A Diary from Babylon

Aviv, 570s-550s BC

Babylon, in exile

Dear Diary,

I see a mirror. I hear, and I see. I hear Edom, and I see me. The words of the prophet Obadiah  echo to us:  

Though you [Edom] soar aloft like the eagle,

    though your nest is set among the stars,

    from there I will bring you down,

declares the Lord….

Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob,

    shame shall cover you,

    and you shall be cut off forever….

So says the prophet Obadiah, the very word of the Lord against our enemies, Edom.

And yet, once was I. Oh, G-D! YHWH! Were these not the same words you spoke to us, your people, before our exile through Isaiah 1 ?

“Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth;
    for the Lord has spoken:
“Children have I reared and brought up,
    but they have rebelled against me.

your hands are full of blood.

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;

    remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;

cease to do evil,

learn to do good;

seek justice,

    correct oppression;

bring justice to the fatherless,

    plead the widow's cause” (from Isaiah 1).

“I will punish the world for its evil,

    and the wicked for their iniquity;

I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant,

    and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless”

(Isaiah 13:1).

The same word came to us from the prophet Amos 8  

Hear this, you who trample on the needy
    and bring the poor of the land to an end,
⁵ saying, “When will the new moon be over,
    that we may sell grain?
And the Sabbath,
    that we may offer wheat for sale,
that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great
    and deal deceitfully with false balances,
⁶ that we may buy the poor for silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals
    and sell the chaff of the wheat?”

⁷ The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
“Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
⁸ Shall not the land tremble on this account,
    and everyone mourn who dwells in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
    and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”

(from Amos 8).

We, too, turned against our own brothers, fellow Israelites! We too gloated over their poverty, becoming rich through their misery! We had the warnings! We had the prophets! Oh, to G-D YHWH that we had listened! I read Edom’s judgment, and I see me. I am Edom, Israel though I be!

In pride of heart, I set myself against YHWH. I trusted in self rather than in him. In pride, I felt secure. In pride, I felt righteous. In pride, I set out to secure my own provision, my own name, my own well-being. Thus, in pride of heart, I turned against my fellow Israelites less fortunate than I. I built myself up at their expense. I am Edom.

And now—exiled. We faced the judgment of the Lord! His wrath! Destroyed, O Jerusalem. The same razor wrath that Obadiah promises for Edom, we have faced. Jerusalem in shambles. Temple glory departed. We, chained in exile, souls shackled, families slaughtered, homes burnt. Heart still tremors at trauma remembered. Cry out! Lament!

“How lonely sits the city
    that was full of people!
How like a widow has she become,
    she who was great among the nations!
She who was a princess among the provinces
    has become a slave.

² She weeps bitterly in the night,
    with tears on her cheeks;
among all her lovers
    she has none to comfort her;
all her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
    they have become her enemies.

Jerusalem sinned grievously;
    therefore she became filthy;
all who honored her despise her,
    for they have seen her nakedness;
she herself groans
    and turns her face away”

(from Lamentations 1).

We, who once clung in our pride to the temple, the glories of God, the riches of David, the gold-bedecked Ark (Jer. 7:4)—what do we have left but questions? Why? Why! Who are you God? Are you still powerful? Are you more powerful than the Babylonian gods who have carried us off? They taunt us, taunt you, the weak God who could not protect. Are you faithful? Are you a promise-keeping God? Are you with us? Or is your presence contained to the temple? Can you still be God in another nation? Are you still with us or have you turned your face on us forever?

“But now you have cast off and rejected;
    you are full of wrath against your anointed.
³⁹ You have renounced the covenant with your servant;
    you have defiled his crown in the dust.
⁴⁰ You have breached all his walls;
    you have laid his strongholds in ruins.
⁴¹ All who pass by plunder him;
    he has become the scorn of his neighbors.
⁴² You have exalted the right hand of his foes;
    you have made all his enemies rejoice.
⁴³ You have also turned back the edge of his sword,
    and you have not made him stand in battle.
⁴⁴ You have made his splendor to cease
    and cast his throne to the ground.
⁴⁵ You have cut short the days of his youth;
    you have covered him with shame. Selah

⁴⁶ How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?
    How long will your wrath burn like fire?”

(from Psalm 89).

Who are we but shame? Have we failed too badly? The words the prophets spit at us now: Sinful. Harlots. Stiff-necked. Rebellious. Shame.  

Where is the glory of Israel? Is it lost in the world? Lost in the materialism and the culture around us?

I see a mirror. Edom is I. I am Edom.

I deserve.

Just are you, YHWH.

But, but beyond the face in the mirror, beyond me—YHWH. Words glimmer forth still.

“But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape,
    and it shall be holy,
and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions.

   and the kingdom shall be the Lord's”

(from Obadiah )

 Impossible hope. Grace beyond my believing. Oh, G-D, YHWH, dare we believe? Redemption beyond comprehension. In my brokenness, in my alien state, in my exile, my G-D, you still speak. My G-D, you have not forgotten us, do not despise us in our sin and shame, but you yourself promise to take on our enemies! Our sin, our shame, our distance, our exile, the physical impossibilities—here, through your servant Obadiah, you say none of that will put us beyond the salvation of our G-D YHWH! Hope! Justice will come! God will fight!

And a holy nation once again! YHWH, possible? Not of us. “We shall be holy.” We shall be made holy. How? For we do nothing. How, o YHWH? How can we be recipients of such grace of the Lord! For we are Edom. But you call us Israel. Oh, my Lord, I praise in grace. Awash in grace.

Israel. Your child.

And yes, these feet still trod foreign soil, an alien, exile.

But chosen by the G-D of grace, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for your possession (1 Pt. 2:9-11).

In confidence, I step toward whatever the future. Grace.

“And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).