“How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let might right hand forget her cunning.” Psalm 137:4-5
It was a terrible memory of the Babylonians coming and destroying Jerusalem. It was in Jerusalem that God had chosen to have the first temple built, and that by Solomon. It was there that the ark of the covenant had been placed, as testimony to the greatness and mercy of the covenant God, who had redeemed Israel out of Egypt, from slavery and suffering, to bring her into the promised land. However, throughout her history, because of the inattention given to obeying the commandments of God, Israel began to drift. Every act of disobedience resulted in a weakening of the mooring cables of the ship, until there came a day when the cables could no longer keep her securely moored. Slowly she would begin to drift out to sea, becoming exposed to the winds and waves of God’s judgment against her. The culminating blow to the ship came with the invasion of the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar. He would conquer the city, destroying it, and carrying away captive the people, leaving only the poor and destitute to barely subsist there. During that captivity, which would last seventy years, there was a great deal of time to reflect, and remember. The memories of the blessing of God upon the nation, and its capital, were great, but now clouded by the suffering that the captivity imposed. God was mocked continually, the people suffering humiliation by their captors. How could they sing “the songs of Zion,” when their circumstances were a mockery of their once declared faith? Here the captives lived, year after year, until the depth and conviction of their foolishness was engrained in them so deeply, that they would finally turn to God, to truly seek and find Him again. Amazingly, God in His mercy and grace, even before Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar, gave to Israel a word of hope. Jeremiah’s prophesy was not only to impress upon the hearts of the people the gravity of their rejection of God, but at the same time, make them to see that the story was not yet over. There was a new day coming, when again, the blessing of the Lord would be revealed. The message to Israel was that God had not rejected, or had cast away, Israel forever. With the revelation of judgment for her sin, would come the unveiling of the hope of a new beginning, and the means by which it would be accomplished. How does God accomplish this in the life of an individual, whose life is a desert experience, one lacking the victorious life and blessing of Christ? We discover the answer in Isaiah’s writings.
First, God deals with the matter of “condemnation,” by revealing to Israel that “…her warfare had ended.” (Is. 40) There had come a time, a day, when God would declare to Israel, that the moment had come to begin again. The sins of the past would be forgiven, and the knowledge of the way forward would be revealed. The condition of the new beginning was two-fold: “Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing.” (51:11) God gives to Israel the call to come out of Babylon, and from everything associated with it. The unclean thing that she was not to touch was that which stemmed from Babylon’s idols, and gods. The idolatrous mentality, and actions, were unclean in the eyes of God. Secondly, there was the command to: “…go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord.” (v.11) If Eve had not touched the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and Achan, in Joshua’s day, had not stretched forth his hand to take that which was forbidden of the Lord, with regard to godless Jericho, then history would have been different. Judgement and death would have been stayed, and the blessing of the Lord would have been continually known. God’s contradiction to Babylon is Himself, Christ, the fullness of true Life.
Dear Father, Enable us to have clean hands, and pure hearts. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.