In Jeremiah 29, there’s a verse that has given hope and comfort to many people … that has been quoted and sung and memorized and repeated in prayer more times than we can count … a verse that has been cross-stitched, framed, and hung in many a grandma’s kitchen or imprinted on t-shirts or coffee mugs—"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” But in the verses leading up to that promise, we find some context that helps us more fully understand the pledge the Lord is making.
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” (Jeremiah 29:4-7, NIV)
The prophet is talking to people who’ve been carried into exile—a concept we think we have an understanding of, but one we struggle to grasp the powerful emotional overtones of. We think we know what’s involved with being carried into exile, but we don’t see it as being particularly relevant or pertinent to our lives—there’s not some foreign, occupying force lined up at our nation’s border ready to invade and haul us away to a foreign land. Being “carried into exile” is something that happened to God’s people between 2000-3000 years ago, but it’s not a threat we should feel is a burning or critical issue for us today. And if we were to think that way, we’d be wrong.
In 597 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar led Babylon to attack Jerusalem, quickly overpowering it—capturing King Jehoiakim, shackling him and hauling him off while looting and destroying the Temple and taking all the valuable articles he wanted. He rounded up and deported all the people who had a valuable skill or trade he could benefit from and left behind the poor, the infirm, the elderly, and the frail. He tore down the city walls … demolished every important building … took whatever he wanted and ransacked everything else. It was a total and complete annihilation. The place looked as bad as a coastal community after being hit by a Cat 4 hurricane or a town in the midwest that was in the path of an EF4 tornado.
On top of that, the Babylonians were not nice people. They were the most powerful nation on earth at that time, and their army was ruthless. After conquering a city, they’d typically place a pile of skulls in the town square or some highly visible location—I don’t know that Middle Eastern villages of that day had town squares—to remind people what happened to anyone who dared to rebel against them. The Babylonians were a heartless, cruel, merciless lot.
The Hebrew people hated—HATED—the Babylonians. They hated them for what they’d done to their nation … for relocating them to this distant, foreign place. They hated them for destroying the Temple, God’s dwelling place on earth. They hated their cruelty, their insolence, and their violence. They hated everything the Babylonians stood for. To them, the Babylonians were the embodiment of evil … the personification of everything that was vile, unholy, and wicked. And towards these people—amongst these people—God says, “Build houses … settle down … plant gardens … go on about life. Seek the peace and prosperity of this place to which I’ve carried you.”
I don’t think we can fully appreciate how upsetting the prophet’s message would have been to the original audience. “These people have destroyed and decimated our homeland. They’ve rendered it a wasteland and we’re likely never going to see it again. The sights and sounds we grew up with have been forever locked away and can never be recovered. And you want us to just settle in and acclimate? You want us to come to terms with what’s happened to us and get comfortable with it?” This message from the prophet to the people was undoubtedly not met with acceptance and approval. It was met with a collective thumbs down. For exile was not a welcome and hospitable place. It was a foreign, unknown, and unfamiliar place where everything felt odd and strange. To think about settling down and getting used to these hostile and unusual surroundings? That was a notion they didn’t remotely want to entertain.
A whole lot of angst accompanied the Hebrew people being carried into exile. But lest we think this is an issue that is irrelevant and far removed from our life, I’d suggest it is much more relevant than many of us would dare to imagine. Let me try to explain how it applies to us by framing it this way.
In sports, there’s a phenomenon known as the “home field advantage”. If you’re a sports team, you either play a “home game” or an “away game.” If you’re the home team, you will be familiar with the stadium or arena, and there will be a supportive crowd in attendance. Spectators will be wearing t-shirts and ball caps that sport the team’s colors or jerseys of their favorite player. They will cheer when your team does something good and boo when the umpire or referee makes a call they don’t like. If you’re the home team you will, for the most part, have an uplifting and encouraging environment in which to perform. But if you’re the away team, it will be the exact opposite. When you walk into the stadium or arena, you may not know which direction to go to find the locker room. The crowd will be against you, and many of the fans will do or say things to distract you and cause you to lose your concentration. You will hear boos when you run on to the field for the game, and they’ll cheer with delight when you make a mistake or mental error. There will be obstacles and impediments you’ll have to deal with as an away team that you won’t have to deal with as the home team.
Here’s my point: When the people of Israel were carried into exile, it was as if they became the away team after having been the home team for centuries. The surrounding culture, which had been familiar and comfortable, was now unfamiliar and hostile. The language was different. The landmarks and social signposts they’d grown accustomed to were no longer there. The cultural institutions and community organizations they’d worked to establish and had been in place for years and supported their way of life were no longer available to them. The people around them lived according to different priorities and had beliefs and values that were at odds with what made sense to them. Everything was strange and unfamiliar. They were functioning in an environment that felt alien.
When you think about the societal shifts and changes that have happened in North America in the last thirty or forty years, I believe the church of Jesus Christ finds itself in just as much a place of exile as the ancient Hebrews did. We’ve been deported culturally. No longer are the values we hold dear respected, affirmed, and shared by the surrounding society. No longer does the culture go along with and defer to our beliefs and ideals. No longer do we have a seat at the table when crucial questions are being addressed, or a highly regarded and respected voice when significant topics are being deliberated and discussed. We’ve been pushed aside and, for the most part, disregarded. After being the home team for decades—maybe even centuries—we’ve been asked to play on the road.
And what has been our response? For many of us, it’s been to grumble and complain. Instead of embracing the challenge of playing on the road, we’ve griped and moaned about things. We’ve related to folks who don’t share our view of the world in self-righteous, judgmental, and hurtful ways. We’ve acquired a reputation of being mean-spirited, hypercritical, and censorious rather than men and women who, as Philippians 2:15 says, “shine … like stars in the sky” as we live lives that are winsomely different and herald a message of hope to folks that are downcast and broken. Instead of offering a hurting world an attractive alternative, we’ve given them additional reasons to dismiss us as loud-mouthed, sanctimonious curmudgeons who want our way and are annoyed with the fact they’re not giving it to us on a silver platter.
I believe we are squandering an incredible opportunity, for God is giving us a world where people who live according to the values of the gospel can have tremendous influence. But many of us who profess to be followers of Jesus are settling for being harsh and grating sourpusses who appear to find tremendous satisfaction in being irksome, irritating, and annoying. And that opinion isn’t going to change—the needle is not going to move—unless we choose to live in ways that serve to modify the narrative.
There are a couple of thoughts I’ve had as it relates to this topic: Number one—the gospel is, by its very nature, countercultural. It is at its best when it is lived out in a culture that is at odds with and opposed to it. Jesus talked about how we’re supposed to be in the world but not of the world. He said, in John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble.” The apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:20 that “our citizenship is in heaven,” and the apostle Peter challenged us in 1 Peter 2:11, to, “as foreigners and exiles, abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your souls.” Bottom line: Living as exiles is something followers of Jesus should be prepared to do—expect to do—for the gospel message, by its very nature, is out of keeping with the underlying values and tenets of our society … of any society. Any attempt to try and force and impose religious values on a society typically doesn’t result in God and/or the people of God being held in a more favorable light. A much better approach to social change is for God’s people to embrace their heavenly citizenship and their status as exiles and live a life in accordance with the values and principles of heaven trusting that, in time, the light will come on and the depravity and darkness of this world will be exposed. When that happens, change will happen much more organically and naturally … and without the discord, conflict, and antagonism that results when we try to force people to embrace a certain belief.
Second—we should remember what the apostle Paul said in Eph. 6:12 … that “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” People who do not believe as we do and conduct themselves in adversarial and antagonistic ways are not our enemy. They are not individuals to be despised and hated but, as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, they are to be loved and prayed for. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:43-45a).
If our objective is to help those who are opposed to the gospel to someday become potential brothers and sisters in Christ, then how are we going to do that if we view them as enemies to be neutralized and eliminated … as people on the other side of a conflict to be subdued and put down? We should always remember our issue is not with them, per se. Which means that even though we live in the world, we’re not to live like the world.
So—how are we to live? This question takes us back to the guidance God offered His people through the prophet in Jeremiah 29:7. What was his counsel to these people who’d been carried into exile? Pray for your community … seek the good of your community—i.e., be the best citizen you can be. Strive to be a benefit and blessing to the people around you. Obviously reserve your highest allegiance for God and be willing to make a stand when the situation calls for it. But do it in a respectful, kind, and considerate way, ever mindful of the fact people are making judgments and reaching conclusions about the Jesus we represent from the way those of us who profess Him behave. It’s OK for people to not like or agree with our beliefs, but it’s something else entirely for them to negatively influenced and turned off by how we behave in the process. It’s one thing for folks to have a different opinion as it relates to our values, but it’s another for them to be exasperated and put out because of how we carried and conducted ourselves.
This passage is a challenge for those of us who consider ourselves God’s people to realize and embrace some important things. First, by nature of embracing the gospel message, we are exiles. This side of heaven, living as an alien and exile is our native state. A day is coming when the Lord will return and put everything right, and we’ll find ourselves fully at home in the realm we’re a part of. But until that day comes, we are foreigners … outsiders … exiles. But just because that’s our status doesn’t mean we can’t live extraordinary and distinctive lives. In fact, quite the opposite … our status as exiles calls us to live extraordinary and distinctive lives—not nauseatingly and disaffectingly so … not self-righteously and pretentiously so … but engagingly and winsomely so.
Think back to Daniel—in fact, the circumstance that landed he and his three Hebrew colleagues in exile was the same circumstance of which the prophet Jeremiah was speaking in chapter 29—the conquest by Babylon. How did Daniel carry and conduct himself? Every day, they faced pressure to change and adapt to the culture—in fact, the pressure was often so intense that their very existence hung in the balance. But they embraced Babylonian culture when and where they could—participating in the training program and answering to their Babylonian names. They embraced Babylonian culture so long as it didn’t compromise their devotion to God. But when it did—when they were asked to bow down and worship the king—they stood firm. They held on to a big picture view of God that believed He was sovereignly at work in spite of some of the adverse things that had happened. And they showed us it’s possible to succeed and be a convincing influence for Him even when you’ve been carried into exile.