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Stephen Hopkins

Into Exile

It was a C+.


That was my worst grade in an academic class in my entire life. (I'm excluding "handwriting" because, let's face it, who cares?!) And this C+ came in my first semester of Seminary in my Old Testament Survey class.


I'll start with a confession: I had never, at that point in my life, read through the entire Old Testament. I was generally familiar with it; I'd read big sections of it (what I considered the important parts anyway). But I'd never read the whole thing.


So, here I am, in this Old Testament Survey, and week 2 we have a comprehensive exam on all the stuff that people hate about history (Names, Places, and Dates). I remember trying to study this chart our professor had given us with all the relevant information and being completely lost. And when the exam came along I...didn't do great. Later, I realized it was 1/3 of our final grade for the semester.


I definitely should have studied harder.


But the Old Testament seems so confusing right?! And does it really even matter anyway?


Well...yes. Across the board. And while there are many, many reasons while the Old Testament is useful, helpful, and necessary, I'll share with you one of my favorite reasons: the stories.


"Stories?!" you ask incredulously.


Well, yeah. I like the stories. I think it's really helpful to be able to take a step back and ask if my current experience (whatever that might be) has any parallel from scripture (remembering that the scripture for the early church was generally what we refer to as the "Old Testament".) If we can consider our life in light of those stories, we might just learn something about how to navigate the complexity of our life in light of the eternal reality of God's Kingdom.


So, consider this:


As you've walked through the last ten months, have you asked yourself, "I wonder if anyone in the great Biblical story was ever forced into circumstances vastly beyond their control with no clear end in sight? And if so, I wonder how they would respond?"


Great question. And there's a better answer. And it's also the primary reason I flunked my Old Testament Survey exam in week 2.


This week, we're going into exile with Daniel...a young man of Judah forced into the service of the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in the year(s) following the legendary Battle of Carchemish.


As we consider his story and his experiences, we might realize that while language, technology, and politics may change...people really don't. The human condition is the same, regardless of our circumstances.


Personally, as I think about our collective experience over the last year with COVID and everything that's gone along with it...exile keeps coming to mind. Originally, I wrote this before the events of this Wednesday in DC. In light of those experiences, I think this is more relevant than ever.


So as we go through this series in Daniel (over on YouTube), we'll be making some Resolutions together that will not only help us survive, but thrive in Exile. Looking forward to being with you!


P.S. I've been thinking a lot about what happened this week. I certainly have a lot of thoughts and I'll put them down at some point soon. But here's one thing I do know - what happened Wednesday was the fruit of many, many decisions that brought us collectively to this point. And while the hot button political memory will likely dim over the next week while other tweets arise and COVID continues to dominate so many thoughts, the roots of our societal problem ain't going anywhere. But...more on that another day.

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