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.
God is telling the people that although they’ve been exiled to Babylon, they should fully live – build houses, plant gardens, and have families. The people should take care of themselves and live as they had before the exile. More demanding though, is God’s call that they seek the welfare of the city where they were sent. This is the ultimate example of the adage, when life hands you lemons….
I can imagine that the people were pretty distraught. They were no longer in their homeland, in their literal God-given land. They’re conquered and displaced, allowed by the God who was to be their protector. And now, that same God is asking them to seek the welfare of the city where they are.
This is a hard lesson for me. There’ve been times when I felt like I was stuck in the wrong city, wrong job, wrong church. It’s easy to be angry and testy about the wrongness. But if God was telling the people to seek the welfare of their captor’s city, of course God would ask me to seek the welfare of the city, job, or church where I was; in its welfare I would find welfare.
As someone who is very comfortable changing my circumstances, this is challenging. Instead of being content with a mediocre whatever, I would be much more inclined to change things. At one point, I was in a job that felt patently wrong. It took a long time to change that, and there were a few years where I tried to change things to no avail. Woe is me. I don’t think I sabotaged anything in that place, but I definitely grumbled. I’m not sure I actually sought its welfare. And I’m certain I didn’t think that from its welfare would come my welfare.
This morning, I’m thinking about how to pray to the Lord on behalf of anything that feels like my personal exile, rather than grumbling about it. We all have things we feel are not precisely as we like it. Learning to thrive where we are is a challenge, and according to God, the welfare of our exiled circumstances can be our welfare too.
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