Hope in Exile

“And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place” (2 Chron. 36:15, NKJV).

God sent numerous prophets after Elijah to comfort, warn, and instruct His people, but the kingdoms of Israel and Judah fell into such depravity that God compared them to Sodom and Gomorrah (Isa. 1:9, 10). The people of God had become proud, greedy, and idolatrous. They oppressed their workers, widows, orphans, and the strangers who came to them for help. (See Isaiah 58 for God’s response to Israel’s failings.) Finally, God’s judgment brought Israel into Assyrian captivity (2 Kings 17:1–6) and exiled Judah to the land of Babylon (2 Kings 24, 25).

While God punished His people, He did not leave them alone in exile. He still sent them prophets, such as Ezekiel and Daniel, to give them hope for the future.

Throughout their history, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah suffered the consequences of sin. In turning away from God, they had left the safety of His care and elicited His judgment. God does not tolerate oppression and idolatry, but He did not send them into exile the first time they had sinned. God labored with His people, pleading through His prophets for them to repent and return to Him. The people refused to listen. In fact, it is amazing, actually, how long the Lord sought to turn His people away from their sins. For long centuries, through prophet after prophet, issuing warning after warning, God sought to reach them.

Jesus Himself said it best: “ ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!’ ” (Matt. 23:37, NKJV).

Yet, even while they were in exile, God never left His people without hope. Despite their perpetual failures, God promised, “ ‘The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob’ ” (Isa. 59:20, NKJV).

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Additional Reading: Selected Quotes from Ellen G. White

Repentance is one of the first fruits of saving grace. Our great Teacher, in His lessons to erring, fallen man, presents the life-giving power of His grace, declaring that through this grace men and women may live the new life of holiness and purity. He who lives this life works out the principles of the kingdom of heaven. Taught of God, he leads others in straight paths. He will not lead the lame into paths of uncertainty. The working of the Holy Spirit in his life shows that he is a partaker of the divine nature. Every soul thus worked by the Spirit of Christ receives so abundant a supply of the rich grace that, beholding his good works, the unbelieving world acknowledges that he is controlled and sustained by divine power, and is led to glorify God. . . .
Read and study the thirty-fourth chapter of Ezekiel. In it we are given most precious encouragement. “I will save my flock, and they shall be no more a prey,” the Lord declares. “. . . And I will make with them a covenant of peace. . . .”
The most striking feature of this covenant of peace is the exceeding richness of the pardoning mercy expressed to the sinner if he repents and turns from his sin. The Holy Spirit describes the gospel as salvation through the tender mercies of our God. “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness,” the Lord declares of those who repent, “and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12). Does God turn from justice in showing mercy to the sinner? No; God cannot dishonor His law by suffering it to be transgressed with impunity. Under the new covenant, perfect obedience is the condition of life. If the sinner repents and confesses his sins, he will find pardon. By Christ’s sacrifice in his behalf, forgiveness is secured for him. Christ has satisfied the demands of the law for every repentant, believing sinner.—God’s Amazing Grace, p. 138.

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26.
The truths of the Word of God are not mere sentiments, but the utterances of the Most High. Anyone who makes these truths a part of the life becomes in every sense a new creature. The person is not given new mental powers, but the darkness, that through ignorance and sin has clouded the understanding, is removed.
The words “A new heart will I give you” mean “A new mind will I give you.” This change of heart is always attended by a clear conception of Christian duty, an understanding of truth. The clearness of our view of truth will be proportionate to our understanding of the Word of God. A person who gives the Scriptures close, prayerful attention will gain clear comprehension and sound judgment, as if in turning to God he or she had reached a higher grade of intelligence.—Christ Triumphant, p. 351.