A sense of exile is inevitable for those who try to live their Christian beliefs faithfully. At times it feels discouraging, even overwhelming, to try to seek righteousness when it requires such counter-cultural thought and action. Sometimes we fail to do much more than the legitimate – the building of houses, the sowing of gardens – and finally we end up accommodating ourselves to the silent gods of Babylon.
But breaking into our exilic state is the living God, he who has stretched out the heavens and spread out the earth. In Isaiah 42 God reminds his people that whatever their present circumstances, they must dare to hope, for through his Servant he will bring justice and freedom from exile and shall give sight to the blind and release to those that sit in darkness. Moreover, this hope is not solely for those who know themselves to be in exile, but for those who do not know their plight, who only know that their gods are silent. "I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand" (Is 42:6). This is the hope to which we hold and this is the hope we share.
