appears to have faith in Yahweh.
Not only this, but he professes his loyalty to king David: He continues, “and as my lord [now that’s the word for sir, or master] … as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be…” If you think this sounds familiar you may be thinking of what one biblical character, Ruth, said to her mother-in-law Naomi during a famine, when she said “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” (Ruth 1:16–17)
So when we speak of exile in the Bible, we could be referring to at least three things, and it’s important to keep these distinct. First, there is this sort of common kind of literal exile where we see people displaced from their homelands. Second, there is the big one, the literal Babylonian Exile. This is the one famous exile in the Bible that was predicted at the end of Deuteronomy, because Israel agreed to the stipulations of the covenant, which said if they broke the covenant, they would go into exile. So God did what He promised, and Israel went into exile. And there is a third kind of overarching theme of spiritual exile that started in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve reject God’s instruction. Ever since then, without Christ we are like Cain: wanderers on the earth, always in search of home. Apart from a miracle we have no hope of returning home, because to truly be home is to be with God. Only God can bring us home. That is why Ittai said wherever David went, that would be his home, because Ittai knew God was with David!
Moses also knew home is wherever God was. When Moses wrote Psalm 90 he started with this: “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.” (Psalm 90:1) So where is our dwelling place? Where is home? Is it the physical homes we build? Is it the towns we’ve spent the most time in? Is it wherever our family and friends are? Is it the temples or churches we sit in? Is it the tall towers we build? No, it’s always and ever been the Lord. And that’s where God is leading His people: back to a garden, inside the city, of the Kingdom God, where we walk with Him in the cool of the day.
So it may be hard to understand, but it’s like Christians are both exiles and also not exiles anymore.
We are exiles on the earth because our citizenship is now in heaven. We’re like foreigners on our own planet. That’s why Apostle Peter can say to us “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11)
At the same time, the spiritual exile is over, because God lives in us. We are home wherever God is. And that’s why Apostle Paul can say to us in Ephesians 2:17-18 “And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God”
If we are in Christ, we are already home in one sense. For all who trust in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus to cover our sins, we have eternal life. But there is much work to be done on the earth while we wait for the return of Christ, and we are finally and fully home. Until then, since we see ourselves as foreigners in our own countries, we can be like David, and show kindness to literal foreigners. We can also be like Ittai and not get too comfortable with this world, but instead go wherever God goes. God is our home. We can meet with God regularly in his Word and through prayer and declare like Moses did, “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.”
Adorn the Gospel 