Audio Download

“Exiles” in the Bible

[Study Aired September 26, 2024]

INTRODUCTION

For God’s people, “an exile” in His word typifies a point within a Christian’s life before they go without the camp with Christ to bear his reproach, filling “up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church” (Heb 13:13-16, Col 1:24). Chapter 13 of Revelation is a chapter that reveals that not everyone is given this knowledge (1Co 8:7, Rev 13:18) to know that being beasts (Ecc 3:18) we must go into exile and come to see the mark of the beast as being something that is on all men, and that the only way to be reinstated with God and have that mark removed is through judgement (6.6.6. – see the studies on the spiritual significance of the number 3 and the number 6). We all must go into Babylonian captivity, but very few are blessed in this life to come out of it through God’s chastening grace that receives us in this life as His sons (Mat 22:14, Heb 12:6).

Heb 13:13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp [after we lose our first love and are brought into exile and then begin to come out of it by God’s grace], bearing his reproach.
Heb 13:14 For here have we no continuing^{G3306[menō=abide, dwell, stay, endure, remain, tarry]} city (1Co 15:50), but we seek one to come [being freed from Babylonian exile and enduring to the end (Mat 24:13) in order to inherit a continuing city, Jerusalem above, the mother of us all, in the fullness of that inheritance which will occur at the first resurrection].
Heb 13:15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
Heb 13:16 But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

1Co 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
1Co 8:7 Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.

Rev 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Heb 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

Only God can give true spiritual increase, and all the planting and watering in the world does not change that truth (1Co 3:6), and so while we are in these earthen vessels we do water and plant abundantly in the churches of Babylon only to find out by God’s grace that these actions that are not accompanied with the understanding of God’s sovereignty and the faith of Christ are merely talents or seeds which are planted and watered in the earth and can’t be given any increase until an appointed time by God (Isa 55:11, Lev 26:4, Isa 58:8). The appointed time happens as a result of God’s goodness that leads us unto repentance through his chastening grace and judgement that teaches us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lust in this age (Tit 2:11-12, Heb 12:6).

Tit 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

This increase, or withholding of increase, is by design (2Th 2:5-8). God’s reason for doing this is to drive the point home to all of humanity, in time, that all the increase in our life comes from God alone, and all the good and evil done in life is orchestrated by our Sovereign Father who works all things according to the counsel of His own will (Isa 45:7, Eph 1:11).

Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Isa 45:8 Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

2Th 2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
2Th 2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

Very few are given that privilege and honour to lay up treasure in heaven as a result of the increase that God gives us in this age (Mat 22:14, Luk 10:20). The main contention the rest of the world will have in the second resurrection, is stated clearly in (Mat 7:22). We must be given power to give all glory to God, and to fully acknowledge in our hearts and minds that it is Christ who has been working all along within these marred vessels of clay both to will and to do of God’s good pleasure, and in doing so we become witnesses of these things (Php 2:12-13, Luk 24:47-48).

Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

Luk 10:20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

Mat 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

Php 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Php 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Luk 24:47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
Luk 24:48 And ye are witnesses of these things.

It is God’s words that will judge those who are in the second resurrection, and it is God’s word that is judging the elect today (Joh 12:48, 1Pe 4:17). We don’t think of ourselves as having rejected God’s words and Christ, but when we don’t acknowledge his absolute sovereignty in all things we are rejecting His power and who He is within His creation, and this keeps the man of perdition on the throne, the beast that has his power from the dragon (Rev 13:4). That precise moment of judgement coming upon the world for thinking that they have free moral agency is typified by the events that have Joseph speaking to his brothers who will learn at the hand of Joseph that they do not have any power of themselves (Gen 45:5-7), and this event with Joseph and his brothers typifies for us the great white throne judgement of all the world by God’s elect. If we contrast what is said in the second resurrection by humanity (Mat 7:22) with the wonderful works of God (Psa 107:8-31) that we must give thanks to God for, and stop taking credit for any of the light and darkness that are in God’s total control (Isa 45:7), then we can begin to be freed by the son of God and become a new creation that acknowledges that we are His workmanship, that He does as He sees fit with (Rom 9:19-22), including putting us all in our appointed time into an spiritual exile.

Joh 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

Psa 40:5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

Psa 78:4 We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

Psa 107:8 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Psa 107:15 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Psa 107:21 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Psa 107:31 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Psa 111:4  He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the LORD is gracious and full of compassion. 

Act 2:11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

Rom 9:22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Rom 9:23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

In the first chapter of Matthew’s gospel we have a broad overview of how God has always intended to work with humanity, with each generation via the exiles that we all must experience, exiles that will all ultimately be used to bring all of His creation to him (1Co 15:28, 1Co 12:6). I say ‘exiles’ (plural) because this is a process just as there are many baptisms as we die daily and are buried into His death so we can be raised in the newness of life found in Christ (Rom 6:3-4, 1Co 15:31)

Mat 1:16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
Mat 1:17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.
Mat 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.

1Co 15:28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

Rom 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

1Co 15:31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

It is after these three groups of fourteen generations are mentioned that the birth of Christ is spoken of in (Mat 1:18), and these are signified events (Rev 1:1) that point to the process of judgement [3 groups of 14 generations] that all generations must experience in order to be prepared to be born again (Mat 1:16-18, Col 1:27, Joh 3:3). There are 3 fourteens that add up to the number 42 and this number reminds us that it will be through the witness of God’s power [2] that the whole [4] of humanity will be saved by putting off our carnal Adamic fleshly minds represented by the number 6 [4+2=6] (Rev 13:16-18).

Rev 13:16  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 
Rev 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Rev 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

This mark of the beast spoken of in the book of Revelation represents how everyone who is born of flesh is immediately in a marred body of sin that God has created. God’s elect are that part of His workmanship who are being judged first (1Pe 4:17), and know that there is another fold that God is working with, but not to the point of overcoming in this life (Joh 10:16), and not to be preserved as the bride of Christ will be, but rather reserved unto the second resurrection to be judged then (1Co 15:31). God’s elect are part of a dying daily process that changes us to become a new creation as we come out of Babylonian exile, through much tribulation in this life (Mar 13:8, Act 14:22).

Mar 13:8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

Act 14:22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

It is only by God’s power that we can come out of her my people and experience a true liberty from sin that can only be found in Christ (2Co 3:17, Joh 8:36). Again, overcoming physical vices does not preclude that someone is laying up treasure in heaven, or that they have overcome the most insidious of all sins, which is the sin of self righteousness. That sin takes an ongoing miracle from God to overcome as we die daily (Php 3:9, 1Co 15:31).

2Co 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

Joh 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Php 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Our sojourn as God’s elect requires our constant examination of ourselves, as God’s goodness leads us unto repentance (Rom 2:4) and we are washed by the blood of lamb of all of those iniquities which is the self righteousness that just naturally clings to us (2Co 13:5, 1Co 9:27, 1Co 15:31). God tells us to confess our faults and He will deliver us, and in order to keep us all humble as we are daily delivered, we are also told that, in the final analysis, our escape will be a narrow but a certain one (1Pe 4:17-19).

1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
1Pe 4:18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
1Pe 4:19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

The 3 sixes that make up the mark of the beast can also represent those three generations of human experience within us (14+14+14=42), as all things are ours (1Co 3:2) and there is one experience unto all men that we will go through at our appointed time in order to come to know our Lord through that judgement within all those generations. The blessed generation in this life is the one that is being judged today (1Pe 4:17) and coming to see that we are guilty of all the sins of the world and the death of the prophets and of Christ, from Abel to Zacharias (Mat 23:35). We cannot begin to come out of the exile God puts us in until we are given to acknowledge our current wretched miserable poor and blind condition of being in weak flesh (Rev 3:17), but if we are granted to acknowledge that we can’t see, then our Lord can begin to heal us and deliver us from our captors who we could never overcome except the Lord set us free (Joh 9:41, Joh 8:36, Rom 7:24-25).

Mat 23:35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
Mat 23:36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

Joh 9:41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

Joh 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

The bible is about two men, and we are God’s workmanship that have those two men wrestling within us (Eph 2:8-10, Gen 25:22, Rom 9:13, Eph 6:12). We must experience our own personal exile into Babylon to then come out of that exile, if it is God’s will to do that for us in this age (Heb 6:3). There are many micro and macro examples throughout God’s word of how our first man Adam must go in and come out of exile, and the goal in this mini series is to bring out a few key verses that speak to this point. Christ divested himself of the power that he had and was born into sinful flesh (Php 2:5-7, Psa 51:5) so we could escape our sinful condition through Him (2Co 5:20-21). Christ coming out of Egypt, as Israel did by way of Moses, is a shadow of how Christ is delivering the Israel of God first (Gal 6:16) by the power of God’s holy spirit (Hos 11:1).

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Mat 2:13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.

Hos 11:1 When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.

2Co 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
2Co 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Christ had his own period in Egypt as a child where we read where Joseph was warned of an angel in a dream to take “the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him”. This departure to Egypt was typical of the exile that God’s elect go through in this life being hidden in Christ (Col 3:3, 1Jn 4:17) and kept from that wicked one Satan who wants to sift the manchild. Pharoah is a type of Satan who wanted to kill all the children two years and under, in order to kill Moses who represents Christ (Exo 1:22, Mat 2:16). The two years and under is the number of witness, and we are God’s witnesses with the spirit of God within us of these things, being hated of all the world (Rom 8:9, Col 1:27, Luk 24:48).

Luk 24:48 And ye are witnesses of these things.

We are those angels to each other that bring this sobering message that we will be hated by all men for his name’s sake (Mat 10:22), and along with that message we learn that the dream is one as we’re given an absolute hope (Rom 8:9, Col 1:27) and joy (1Th 1:6, Php 4:4) of knowing that we can be more than conquerors through Christ (Rom 8:31-37) who is the author and finisher of our faith and who God is dragging us to, delivering us from Babylonian exile (Heb 12:2, Joh 6:44).

Joh 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Heb 6:3 And this will we do, if God permit.

Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

It is only by God’s sovereign power in our life that anyone of us can come out of her my people (2Co 6:17-18), and so perhaps the most important lesson we can take from this study is the truth that we serve a merciful and loving God who has always intended to perfect holiness within His creation, each man in His own order (1Co 15:23), through giving us an experience of evil to humble us thereby (Ecc 1:13) and ultimately receiving us through those experiences (Heb 12:6) that will bring us to trust in the living God (2Co 1:9) who has already written our books and declared the salvation of all souls from the very beginning (1Co 15:22, 1Ti 4:10, 1Jn 2:2). This process of judgement that is upon the elect is symbolized by the number 3, and so the 6.6.6. found in the book of Revelation tells us that all of human flesh must be judged in order to become a new creation in Christ. The only sign Christ gives the evil generation that we come to see by God’s grace as being ourselves, is the sign of Jonah, and it is only those who can acknowledge that they are that evil generation who were seeking a sign, who will be given the understanding of this parable of Christ, and every other parable, that reveals that many are called and few are chosen (Mat 20:16, Luk 10:24). Those who are chosen are being judged by Christ who is in the heart of our earth, earth, earth, three times mentioned in Jeremiah to remind us that we are going through a life-long process of judgement as God’s elect (Mat 12:39-40, Jer 22:29).

2Co 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
2Co 6:18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Mat 12:39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
Mat 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Jer 22:29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD

In the coming studies on exiles mentioned in the bible I have compiled a list of some of the more obvious and less obvious examples that have been given to us that I hope to break down and share in the coming weeks. Here is the current list of the studies we will look at in the coming weeks on what “exiles” in God’s word symbolizes for us today:

1: Adam and Eve are exiled from the garden of Eden

2: The first two times the word exile is used in the bible

3: Some occurrences of the word outcasts, exile, or exiles in God’s word

4: The most notable exiles of Egypt and Babylon

5: Events in the bible that typify how we must come out of exile by God’s power

6: Characters in the bible who typify the spiritual zeal and Godly strength needed from Him to endure through the exile and come out of it, going unto perfection in the blessed and holy first resurrection.

7: Christ’s own examples of preaching to the captives, setting us free with God’s word that heals us and brings liberty.