Banished/Outcast/Driven Out: Nadakh, verb (Strong’s 5080).
Root: נָדַח
Sounds like: na’dak
Banished by your own Hand
The banished, the outcast, those driven away… this is a consistent theme in the Bible. Although it may feel that God banished Israel, and sent them into exile, for their disobedience, the truth is they banished themselves by their actions:
Deuteronomy 4:19a
And be careful not to raise your eyes to heaven and look at the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the heavenly lights, and allow yourself to be drawn away [w-nidakh’ta וְנִדַּחְתָּ֛] and worship them and serve them…
Essentially, by turning towards paganism they banished themselves. This explains why this word is sometime translated as the verb to seduce:
Proverbs 7:21
[Regarding the temptress:] With her many persuasions she entices him; with her flattering lips she seduces him [casts him out: ta-dikhenu תַּדִּיחֶֽנּוּ].
Falling for seduction means that, by your own actions, you banish yourself. You cast yourself out of God’s plan for you.
When God banished His people, it was in response to the poor choices they made:
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
[YHWH:] “See, I have placed before you today life and happiness, and death and adversity, in that I am commanding you today to love YHWH your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, so that you may live and become numerous, and that YHWH your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to take possession of it.
But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but allow yourself to be led astray [w-niddakh’ta וְנִדַּחְתָּ֗] and you worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you will certainly perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and take possession of it.
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have placed before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving YHWH your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding close to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, so that you may live in the land which YHWH swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
This commandment to choose life, and not death, becomes a repeated Biblical theme. Rejecting God is a path to death; turning to God is a direction that leads to life. This is why the call to reject paganism was so strongly promoted by the prophets. It was a life and death decision:
Jeremiah 8:1-3
“At that time,” declares YHWH, “they will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its leaders, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves. They will spread them out to the sun, the moon, and to all the heavenly lights, which they have loved, which they have served, which they have followed, which they have sought, and which they have worshiped. They will not be gathered nor buried; they will be like dung on the face of the ground. And death will be chosen rather than life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family, that remains in all the places to which I have driven them [hi-dakh’tim הִדַּחְתִּ֣ים],” declares YHWH of armies.
Jeremiah 27:14-15
So do not listen to the words of the prophets who talk to you, saying, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon,’ for they are prophesying a lie to you; for I have not sent them,” declares YHWH, “but they are prophesying falsely in My name, so that I will drive you away [ha-dikhi הַדִּיחִ֤י] and that you will perish, you and the prophets who prophesy to you.”
Isaiah 8:19-22
When they say to you, “Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,” should a people not consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the Law and to the testimony! If they do not speak in accordance with this word, it is because they have no dawn. They will pass through the land dejected and hungry, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will become enraged and curse their king and their God as they face upward. Then they will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and into the darkness they will be driven [m-nudakh מְנֻדָּֽח].
Driven Away by Bad Shepherds
How did it come to this, that the people rejected YHWH and started worshipping celestial beings and the gods of their neighbours, turning to mediums to be their spiritual guides? It turns out that the leaders of the land were bad shepherds and the people were unquestioning sheep:
Jeremiah 23:1-4
“Woe to the shepherds who are causing the sheep of My pasture to perish and are scattering them!” declares YHWH. Therefore this is what YHWH, the God of Israel says concerning the shepherds who are tending My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away [wa-ta-dikhum וַתַּדִּח֔וּם], and have not been concerned about them; behold, I am going to call you to account for the evil of your deeds,” declares YHWH. “Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them [hi-dakh’ti הִדַּ֥חְתִּי], and bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply. I will also raise up shepherds over them and they will tend them; and they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares YHWH.
Ezekiel 34:1-4
Then the word of YHWH came to me, saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, ‘This is what the Lord YHWH says: “Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should the shepherds not feed the flock? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the broken you have not bound up, the outcast [ha-niddakhat הַנִּדַּ֙חַת֙] you have not brought back, nor have you searched for the lost; but with force and with violence you have dominated them…
…I Myself will feed My flock and I Myself will lead them to rest,” declares the Lord YHWH. “I will seek the lost, bring back the outcast [ha-niddakhat הַנִּדַּ֣חַת], bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will eliminate. I will feed them with judgment.”
Jeremiah 50:17a, 19-20
“Israel is a scattered flock, the lions have driven them away [hi-dikhu הִדִּ֑יחוּ]..
…And I will bring Israel back to his pasture and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan, and his desire will be satisfied in the hill country of Ephraim and Gilead. In those days and at that time,’ declares YHWH, ‘search will be made for the wrongdoing of Israel, but there will be none; and for the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for I will forgive those whom I leave as a remnant.’”
YHWH wouldn’t just bring them back home, He would also forgive them. They could search for prior wrongdoings, but they would not be found. YHWH would not just find them and bring them home, He would rescue, redeem, and wipe the slate clean.
The Banished Shall Return
This was incredible news! A time would come when the followers of God would be outcasts no more! YHWH would gather them up, forgive them, clear their names, and bring them home:
Isaiah 27:12-13
On that day YHWH will thresh from the flowing stream of the Euphrates River to the brook of Egypt, and you will be gathered up one by one, you sons of Israel. It will come about also on that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and who were the outcasts [w-ha-nidakhim וְהַנִּדָּחִ֖ים] in the land of Egypt will come and worship YHWH on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
This was a promise made as far back as the days of Moses:
Deuteronomy 30:1-4
“So it will be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have placed before you, and you call them to mind in all the nations where YHWH your God has driven you [hiddikh’aka הִדִּיחֲךָ֛], and you return to YHWH your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul in accordance with everything that I am commanding you today, you and your sons, then YHWH your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where YHWH your God has driven you [niddakh’aka נִֽדַּחֲךָ֖].
Nehemiah, when he mourned for the status of Israel after it had fallen to the Babylonians, referenced God’s promise to Moses in his prayer to YHWH:
Nehemiah 1:8-9
[Nehemiah to YHWH:] Remember, please, the word which You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, “If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples; but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been cast away [ni-dakh’akem נִֽדַּחֲכֶ֜ם] in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place where I have chosen to have My name dwell.”
If the people returned to YHWH, God would restore them. God heard Nehemiah’s prayer and restored them to Jerusalem!
Nehemiah’s prayer was rooted in his understanding of the promise made in the writings of the prophets:
Jeremiah 30:17-19 (see also Jer 16:14-15, Jer 29:14)
“For I will restore you to health and I will heal you of your wounds,” declares YHWH, “Because they have called you an outcast [nidakhah נִדָּחָה֙], saying: ‘It is Zion; no one cares for her.’”
“This is what YHWH says: ‘Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwellings; and the city will be rebuilt on its ruins, and the palace will stand on its rightful place. From them will come a song of thanksgiving and the voices of those who celebrate; and I will multiply them and they will not decrease; I will honour them and they will not be insignificant.’”
Jeremiah 32:37-41
“Behold, I am going to gather them out of all the lands to which I have driven them [hi-dakhtim הִדַּחְתִּ֥ים] in My anger, in My wrath, and in great indignation; and I will bring them back to this place and have them live in safety. They shall be My people, and I will be their God; and I will give them one heart and one way, so that they will fear Me always, for their own good and for the good of their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts, so that they will not turn away from Me. I will rejoice over them to do them good and will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and all My soul.”
God wouldn’t just rescue them, He would rejoice over them. He would pour His heart and His soul into His people and they would live as the intended Image Bearers they were made to be!
The Banished One
Absalom, the third son of David, was banished from the kingdom of Judah. His sister, Tamar, had been raped by thier half-brother Amnon. Absalom killed him in revenge for the shame his sister bore. As a result, he fled to his maternal grandfather’s kingdom in Geshur. He stayed there for three years. During those years David mourned for Absalom and wished for his return, but he never sent an invitation to his son.
Joab, understanding David’s heart, devised a plan to encourage David to extend a branch of peace to Absalom. He used the wise woman from Tekoa to convince David to bring Absalom back home:
2 Samuel 14:12-14
Then the woman said, “Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king.” And he said, “Speak.” The woman said, “Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God? For in speaking this word the king is like one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring back his banished one [et nidd’khow אֶֽת־נִדְּחֹֽו]. For we will surely die and are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up. Yet God does not take away life, but makes plans so that the banished one [niddakh נִדָּֽח] will not be cast out [yiddakh יִדַּ֥ח] from Him.”
Israel was banished by God for the fatal choices they made, but He did not plan to banish them forever. He made a plan to bring them back. Why couldn’t David do the same for his son? David listened to this woman and allowed Absalom to return, but he refused to face him (2 Samuel 14:24). It wasn’t full forgiveness. He continued to punish Absalom by refusing to see him.
David’s behaviour towards his son was in stark contrast to Yeshua’s parable of the Prodigal Son. The son in the parable had asked for his inheritance early and squandered it on excessive and irresponsible living until he had nothing left. He lost everything and was living in squalor when he realized that it would be better to go back home to his father in humility. Living as a servant in his father’s house, he concluded, would be better than dying alone:
Luke 15:20-26
So he set out and came to his father. But when he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, slaughter it, and let’s eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.
Unlike the father in the parable, David did not treat his son with any sense of acceptance, forgiveness, or compassion. In fact, he continued to treat him like a banished child in his own backyard. He may have been “home” but he was not welcomed with open arms. He was kept further than arms length, like an outcast… and it backfired on David.
Absalom could not reach his father, so he reached out to the people instead, and they opened their arms to him:
2 Samuel 15:13-14
Then a messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the people of Israel are with Absalom.” So David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem, “Arise and let’s flee, for otherwise none of us will escape from Absalom. Go quickly, or he will hurry and overtake us, and bring cast out [w-hiddikha וְהִדִּ֤יחַ] disaster on us and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”
Absalom’s rebellion was at least partially the result of his own personal banishment which David had imposed on him. If David had been a forgiving (wipe the slate clean) father, would Absalom have rebelled?
In one of David’s psalms, He called on YHWH to cast out those who had schemed against him:
Psalm 5:10
[David:] Make them pay, God; have them fall by their own schemes! Cast them out [ha-dikhemow הַדִּיחֵ֑מוֹ] in the multitude of their wrongdoings, for they are rebellious against You.
Was Absalom David’s enemy or his son? Psalm 5 is an honest prayer, but it begs the question: does God want us to pray for the downfall of our enemies? Didn’t Yeshua tell us to:
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5:44)
Eventually David and his army tried to stomp out the rebellion. David called on his troops to stop Absalom, but not kill him. The military commander, Joab (David’s nephew and Absalom’s cousin), disregarded David’s command and ordered Absalom to be shot down. Joab, the man who had tried to bring father and son together, would, ultimately, sever the tie completely.
When he heard his son had been killed, David’s response was prophetic:
2 Samuel 18:33b
“My son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, Absalom, my son, my son!”
This, of course, is a tragically beautiful foreshadowing of what the Messiah (David’s descendant) would do in the place of His people. He did what David could not do. He would die instead of us.
Dying for the Outcasts
Today is Palm Sunday, the day Yeshua entered Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. He was welcomed with great celebration into the city. After such a warm embrace it’s hard to fathom that in less than a week He would be rejected by the Jewish elite, banished from the Temple, and cast out to the Romans who would deliver His death:
John 11: 47-53
Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council meeting, and they were saying, “What are we doing in regard to the fact that this man is performing many signs? If we let Him go on like this, all the people will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take over both our place and our nation.”
But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, nor are you taking into account that it is in your best interest that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish instead.”
Now he did not say this on his own, but as he was high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation; and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on they planned together to kill Him.
Yeshua, who championed the outcast, the poor, the suffering, would die for all the people. He would sacrifice Himself for all the scattered/banished/outcast children of God, in order to bring them home, just like the prophets promised:
Micah 4:6-7 (see also Zephaniah 3:19-20)
“On that day,” declares YHWH, “I will assemble those who limp and the outcast [w-ha-niddakhah וְהַנִּדָּחָ֖ה], and gather those whom I have afflicted.
I will make those who limp a remnant, and those who have strayed a mighty nation, and YHWH will reign over them on Mount Zion from now on and forever.”
As we enter into Holy Week, remember what God said:
I have placed before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving YHWH your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding close to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days (Deut 30:19-20).
You are not an outcast, you are a cherished child of YHWH, made in His image, created to do great things! Life is beautiful! Go live it with conviction! And one day, when your time has come, the Father will be waiting with open arms for you.
Next week: Sermon- On the Third Day (Pt 3)
Hebrew Word Lessons 