Are We There Yet? Living Faithfully in Exile
Scripture: Jeremiah 29:1–14
There are times when we find ourselves somewhere we never expected to be.
We may feel displaced, disconnected, or far from where we believe we belong. Sometimes that exile is physical. Other times, we can be standing in a familiar place and still feel far from home.
The story of Scripture is filled with experiences of exile.
Adam and Eve were exiled from the Garden after their disobedience. Cain became a restless wanderer. Abraham willingly left his homeland and lived as a stranger and sojourner in the land God had promised him.
But one of the greatest experiences of exile in Scripture came when the people of Judah were carried away to Babylon.
Jerusalem fell. The Temple was destroyed. Families were displaced. God’s people found themselves living under the rule of a foreign empire, far from the land they called home.
Surely they wondered: Where is God in all of this?
And perhaps even more importantly: How are we supposed to live while we wait to go home?
Faithful in Babylon
Through the prophet Jeremiah, God gave His people an unexpected answer.
They were to build houses. Plant gardens. Marry and raise families. Seek the peace and flourishing of the community where they were living.
In other words, God did not tell His people to put their lives on hold until their circumstances changed.
He called them to live faithfully right where they were.
Even in Babylon, they belonged to God.
Even in exile, they had a purpose.
Even while they waited, God was still working.
Daniel and his friends give us another picture of what faithful living in exile looks like. They served within a foreign kingdom, but they knew there was a limit to their allegiance. When obedience to Babylon came into conflict with obedience to God, their answer was clear: they would not compromise their worship or their ultimate allegiance to the Lord.
That tension remains familiar for followers of Jesus today.
We are called to live in the world, serve our neighbors, contribute to our communities, and seek peace wherever God has placed us. Yet our highest allegiance does not belong to any earthly institution, nation, culture, or system.
Our highest allegiance belongs to God.
When Going Home Doesn’t Feel Like Home
Eventually, the Persian king Cyrus allowed the Jewish exiles to return to their homeland.
Surely this was the moment they had been waiting for.
They returned. They rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls. They rebuilt the Temple. Worship resumed.
But something was still missing.
Ezra tells us that when the foundation of the new Temple was completed, many people celebrated with great joy. Yet some of the older priests and leaders who remembered Solomon’s Temple began to weep.
They were home—but somehow, they were not fully home.
Their physical exile had ended, but the deeper spiritual problem remained. The world was still broken. God’s people still needed restoration. Sin still separated humanity from its Creator.
And so the prophets continued to point forward.
Isaiah spoke of One who would bring salvation not only to Israel, but to the ends of the earth. The promised Rescuer would come, but His victory would not arrive through earthly power or military might.
It would come through suffering, sacrifice, and redemption.
Jesus Knows Exile
Then Jesus came.
The Son of God left the glory of heaven and entered our broken world.
As an infant, He was taken to Egypt when Herod sought His life. He spent forty days alone in the wilderness. He was rejected in His hometown. He crossed cultural and social boundaries that others refused to cross.
His friends abandoned Him in the garden.
He suffered outside the city walls.
And ultimately, on the cross, Jesus bore the weight of humanity’s sin.
Jesus knows exile.
He knows loneliness.
He knows rejection.
He knows suffering.
He knows what it means to wait.
And because of His death and resurrection, exile does not have the final word. Exile – LEE
We Are Home, But Not Yet Home
As followers of Jesus, we live in a similar tension.
Christ is King, but His Kingdom has not yet been fully revealed on earth. We see evidence of God’s goodness all around us, but we also see suffering, injustice, broken relationships, sickness, grief, and death.
In a sense, we are home, but we are not yet fully home.
Our deepest identity is not rooted in the temporary kingdoms and systems of this world. It is rooted in the Kingdom of God.
That should create within us a holy longing—a recognition that this world, as it currently exists, is not all there is.
But that doesn’t mean Christians withdraw from the world while we wait for Jesus to return.
Quite the opposite.
How Should We Live in Exile?
Jeremiah’s message to God’s people in Babylon still speaks powerfully to the Church.
Seek peace. Work for the good and flourishing of the places God has put you. Bring the peace of Christ into your workplace, your school, your neighborhood, your community, and every place you go.
Live faithfully. Be good citizens, good neighbors, faithful workers, and people of integrity. Serve others well while remembering that your ultimate allegiance belongs to Jesus Christ.
Keep your hope in God. Be cautious of promises that earthly solutions can fix humanity’s deepest problems. Our ultimate hope is not found in the kingdoms of this world, but in the redemptive work of God.
And finally, build for the coming Kingdom.
Share Jesus with your neighbors, the nations, and the next generation. Demonstrate the values of God’s Kingdom through the way you love, serve, forgive, give, worship, and live.
Our True Home Is Coming
Exile is not the end of the story.
One day, Jesus will return.
Evil will not have the final word. Brokenness will not have the final word. Suffering, displacement, loneliness, and death will not have the final word.
Christ will make all things new.
Until then, we live with what might be called a hope-filled dissatisfaction. We recognize that this world is not yet what God intends it to be, but we do not despair because we know where the story is going.
So don’t rush past the experience of exile.
Let it deepen your longing for God.
Let it loosen your grip on the temporary things of this world.
Let it strengthen your allegiance to Jesus.
And let it increase your expectation for the day when Christ will bring His people out of exile and finally, fully, eternally home.
Until then, may we live faithfully in Babylon while keeping our hearts fixed on the Kingdom that is to come.
