January 13, 2022

Jeremiah 29: 5-7 (NIV)

“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.”

“The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God governs in the affairs of men.”*

You’ve heard the old saying, “Bloom where you are planted.” It is a concise paraphrase of this passage in Jeremiah, which contains God’s instructions to the Israelites who are in exile in Babylon. He does not direct them to conspire against their captors but instead requires them to do the things you do when you are living your everyday lives.

Perhaps we are surprised by God’s command that they pray for the city of their captivity. It is bad form, we learn, for anyone to bad-mouth the community in which they live and flourish. In this case, their welfare for the next 70 years is intertwined with Babylon’s. Imbedded in God’s message is some sound political advice: 1) if they increased in number, their influence – and power – would increase; and 2) community prosperity leads to personal prosperity.

As always, we are cautious not to assign more meaning to a passage of scripture than was intended, but often there is an application beyond the immediate message. God’s promise to prosper the Israelites is not a guarantee for us, but in I Timothy 2: 1 and 2, we are instructed to pray for those who are in authority over us that we may live peaceful and quiet lives. That sounds very much like a New Testament application of an Old Testament principle!

“The spirit of charity . . . disposes a person to be public-spirited. A man of right spirit is . . . greatly interested and concerned for the good of the community.”*