Monday, February 17, 2025
This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Find wives for yourselves and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters to men in marriage so that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease. Pursue the well-being of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it thrives, you will thrive.” Jeremiah 29:4-7
Thriving in Babylon
Jeremiah was a prophet that was sent by God to warn the Jewish people that, because of their unrepentant sin, their God had turned against them, and He would deliver them into the hands of a pagan king. They would be exiled to Babylon because of their idolatrous behavior and sinful alliances. Jeremiah had been there preaching to them for 40 years and the people still were hardened against God and the warnings that Jeremiah had been sent to deliver. They were to be held in captivity in Babylon for 70 years. God promised them that in 70 years he would fulfill his promise to them to bring them back home.
When we are in a season of exile a minute can feel like an eternity. For the people of Israel, the news of 70 years in captivity must have been overwhelming. They must have been drowning in thoughts of “What do we do now?” Maybe they felt hopeless and wanted to do nothing but sit and pout. Jeremiah gave them instructions from God for exactly what he expected them to do in captivity, and it is a word for us as well.
“Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Find wives for yourselves and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters to men in marriage so that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease. Pursue the well-being of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it thrives, you will thrive.”
The sentence of captivity seems like they would not have the freedom to live normal lives, make choices about their lives, or thrive at all. The very word captivity seems to imply a hold of all things, where growth and freedoms would be stunted but that is not what Jeremiah told them. He said that God desired for them to thrive in their season of captivity. He told them to build houses and live. He told them to plant gardens and live off their bounty. He told them to marry and have children – to increase and not decrease. He wanted them to multiply in Babylon, just as they had in Egypt. He wanted them to pour into the community and culture there. Exile didn’t mean that God forgot about them or wanted to destroy them. He wanted them to not only thrive, but to help Babylon thrive and to be a blessing to the Babylonians. God exiled them and expected them to be a blessing in their exile – and to pray for the Babylonians as well.
Even in the “captivity” of our circumstances or the exile of our bad decisions, we can heal and thrive again – even before our circumstances change. Not only can we heal and thrive again, but we can engage with others and point them to him. God was with the Israelites in their captivity, and he is with us in our consequences, in every circumstance of life. This not only creates peace for us, but we are living and loving like Jesus in any and every way. He expects us to keep going, so that no matter what, we always seek him and bless others. He wants us to reflect his glory and love in any circumstance/es and be agents of change wherever we are.
What is God’s call to the city and how are we to live out this call for His glory and their good?
They could have refused to go out in the community. They could have refused to build houses, plant gardens, and to marry and have children. They could have decided to decrease, keep to themselves and not pursue the well-being of the community. As Christians these are the things that we are supposed to do in any community we are in – exiled or not. No matter what the situation or circumstances we are always to thrive, engage in the community and reflect and glorify God in every single thing we do. We are to go out into the community and be a light, do good things, and influence others for the glory of God by how we live our lives – in everything we say and do.
Jesus said in John 13:35, By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. We will be known by how we live our lives. We will make the community a better place if we are living The Jesus Way and stepping where the Spirit steps. We will show his love to others, glorify him, and point to him with our whole lives, leaving the spaces we occupy and places we go better than the way we found them.
