Gospel.com Blog

One Biblical concept that I, and I suspect many Americans like me, have trouble relating to is the yearning for a homeland that is so vividly expressed in the book of Lamentations and other Old Testament texts. The calamitous destruction of the nations of Israel and Judah had a profound effect on generations of Biblical writers, and influenced the Jews’ hopes and expectations regarding the promised Messiah.

There are populations and ethnic groups today that can relate to this fervent longing better than I, a middle-class Midwestern American, can hope to. In this Slice of Infinity devotional, Jill Carattini discusses one such people group, and what this sense of “homelessness” means to us as Christians:

Such intensity in the name of place and homeland is not unique to [Native Americans]. For the people of ancient Israel, the relationship between land and faith was equally profound. The destructive loss of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians in 587 B.C.E. was infinitely more to them than the loss of home and property. For them it was the loss of faith, identity, even God Himself. Walter Brueggemann writes of Jerusalem’s destruction: “The deep sense of displacement evoked by the loss led to the conclusion in some quarters that all the old promises of YHWH to Israel–and consequently Israel’s status as YHWH’s people and Jerusalem’s status as YHWH’s city–were placed in deep jeopardy.” [...]

The writer of Lamentations gives voice to the uncertainty of exile, the finality of a destroyed Jerusalem, and the death of home in the deepest sense. He also dares give voice in the midst of exile to the promise of restoration–in the assurance of coming home to the one who never left. No matter the place of loss, wandering, or exile, no matter the distance, no matter the depth, the arm of God is not too short to save.

Is this sense of “homelessness,” this longing for a homeland (either spiritual or physical), something you can relate to? How has that affected your Christian walk?