Israel's exile was mental, long before it was physical

God was not dead when Israel was sacked by foreigners in 2 Kings. He was fulfilling Scripture.

And the Lord said to Moses: “You are going to rest with your fathers, and these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them.

On that day I will become angry with them and forsake the covenant I made with them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and difficulties will come upon them, and on that day they will ask, “Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is not with us?” — Deuteronomy 31:16-17

In 2 Kings 17, the people of Israel have lost the plot. Twice in the next seven chapters, Israel will go on to lose its homeland and be exiled. First to Assyria, then to Babylon.

God’s chosen people, led out of Egypt by his mighty hand, should be the light of the world. Or at least its envy. This should have been the story of a people who God loved, who made good on its covenant, and lived happily ever after. A mutual admiration society, on high.

But Israel had been stiff-necked and idolatrous throughout, from exodus to exile. Israel had a religious leader, Aaron, build a golden calf. It had no less than King Solomon build homes for Baal, and high places for other gods.

God never wanted Israel to have a king. And now Israel has had several kings lead it into idolatry.

God’s instruction for Israel, once it reached its homeland, had been clear. Israel was not to co-exist with the nations whose turf it would inherit. It was supposed to destroy those people and their gods, completely.

“Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous god.” — Exodus 34:12-14

I’ve written before about the many similarities between the Eden and Exodus stories.

The final link between the two is dominion. In Eden, man was given dominion over the animal world. From exodus through exile, God asserts dominion above other gods.

The co-existence between gods hinted at in Genesis 3:22 is replaced by the single-truth certainty of Joshua 24. It’s common in the law that if a new rule is made, people who were out of compliance before the rule was made are “grandfathered in.” So maybe no more homes can be built within 50 feet of the lake, but the existing homes can stay. Exceptions are made.

But when it came to “the gods your forefathers worshipped beyond the river and in Egypt,” Joshua wanted to grandfather them out. Past practice had no standing. There could be no two ways about it. Not anymore.

This led to one of the most-repeated lines of the Old Testament, in Joshua 24:15: “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Israel’s story should have been that of a faithful people led out of Egypt by God, into a home built for it by others.

But throughout, Israel seems to have a stronger relation to foreign gods than to God himself. Moments of faithfulness are rare, like when Israel sings to God in Exodus 15, in honor of being delivered from Pharaoh. God is constantly reminding Israel of the exodus. But the Israelites talk themselves into Baal.

When Solomon completes the Temple in 1 Kings 9, God warns him again of the consequences of backsliding. These warnings are repeated throughout Israel’s journey.

But if you or your sons turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut Israel off from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. — 1 Kings 9:6-8

Exile is exodus in reverse. It’s a humiliating turn of events for Israel.

But if you watch closely Israel’s behavior, exile is the appropriate punishment. Israel complained that it was better off in Egypt. Solomon took wives from Pharaoh’s house and from other nations, and built homes for their gods, just as he had built the Temple for God.

In Israel, idolatry was company policy, at the highest of levels.

Moses told Israel it needed to “circumcise their hearts.” Idolatry is the opposite. Idolatry is the exile of the mind. It’s the centering and worshipping of myths and objects and images.

Israel’s heart was already elsewhere, away from what God gave it. Why not, too, its bodies?

In exile, the people of Israel did indeed become a byword. Its God was disrespected as impotent, or even dead.

As author Stephen Greenblatt wrote in “The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve,” about the Babylonian exile:

“The national disaster tapped the wellsprings not only of sadness but also of doubt and irony. Yahweh did not exist; or Yahweh did not care; or Yahweh had been bested decisively by the Babylonian god Marduk. In the wake of the fall of Jerusalem and the mass deportations, the skeptics must have found it maddening to listen to the prayers of the pious, imploring aid from a god who was missing in action.”

But Israel’s exile was the very fulfillment of scripture. The exodus and the homeland were the carrot of covenant.

Exile was the stick, ideally enough of a threat to keep a people faithful. Israel was a special case, so “stiff-necked” it had to feel the stick for itself. Twice.

And so God kept his promise, and abandoned an idolatrous Israel — just as Israel wanted.

Israel’s exile was mental, long before it was physical.