And many others fell slain, because the battle was God's. And they occupied the land until the exile. – 1 Chronicles 5:22

Today's Scripture Reading (June 26, 2025): 1 Chronicles 5

We often use shorthand when we speak to each other. The problem is that this shorthand assumes we understand the frame of reference. In the United States, often due to media and other fictional stories, we are familiar with the shorthand that the country uses for some of its military and spy services. NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) may be a somewhat obscure military organization, and it often plays up that fact in the fictional television series. Still, most of us know, or at least think we know, what the real NCIS stands for and does. The same goes for organizations like the FBI and CIA, although it sometimes seems that our fictional universe sometimes confuses the two. Even regional variants, such as the GBI (Georgia Bureau of Investigation), have made appearances in our fictional novels (consider Karin Slaughter's "Will Trent" character).

Because of “Bond, James Bond,” we know all about MI6, Britain's spy agency, although we shouldn't tell them that, as they might not appreciate that terminology. But do you know what MI5 does? The primary difference between MI5 and MI6 is that MI5 focuses on domestic threats within the United Kingdom, while MI6 is a foreign intelligence-gathering service. MI5 is roughly the British equivalent of the American FBI, while MI6 is the British equivalent of the CIA. But all of this is nothing more than a shorthanded.

Have you ever heard of the CSIS? Probably not. I don't know of any hit television series that takes place in the CSIS, although there are a couple who have advertised the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police). CSIS is the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Before we write them off as insignificant, the truth is that the lower-profile CSIS can often obtain information where the more well-known spy services fail to do so. It is one of the reasons why all allied foreign intelligence agencies need to communicate with each other, ensuring that everyone has the necessary information to maintain a safe world.

The reason for this trip through some of our alphabet groups is that a bit of shorthand is used here, and it was a shorthand that, on first read, I misinterpreted. I had to stop and think about what this passage said and connect it with the rest of the passage before I understood the message. The shorthand is at the end of this verse. "And they occupied the land until the exile" (1 Chronicles 5:22). The words, likely written by Ezra as the nation returned to Israel and Jerusalem from their Babylonian captivity, would seem to reflect the Babylonian experience. But that doesn't make sense.

Ezra didn't say it, but the reality is that the exile indicated here in a kind of shorthand was not the Babylonian experience from which Israel was just beginning to return but the Assyrian Exile from which the Northern Tribes never returned. It was that exile of which Ezra writes. And even as the Babylonian Exile came to an end, it was the Assyrian event that laid heavy on the heart of a Second Temple Priest named Ezra.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 Chronicles 6