Before the exile, one of the weeds growing in Israel’s field of sins was their refusal to accept the prophets’ warnings of the coming judgment. They reasoned, “Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, and Jeremiah have been preaching fire and brimstone for centuries. If it hasn’t happened yet, it’s never going to happen.” The delay in the judgment seemed to stimulate their disbelief. After the fall of Jerusalem, however, the exiles could not so easily dismiss the preaching of the prophets. 

Are you good at waiting? Is sitting in traffic or standing in line like a hammer to your thumb, making you want to scream? Historically, humans haven’t been known for their ability to wait patiently, but our society treats this virtue as an infectious virus—something to be vaccinated against and eradicated.

If you have to wait three seconds for a webpage to load, do you file a complaint with your service provider? A buffering YouTube video has become an arch-villain deserving the Arkham Asylum. This problem of lack of patience, this obsession with immediacy, is not only a modern issue. It was also a struggle for those Judean exiles fresh home from Babylon.

Before the exile, one of the weeds growing in Israel’s field of sins was their refusal to accept the prophets’ warnings of the coming judgment. They reasoned, “Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, and Jeremiah have been preaching fire and brimstone for centuries. If it hasn’t happened yet, it’s never going to happen.” The delay in the judgment seemed to stimulate their disbelief. After the fall of Jerusalem, however, the exiles could not so easily dismiss the preaching of the prophets. What God’s Word announced hundreds of years previously had come to pass in their judgment and exile. This reality invigorated the people’s trust in the words of the prophets, especially since judgment was not the only sermon they preached.

The prophets declared the certainty of desolation and exile, but they also painted with grandiose colors the coming restoration after the exile. Jeremiah said the exile would last seventy years, but then the Lord would gather his lost sheep back to the Promised Land. And what a gathering this would be! Isaiah sings that the rough places shall become a plain, the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and he will lead his people on level paths. The Lord’s servant Cyrus will free the exiles and rebuild the city and house of God. Jeremiah foretold the new and everlasting covenant of forgiveness and peace. The Lord would make all of Jerusalem holy to the Lord, and it would never be uprooted or overthrown again (Jer. 31:40). Ezekiel sculpted King David as the one shepherd over God’s people forever and God’s sanctuary would be in the presence of his people forevermore (Ezek. 37:24-28).

Could you imagine living in Babylon with these promises? It would be like a gift set on the mantle in July that you have to wait until Christmas to open. Children would be asking their dads, “Are we there yet?” Parents would dutifully mark off the calendar the days of those seventy years. The excited expectation would fill their dreams with images of a new and greater exodus. This hope would keep them hydrated in the dry years of exile.

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