BY WILLIAM BUSCHING
What just happened? Of course we all know the facts: a dangerous pandemic, record-setting unemployment numbers, life in America on pause. But that’s the macro view – for each of us, the pandemic’s effects are felt differently. As we continue to stay isolated and wait until we’re allowed to resume our lives, one word that likely encapsulates our individual experience is loss.
Now imagine you’re living in Jerusalem two and a half millennia ago, in 596 BC. This time, it’s not a virus, but the powerful Babylonian army that has twice deported some of the more prominent people in your city. Maybe you’re one of them. And this happened despite the exhortations of some false prophets, who had proclaimed that the people would not be taken away and that disaster was not looming. Sound familiar? Here too, is a feeling of intense loss – of altered plans and altered livelihoods. But this time, you’re not being sent home. You’re off to a foreign land you’ve never seen before. God’s chosen prophet, Jeremiah, says the impending exile is judgment for Jerusalem’s lack of faithfulness to God.
But that’s not the only disorienting thing. Jeremiah also conveys God’s message to the Israelites as they make the journey to Babylon. Here’s part of it, taken from Jeremiah 29:
Thus says the Lord of hosts…. Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters… multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (Jeremiah 29:6-7)
How surprising. As God’s people are uprooted from the land he had promised them, bound for an alien culture, why might God command that they settle in and work for the welfare of their captors? God had promised Abraham a land for his descendants, and now they were being forcibly removed from it. But God also promised that in him, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Genesis 12:3) In Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles, God exhorts his people to keep fulfilling this second promise, even as the first is seemingly placed on hold. A few verses later, God promises that He will keep this first promise with equal fidelity, describing His plans to bring you [the people of Judah] back to the place from which I sent you into exile (Jeremiah 29:14). But it won’t happen immediately. It’s a radical faith that God asks of His people, that they wait for the good promised them and live faithfully in the interim. As His people today, we are called to that same faith.
God’s words, spoken through Jeremiah, map well onto the current COVID-19 crisis. As Christians, we are called to seek the welfare of our nation by staying home and keeping good hygiene. We build houses and plant gardens by supporting those around us. We ought to pray fervently for the healing of the sick and the wisdom of our leaders. But the word of the Lord is also relevant for our entire lives. In a larger sense, the Christian walk through life is a journey through exile, as we wait to be brought to a heavenly city. God’s exhortation to seek our city’s welfare, then, applies broadly to our sojourn on earth. It’s worth using this pandemic, largely a time of isolation, as an opportunity to reflect on how Christians are called to engage the world.
So what does the welfare of our “city” – whether a country, town, or institution – look like? We find examples throughout the Bible of faithful witnesses in a godless environment, including Daniel among the Babylonians and Esther among the Persians. Both held positions of influence and answered to a pagan ruler – but they were not sinful for doing so. Instead, they lived faithfully, building houses and planting gardens. Daniel, for example, resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food as he received a Babylonian education (Daniel 1:8). Both Daniel and Esther honored God in working for the good of the society they lived in, and as a consequence they did good for their own people, God’s people, as well. This assurance is evident in God’s charge that in its [the city’s] welfare you will find your welfare (Jeremiah 29:7). We also find encouragement in Joseph, who diligently shouldered responsibility during years of famine in Egypt. Thanks to his prudence and devotion to God in trying circumstances, Egypt survived the famine – and God’s people, the Israelites, found a home in Goshen. Even in the midst of exile, God protects His people and desires for them to bless those around them.
As a Christian, being faithfully and thoughtfully engaged in the welfare of our city does not come without its risks. Included in God’s words to the exiles is a warning:
Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream. (Jeremiah 29:8)
As Christians, we must rely on God to guard us from deception. Faithful discernment is a skill developed over time, through prayer and study of Scripture, and through total reliance on God and His word. Take King Solomon, who upon inheriting the united kingdom of Israel felt woefully inadequate to the task, hard-pressed to discern what was right or necessary to govern. Yet instead of relying on his own understanding, Solomon yielded to God and asked for wisdom:
And now, O Lord my God… I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in…. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people? (1 Kings 3:7, 9)
This request pleased the Lord, I Kings goes on to say, and He responded by granting Solomon his request. If we faithfully ask God for wisdom as we work toward the welfare of our own cities, He promises to provide. He knows the plans He has for us as we build houses and plant gardens.
We also behold a remarkable promise from Jesus, given shortly before His death. He promises a Helper, sent from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, who will bear witness about Jesus (John 15:26). Indeed, the Holy Spirit is sent by God to dwell in every believer, encouraging and advising us as we fulfill God’s purposes for our lives. The Holy Spirit helps us understand God’s capital-t Truth, as revealed through Scripture. Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. (John 16:8) As Christians, we must serve the Lord faithfully, seeking His wisdom and working where He has placed us in our call to seek welfare.
In pursuing this call, we are to build houses and plant gardens, working heartily, as for the Lord and not for men (Colossians 3:23). And since the Lord looks at the heart, we must trust the Holy Spirit and work to guard our thoughts and attitudes as we love those in our city and work for their good. It’s no easy task – surely the people of Judah felt it difficult to love those who had taken so much from them. But the Lord has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and instead desires for us to be His ambassadors in a godless and unfriendly climate (Ezekiel 33:11). The Apostle Paul describes how we ought to model our hearts after Christ in the work we do on earth. We are to avoid arrogance and hostility in engaging with those who do not know the Lord, loving them as our Heavenly Father does. As we dwell in cities not our own, enduring loss and hardship as we do the work of One scorned by many, may still prayerfully seek our city’s welfare, modeling Jesus’ love and desire to engage with those in authority as well as with the people of the land.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect….
Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer….
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. (Romans 12:2, 12, 14-18)