Rebuilding After Exile
If you are a single parent, you know what it’s like to be in exile.
Exile is defined as: the state or a period of forced absence from one's country or home. Not only that, but I would add that in exile the “home” one has been forced to flee has been destroyed or will never again exist the way it once did.
If you’ve ever been through a divorce, had to flee domestic violence, lost a spouse or partner to death, or experienced an unplanned pregnancy, at some level you have experienced this forced absence from God’s design of “home.” Many of you have lived in so many different places along your journey that you can’t keep track of them all.
This was what happened in the Old Testament when Jerusalem was conquered and destroyed by the Babylonians and God’s people were uprooted and taken into captivity in a foreign land. They were displaced, living under an oppressive ruler, and worst of all they no longer had their temple where they could worship God. It wasn’t until Babylon fell to the Persians in 538 BC that the Jews were finally given permission to return to their homeland. But when they returned, their home was not how they remembered it. The entire city was in ruins and the wall around the city was in shambles. Not only did they need to start over and rebuild, but they had to do it with limited resources. According to one scholar, “It was a community reduced in strength and numbers.”
Doesn’t that sound familiar?
As I’ve been reading the book of Ezra and Nehemiah recently, which take place during those early years following the exile, I can’t tell you how relevant this is to single parents and where we are today.
Today, God’s people are returning from exile too. In addition to already being a single parent, didn’t we all just experience a “forced removal from our communities” during the COVID shutdown?
Now, as we begin to return from exile, many of our churches and non-profit communities are reduced in strength and numbers. While this can feel discouraging, I believe it’s also an opportunity to learn from the history of God’s people and respond like Ezra and Nehemiah did. As leaders, they determined this should be a time of repenting (God allowed the exile because of his people’s disobedience), recommitting to God’s laws, and re-prioritizing what God says is most important as we rebuild our homes and faith communities.
We can also learn from Ezra and Nehemiah that no rebuilding ever happens without opposition. Basically, there are people and forces that don’t want us to rebuild a life or community that glorifies God and will go to great lengths to sabotage it. We must be alert to these forces, whether they are ex-spouses or politicians, and be as “cunning as a snake and innocent as a dove” in our response.
How can you make the most of this time as you return from exile and begin to rebuild? Whether it’s establishing a new life as a single parent, going back to work after months of unemployment, or coming back to church after months of quarantine, how can you recommit your life and home to God so He can rebuild it like Ezra and Nehemiah rebuilt the temple and the walls of Jerusalem?