Congratulations, Gardeners! We've traveled from the Garden of Eden to Nehemiah and Ezra and the rebuilding of God's House. And now we enter a time that protestants have long referred to as the 400 years of silence. But God is not silent! Much is being written, much history is happening and it is critical that we know and understand this culture and this time because it sets the stage for Jesus. God is not silent - perhaps we have just not been taught how to listen.

As promised, God does not keep his people in exile forever. The time has come for the faithful remnant to return home to the promised land of milk and honey. But what happens when home becomes an unexpected hard? How does the remnant remain faithful and learn from the mistakes of their ancestors? As we travel through Ezra and Nehemiah with the prophetic voices of Haggai and Zechariah we come to understand the implications of coming home.

While exiled in Babylon, the King adopts Daniel and his friends into his royal court, granting them privilege and power. All he asks for in exchange is total allegiance. The way Daniel deftly navigates serving the king while never compromising his service to the Real King serves as a bold inspiration for God’s people. The stories of Daniel in exile also introduce us to the “Son of Man” through whom God will ultimately overpower all the evil kings of the world and bring life to all nations.

This week is storytime! The book of Esther is not what it seems. While in exile, in an unknown and foreign land, stories like this paradoxically reveal what they conceal.

This conversation centers on Life in Exile in the context of the book of Ezekiel. What does it mean to follow God in a new world, when all your religious practices have been stripped away and deconstructed? Where do we find God when in exile, when we are so far away from the house of God's Name?

Jonah is given an impossible call ... to go and preach repentance to a people who don't deserve it. The book of Jonah isn't just a children's tale about a man being swallowed and vomited by a big fish. The book seeks to transform the hearers, move us to compassion, even love, for our enemies.

Isaiah and Jeremiah voice dire warnings to the people of God. God's judgment is coming and Israel's Kingdom will come crashing down. And yet we are called to a greater hope - God is using all these world events to bring us to repentance and the pursuit of justice. We are not forgotten. God's blessings are not far off.

Israel demands a king like the nations. They make their way from Saul to David to Solomon, but after Solomon dies, the tribes fracture, dividing between north and south. As kings now rule over each kingdom, different prophets are called to speak truth to the powers. As we introduce the role of the prophets in our Grand Narrative, we listen in to what we might also learn from these voices today.

A closer look at the life and legacy of King Solomon.

As we continue navigating the early years of Israel’s monarchy, we quickly reach what Israelites will later look back on as the glory days — a united kingdom ruled by David, a heroic military leader and “a man after God’s own heart”. At the same time, we see a story within this story, in which God uses prophets like Nathan to hold kings like David accountable for the blood on their hands. The life of David, in both good and bad ways, shapes our expectations of a savior.