And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. [Jeremiah 29:7a (NLT)]
Jeremiah’s instructions to work and pray for the welfare of Babylon was a unique and completely unprecedented concept in the ancient world. Rather than praying for retaliation and Babylon’s collapse, God commanded them to pray for their Babylonian captors and work for the peace and prosperity of the land! Rather than rebels and a source of trouble and insurrection, the exiles were to become reliable and valuable members of the community. It seems they took God’s command to heart.
Mere youths when they were taken to Babylon, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were trained for royal service. Learning the culture, literature, and languages of Babylon (Sumerian, Assyrian, and Babylonian) was no easy task and learning the 600 to 1,000 symbols used in the writing of cuneiform was even harder. Nevertheless, Nebuchadnezzar found no others with the same abilities as the four Judean captives and they rapidly came to positions of power and influence. Calling Daniel chief among his “wise men,” Nebuchadnezzar kept him at court and put the other three in charge of the province of Babylon. Daniel continued to faithfully serve both Babylonian and Persian kings into his eighties.
The book of Esther tells of the Jewish woman who became King Xerxes’ queen. Her uncle Mordecai served as a palace official at the king’s gate. When he overheard a plot to assassinate the king, Mordecai reported it to Esther who reported it to the king and the plot was foiled. Later, Mordecai served as Xerxes’ prime minister.
Consider the men who led the exiles back to Judah. We don’t know what Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel did in captivity and, since people seemed to have both Babylonian/Persian and Hebrew names, they may have been the same man. In any case, he/they most likely served the king in an official capacity because Cyrus entrusted him/them with all the Temple’s treasures and tasked him/them with rebuilding Jerusalem’s temple and serving as Judah’s provincial governor. 80 years later, after faithfully serving as a scribe in the court of Artaxerxes, Ezra led the second group of exiles back to Judah. Prior to rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls and serving as Judah’s governor, Nehemiah ensured the health and safety of King Artaxerxes by acting as his cup-bearer.
While these people faithfully served their pagan captors, they never forgot their God. Daniel and his friends refused to defile their bodies by eating food prohibited to Jews and they willingly risked their positions and lives to stay true to Jehovah. Daniel continued to openly pray to Jehovah even when it was prohibited and his three friends refused to bow down to an idol. As loyal as Mordecai was to Xerxes, he was more loyal to God’s law and refused to bow down to Haman as if he were a god. Esther displayed her Jewish faith when she told Mordecai and the people to fast and pray before she broke Persian law by approaching the king. Although Sheshbazzar/Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah were born in Babylon and never saw the land of their fathers, they knew Judah was their homeland and Jehovah their God.
Obedient to the Lord’s command to seek the welfare of their captors, the exiles accepted their 70 years of captivity and made the best of a bad situation. Having lost their Temple, the ability to make sacrifices, and their freedom, they never lost their God. They developed a system of synagogues, retained their Jewish identity, and continued to live out their faith. Surrounded by unbelievers, Daniel and the others lived, worked, and flourished in an ungodly culture. Nevertheless, they never allowed their pagan surroundings to undermine their relationship with the Lord. Although the Babylonians and Persians were their captors, they always belonged to God!
We may not live as captives in a foreign land but, like these Biblical heroes, we are surrounded by unbelievers in what also could be called an ungodly culture. The Judean exiles met the challenge, will we?
Jeremiah 29 consists of two letters written by the prophet to the exiles in Babylon. The first (29:1-28) was sent to the recently deported elders, priests, and prophets as well as to King Jehoiachin, his mother, and the officials, craftsmen, and artisans who’d been taken as Nebuchadnezzar’s captives several years earlier. Countering the message of the false prophets promising a quick return to Jerusalem from Babylon, Jeremiah bluntly told the exiles that Israel’s captivity would last seventy years. This was unwelcome news and, preferring to believe comforting lies rather than the painful truth, people accused Jeremiah of being crazy and a false prophet. The second letter in this chapter addresses one of his accusers.
When writing about the Annunciation of our Lord, I came upon some articles by women who take offense at the story of Jesus’ conception. Interpreting Mary’s response as involuntary, they picture the angel Gabriel’s visit to Mary as some weird sort of supernatural rape. This is inconsistent both with Scripture and God as we know Him. The Archangel didn’t say, “Surprise, you’re pregnant!” and leave nor did he physically impregnate her. Read the words as reported by Luke; Gabriel told Mary what would happen, not what had already occurred. It was only after Mary asked how the angel’s words would be fulfilled and Gabriel explained that the Holy Spirit would make it possible that she accepted God’s invitation to motherhood. It was then that the miraculous power of God—the “Most High”—came upon her.
When I put my mug under the hot water tap, I saw the stain. Fresh out of the dishwasher, the mug was clean on the outside but had a dark tea stain inside. As I applied some elbow grease and Bon Ami, I thought of Jesus’ criticism of the Pharisees. Like my mug, their exterior looked spotless but their interior was soiled. Unlike my tea-stained mug, however, it would take more than scouring powder to correct their problem. Rather than stained by tea tannins, the Pharisees were tainted by a host of sins starting with hypocrisy and moving right through to pride, judgment, self-righteousness, and more.
“Alleluia” (or “Hallelujah”), like “Amen,” is a word familiar throughout Christendom. Meaning “Praise the Lord,” it is the transliteration of the Hebrew hallel, meaning to shine, be boastful, praise, or rejoice and Yah, an abbreviated form of the name of the Lord: YHWH (Yahweh/Jehovah). Although two distinct words, they were consistently written as one (halleluyah). In the Old Testament, this extraordinary word occurs only in Psalms. Usually found at the beginning, halleluyah was an imperative call to praise or boast in the Lord—a call to shine a light upon Him! Whether we spell this beautiful word the Latin way as “alleluia” or the Greek way as “hallelujah,” the meaning is the same. Many modern translations simply translate it as “Praise the Lord!”
Devotions of the Heart 