A Place to Call Home

2 Kings 25:21b So Judah went into captivity, away from her land.

It is amazing when you have a place that you call home. It can be very unsettling when you don’t have a place of your own. As someone who has moved repeatedly throughout life, I think I have lived in over thirty different places, it feels good to settle down and stay put.

One of the original promises of the Scriptures was for a place, a home, where humans were to live. You remember the story, the Garden of Eden, the first eco-friendly, full service, planned community! This was the perfect place for humans to display their purpose, reflecting the image of the Creator to this new creation. As the LORD brought order out of chaos, the humans were to bring order in this new wilderness.

Even as the rebellion of the Garden happened, the LORD was looking ahead to restoration of land and home. So when the promises of land show up in the story of the Old Testament, these are glimpses of the fulfilling of the LORD’s promises. Egypt was never a home, but only a vacation rental!

They left Egypt and went back to the Land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They revisited the places of significance where the LORD spoke, where patriarchs died and were buried, and where their ancestors traveled.

They had been promised land, and land they got. Remember the description, a land flowing with milk and honey. These symbols of abundance are lost on most of us in the West. Milk meant that cattle was abundant because crops were abundant. Honey is connected to the finest things in life, the sweet things, the refined things. So to have that level of abundance and overflow in a land was a promise of blessing.

The people of God enjoyed the abundance, but they didn’t heed the warning. There were rules to be followed while living in His Land. Just as there was a rule in the Garden, so the Promised Land had consequences for rebellion. And the biggest rebellion was the making and worshipping of other gods.

It is amazing how many times this is mentioned in the history sections of the Scriptures. And our text is no exception.

The scene is this: Both Israel and Judah have been taken into captivity as a result of their rebellion, primarily focused on idolatry. There have been repeated warnings against the practice. There have been periods of better compliance. There have also been periods of wanton disregard of the LORD’s clear instructions.

Judah has finally been sent into exile and the text announces they have lost the Land. For the people of God, this was equivalent to becoming orphans. Since the LORD’s presence was manifested to Israel in Jerusalem, in the Temple, in the Holy of Holies, not having access to this spot and the attending reconciliation sacrifices and rituals meant they were cut off from the LORD.

This is just like what happened in the Garden. When the rebellion took place, they were ejected from the Garden and prevented from returning. The Israelites have the opportunity to return after the missed Sabbath Years are accounted for, but this is not the final solution. They return, but are still not completely obedient to the simple instructions.

And then comes Jesus, the hope of the world, the One who brings reconciliation apart from a physical place. The promised Holy Spirit makes it possible that we can be reconciled and be in fellowship regardless of where we are located here on Earth. It is the beginning of the restoration of God’s Garden.

One day the restoration will be complete, a new heaven and a new earth taking the place of this current model. The corruption of this model will be cleared away, and the fulfillment of humanity’s purposes will be played out forever. What a day that will be.

In the meantime, we have the opportunity to begin to live out that new model, the new way of living and being in relationship with the LORD and with each other. Let’s do it more and more!