I was reminded of that song as I was reading in II Chronicles that the Chosen People were now put in exile again. King Nebuchadnezzar captures Jerusalem and God’s Chosen are NOT their own anymore. The Chosen haven’t been “choosing” very wisely, I’m thinkin. The kings are evil, worshiping everything imaginable and making very ungodly “choices”, to say the least. Needless to say, God leaves them to their own demise and they are exiled AGAIN – which turns out to be a good thing.
Wait . . . . a good thing? Exile? In the corner? Surely, not! There’s no freedom in the corner. I have to sit still and follow orders. I’m not good at sitting still and being a slave. Nope, that doesn’t sound fun at all. But unfortunately, for some of us, it is where we should be.
Back to the story . . . . as King Cyrus takes over, he orders the rebuilding of the temple (the true worship area) so that the EXILED can worship as their forefathers did. Most of the prior kings, their own kings BTW, destroyed the temple, stealing everything for themselves. Or worse yet, putting their own gods there!
So here, in exile, the Israelites start to worship again. And what happens? They realize that THAT is where they should be – no matter if they are free or enslaved, they need to worship – and worship they did!
Jeremiah 29 says: “Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
Worship is an act of religious devotion, usually directed towards a deity. (Wikipedia)
Why is worship so important and why does it take “exile” to bring us back to it?
Well . . . . . this question hit me as I “came back” to worship a month or so ago. We were worshiping “hit or miss” last summer as we bought a new camper and gone weekends and . . . . blah blah blah (no excuse). Oh I loved the camping and the time with the family and our fun weekends and even though I was reading my Bible, praying, and listening to Christian music, something was missing. Then I realized it after worshipping two or three Sundays in a row, it hit me that my problem was that I hadn’t been worshipping!
THAT is what I missed – praising and singing and confessing and fellowship and devotion – devoting my heart to THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, THE ONE TRUE AND GOOD, THE GREAT I AM. I practically burst into tears with relief, I was where I was meant to be!
Sometimes, in my own little corner, I am slapped in the face with what I REALLY need. And I can’t get out of there without falling on my face in humility.
For when I’m “exiled” – I TRULY see who He is. I see what my next step is, where my heart should be and WHO I should be devoting my heart to. I’m telling you, in my own little corner, my heart sees EXACTLY what He wants me to see!
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