In the days when the people of God were displaced from their home and native and promised land, the prophet Jeremiah addressed them. He wrote a letter to those who were in exile in Babylon, and challenged them to come to grips with the new reality. They were -- and were going to remain -- in a strange land. They were not "going home" any time soon. The false prophets and preachers who were telling them to "hang in" for a couple of years until they were released to go back to Jerusalem and Israel were speaking lies, and Jeremiah told them bluntly to pay such false prophets no heed. In fact, seventy years of exile were ahead of them.

In this exile, however, God had not abandoned His beloved people. Rather, God intended his people to be salt and light in a decadent and dark culture. He challenged the people to accept their new situation, and to seek to improve it. He encouraged them to put down roots:

"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. ... Increase in number ... seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile." (Jeremiah 29: 4-7, NIV)

Jeremiah calls on God-fearing believers in exile in Babylon to accept their position as a minority in a land of idols and false gods, and to seek the well-being of the people and society around them. He challenges them to practice their faith and to show by the way they live that their trust in the one living and true God enables them to live lives in hope, strength, and peace, even and especially amid very difficult surroundings. Their

faithful practice of the ways of the Lord will bring blessing to themselves and to their disbelieving neighbours. God will be honoured through their lives and service, and the kingdom of God will advance.

In the years immediately following Jesus' earthly sojourn -- after his death and resurrection -- the apostle Paul also faced communities and countries where Christian believers were few in number and lived in adverse conditions. When he surveyed the city of Athens, full of idols and false gods, he started with a realistic assessment of the conditions of the society in which he lived.

"Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and observed your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you." (Acts 17: 22-23, NIV)

Rather than bemoaning our lot or situation, or the condition of the culture around us, let us live faithfully as exiles in the land to which God has led us, and honour Him for as long as we are here.

A pilgrim, living in a place that is not my home, but seeking to bring blessing to others here and now,

Your pastor,
James T. Hurd