Lessons from Exile

For me growing up, this was probably the least-touched on major narrative arc for me in all the Sunday School classes and VBSs I attended. I could remember the Flood and Ark, seems like I heard David and Goliath a thousand times, and I knew the names Elijah and Elisha and sure I knew the Esther story but couldn’t tell you when it happened… But the exile? The deportation to Babylon? I mean, also, sure, a few stories in Daniel I would know — but the general picture, the overwhelming, superintendency of God to say, “I have condemned you to exile. You have forfeited your side of the Covenant, and I’m disciplining you to Babylon, pagan overlords.” I never heard much teaching on that.