This is Day Three of Out of Exile… a 40-day journey from setback to comeback.

Everyone ends up in exile at one time or another. Often many times. In the Bible, exile often happened as a result of sin. Exile was a form of punishment for God’s people disobeying him. You see this in the book of Ezekiel where God allowed his people to be taken in exile to Babylon as a result of their turning away from God. But there are other reasons for exile. Here are five.

Five Reasons You Wind Up In Exile 

1. Unbelief

That’s what happened to God’s people when they failed to enter the Promised Land. They doubted God’s ability to help them. Has unbelief kept you stranded in a place you were never meant to be? Maybe God asked you to do something but you refused out of fear and now you are in a no-man’s-land.

2. Sin and Rebellion

This is what I talked about above regarding Ezekiel. God’s people lost the right to live in the Promised Land , not merely for doubting God,  but for worshiping false gods. When we feel sorry for ourselves,  we often fall into sin, don’t we? We think we are justified to go our own way because we have it so bad. Our worship shifts from God to our own pleasure.

3. Bad Choices

Bad choices may have nothing to do with unbelief or rebellion. You just made some decisions that set you back and put you in a time of exile. Maybe you made some bad financial decisions that got you in trouble. Or maybe you said some things that got you in hot water and put your job in jeopardy. Or maybe you trusted the wrong people and they betrayed you.

4. Bad Luck

Sometimes bad things just happen to people for no reason. We live in a broken world and bad things will happen: disease, war, hurricanes, crime… the list is endless.

5. God’s call

Sometimes God calls us to a hard place. It's not for any of the reasons above. It's just that God's will can't be accomplished in any other way than through suffering. God didn't spare Jesus from this.  Jesus’ suffering and crucifixion were the ultimate exile.

It May Not Be Your Fault

I mention these five reasons for exile because it helps to know what landed you in exile. Too often people assume that bad things happen to them because they’ve done something wrong and God is against them. But it’s not always your fault. So don’t assume you are at fault and beat yourself up.

I personally think God has better things to do than hand out punishments. But I do believe he allows us to walk through hard times because hard times are the best teacher. Hard times develop character and forces us to rely on God.

In Day Four, I’ll look at what God does through exile.

This 40-day journey is based on my books Out of Exile and Return from Exile.

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