Some Christians use the motif of Israel’s exile to justify why Christians should not have (or seek) political power and cultural influence. We live in Babylon, so we cannot expect very much transformation of the world around us. We “lose down here,” as the saying goes. There’s no need to fight a “culture war” or try to build a Christian civilization. We should just accept our remnant status as a permanent feature of how things are.
But the biblical account of what actually happened when Israel went into exile leads us to draw the exact opposite conclusion. Exile is not a time of political impotence and irrelevance for the Israelites. Rather, it is a time of exaltation to positions of political power and influence. Daniel, Mordecai, Esther, and Nehemiah are all proof.
Daniel rises to be the emperor’s right hand man in the Babylon Empire and the Medo-Persian Empire. He converts Nebuchadnezzar to a God-fearer and his witness leads Darius to send out a theocratic decree, calling on his whole empire to worship Daniel’s God as the true God. In the case of Darius, this is especially interesting: In Daniel 6, Darius is duped into passing a decree that everyone under his reign must pray exclusively to him. He will be “god on earth.” It’s raw statism. But after Daniel’s metaphorical death and resurrection in the lions’ den, Darius sends out a counter-decree that basically tells his subjects, “Don’t pray to me; pray to Daniel’s God. YHWH is the God who delivers.” Likewise, Mordecai becomes Ahasuerus’s top advisor and Esther becomes queen. Nehemiah is a cup-bearer (an important political position) to Artaxerxes. The period of exile is a period of great imperial influence for the Jews.
It’s true that Jews suffered in exile. But it was suffering unto victory. The exiles were not in a state of permanent powerlessness; rather God continually elevated them to positions of great rank and stature in the empire. God used Jewish influence to convert kings and issue empire-wide evangelistic decrees. How much more should we expect Christians in the new covenant age to do the same, and even more?
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ADDENDUM: It’s true the church can’t go into exile the way Israel did under the old covenant since Jesus now rules over all. But Jeremiah’s directives are still useful to the church – and not just when we find ourselves as beleaguered minorities. During Israel’s time in exile, Israelites were often in positions of political power and influence, eg, Daniel, Mordecai, Esther, Nehemiah. Exile did not equate with powerlessness. Daniel was probably already second in command in Babylon when Jeremiah wrote. Also, Jeremiah 31 tells the exiles they will have tremendous evangelistic success. The exiles were scattered as missionaries, as it were, throughout pagan lands.
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