EXILED

“Therefore my people will go into exile for lack of understanding…”- ISAIAH 5:13A

People still live in exile today. Some, persecuted for their faith, are forced to sneak out of the country in which they live. Others are shamed into leaving because they do not measure up to society’s standards.

But people are also living in spiritual exile. They have separated themselves from God for one reason or another. Perhaps it is out of shame or anger. Maybe they cannot see God as a loving Father because theirs was anything but that. Or they do not feel they could ever be good enough to pray to Him.

One of my wise professors insisted that people have poor self-images because they have an even poorer image of God. They don’t grasp how wide and deep His love is. I recall a bumper sticker stating, “If God is not in your life, guess who moved?” The implication was — we did.

God cannot be in the presence of sin, but that doesn’t mean He has pushed us away. He sent Jesus, His Son, to take on our sins so that, by His death, we can be released from its shackles.

We can return to His arms and be embraced. All we need to do is turn wholeheartedly to Him, and ask for forgiveness. He will receive us back just as the Father welcomed the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32.

If you feel exiled from God right now, come on home. God is waiting with open arms.

Dear God, let me never back away from your mercy and grace. Let me be ready to confess my sins so I can once again enjoy your presence and receive your blessings. I desperately need you in my life. Amen.

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Defeating Our Goliaths

Faith habits prepare us for the inevitable battles that come.

1 Samuel 17:45-47

Life’s “Goliaths” come in all shapes, sizes, and intensities: an unhappy relationship, a difficult job, a pile of debt. In today’s passage, David faced what appeared to be an insurmountable problem, but he was victorious through God’s power. We can be, too.

David declared victory over Goliath before the battle even began (v. 46). His confidence was rooted in his past experiences with the Lord. What’s more, David believed triumph was certain because he came in the name of the Lord. As a shepherd, he’d spent hours alone in the wilderness, listening to God’s voice. Even a giant’s discouraging shout couldn’t shake his convictions about who God was and what He could do through His servant.

David had practical faith habits. A strong relationship with the Lord developed from spending time in His presence. This in turn enabled David to face problems with certainty that he was a beloved child of God, with full access to his Father’s storehouses of power, courage, and wisdom. If doubts ever arose, he could look back on God’s great faithfulness in past troubles.

To be victorious, we should practice David’s spiritual habits. Spend time with God and keep a record of His work in your life. Then you can be confident that He is sufficient, no matter the obstacle.

Rightly Exalted

Therefore God has highly exalted him.

Philippians 2:9

Philippians 2:5-8 is a beautiful statement concerning Christ’s humanity, deity, ministry, and humiliation. Having mapped the humility of the incarnate Son of God all the way to His death on a cross, where does your mind go next? Naturally, we think of the resurrection. But Paul does not. He takes us to Christ’s exaltation.

There is, Paul says, a logical connection between Jesus’ humiliation and His exaltation: “Therefore God has highly exalted him” (v 8, emphasis added). What is this exaltation? It is that the Father has given His Son the throne and ordered this world so that one day “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (v 10-11).

But why is His exaltation fitting? Scripture gives us several answers. First, Christ’s exaltation is fitting because it fulfills Old Testament prophecy and demonstrates that God keeps His word. The worldwide recognition of Jesus as Lord will occur because God promised it would. Six hundred years before Jesus arrived on the stage of human history, Isaiah recorded these words from God: “Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted” (Isaiah 52:13). And so Christ came to bear the pain and sin of the world, fulfilling the role of Suffering Servant, lifted up on a cross and then raised to be exalted on His throne. As Paul wrote elsewhere, “All the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Corinthians 1:20).

Second, Christ’s exaltation is fitting because He is God. The Bible teaches us that the Son is one with the Father. On account of His divinity, exaltation is a necessity; there is nowhere else for God to sit! No other seat is suitable for the Son except at His Father’s right hand.

Finally, Christ’s exaltation is fitting because He is the dear Son of His Father. God the Father watched the Son obediently go to the cross to fulfill the covenant of redemption and heard Him cry out in pain, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). The Father knew that the Son underwent that agony out of love for the Father and love for His people. The Father would not leave His perfect Son in that dire condition. How could the Father’s love do anything other than exalt the Son from His lowly state?

Christ’s humiliation for us and exaltation above us are surely enough to bring us to the point where we bow in joyful submission to Him. They show us that there is one who has the status to demand our obedience and the character to deserve our adoration. They remind us that the best thing about heaven will be the most glorious person in heaven:

I will not gaze at glory, but on my King of grace;
Not at the crown He giveth, but on His piercèd hand;
The Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel’s land.[1]