The Most Difficult Exile

Over the past few weeks, we have been looking at the stories of people who were part of Israel’s exile period. Last week Aaron took us to the story of Esther, which is an incredible story of how God used this woman to stand up for her exiled Jewish family and ultimately, save them from destruction. But, as Aaron pointed out, it is also a difficult story because of how Esther uses her newfound power and privilege toward the end of the book. Esther goes from a diplomatic envoy using her position creatively and peacefully, to using the same methodology as the very people who are keeping her people captive, and Aaron did a great job of letting us wrestle with that reality.

I have talked about this before, but when you study the history of oppression in various countries and different methodologies for how people get free from oppression, oppressed people don’t free themselves without using the same weapons as the oppressor. This is what we see going on right now in the Middle East. We are watching the ineffectiveness of trying to solve violence with more violence. In the current case, almost all the parties involved see themselves as being the oppressed ones, and rather than working towards a peaceful resolution, we see an escalation of violence due to a cycle of retribution.