The prophet says in Jeremiah 29:
1:7 “Seek the peace of the city.” The people of
Israel were quite used to praying for the peace
of
Jerusalem as
per Psalm 122:6-7 "May they prosper who love you. Peace
be within your walls, and security within your towers." But
here, the prophet is saying the contrary, pray for the peace of
Babylon! To pray such a prayer for
Babylon would have been unheard of among the
exiles and tantamount to praying for
their
the
enemies. Jeremiah's
directive went way beyond the realm of prayer. They were to seek the
welfare of the city, seek the peace and prosperity of the place where they had
been sent into exile. "Seek" here is an active verb, implying
working for the welfare of that community. Jeremiah, speaking on God's
behalf, is asking those who have been forcibly carried off by the enemy to work
for the general welfare, peace and prosperity of the neighbors they didn't
choose. They were to be a blessing and seek God’s blessing upon this
city.
This comes at a time when
the prophets of the day chimed in with the fair weather pundits in saying “pack
your bags and let’s be gone.” But
Jeremiah was saying, “Brethren, go ahead and unpack. Build a house.
Plant a garden. Get married. Have some kids. Let your kids
get married. You're going to be here a lifetime.” We are not about to leave this city but bless
this city and seek its welfare. Isn’t
that what the Lord is saying to us in
New
York? But many
are saying, “But what about me, what about my family? Shouldn’t I preserve the welfare of my family
and faith?”
God is not about preserving
a race but grace. As far back as the
first Book of the Bible, God called Abraham to be a blessing and in him all the
families of the earth shall be blessed. He
sent him to
Canaan when there was a famine and
yes, the unbelieving and totally different people called the Canaanites. But God blessed Abram to be a blessing. And in turn the people of
Israel were to be a blessing to the
entire world, a light to the nations, and a witness of God’s grace. And they could not do that if they withdrew
into a hostile enclave, refusing to engage with those "evil barbarous”
Babylonians. In seeking the peace and welfare of their captors, they were
to fulfill their calling as God's people and allow God to work through them in
that strange place. Isn’t it just what
the Lord Jesus did? He came down from pristine
glory to a hostile, planet in rebellion. The cross makes way for peace and
reconciliation of peoples to the Father.
What the prophet wrote
should have a bearing on us in this 21st century. We are certainly not in
Babylon – not at least in the physical sense.
We have imbibed the blessing of this
city in so many ways. Now in a time of
financial and moral crises, in a time when there is a deafening silence between
classes, races and parties, and where many divided and subdivided people live
alone and where there is so much
polarities, we need to pay close attention to God’s word. We need to, "Seek the welfare of the city
where I have sent you…and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare
you will find your welfare."
