Foreign
Nicholas Chuan
The Sack of Rome happened in the year 410 AD, a key event in the fall of the Roman Empire. Christians then were worried about the fall of Christendom. Living under Roman rule with Christianity as the official religion was all they knew. In short, they feared living in a culture hostile to their own. Does that sentiment perhaps resonate today as America seems to be becoming less friendly to Christian beliefs?
In many ways, I am an alien in this land. I didn’ t grow up here, I speak with an accent that others often don’ t understand, and I don’ t relate to much of the culture here. But most saliently, whether here or in Singapore, I am an alien in this world because as Paul says, my citizenship is in heaven( Phil 3:20). As the famous hymn goes,“ This world is not my home; I’ m just a-passing through.” Given that truth, alongside an increasingly adverse culture, how are we supposed to live while we remain in this world?
To answer this question, we need to go back even further in history, to ancient Israel as revealed in Jeremiah 29:4-7. Jeremiah was a prophet whose ministry extended from the reign of King Josiah through the Babylonian exile. In chapter 29, Jeremiah writes a letter to the Israelites whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon before the final destruction in 586 BC. This follows Hananiah’ s false prophecy of Babylon’ s swift fall in chapter 28, which Jeremiah rebuked by the word of God. Instead of holding onto false promises which Hananiah proclaimed, Jeremiah exhorts the dejected, discouraged, and downtrodden exiles to go obediently to Babylon with these words.
This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon:“ Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters to men in marriage so that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it has prosperity, you will prosper.”( Jeremiah 29:4-7, HCSB)
Verse 7(“ Seek the welfare of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it has prosperity, you will prosper”) is the third of three commandments on how God wanted the exiles to live in Babylon, which comes before His promise to bring them back to Jerusalem. It exhorts us today to live faithfully and obediently as pilgrims in this foreign land by seeking its flourishing and praying for it.
First, seek the flourishing of the land. The first part of verse 7 reads,“ Seek the welfare of the city I have deported you to.” The noun in various English Bibles( welfare, peace, or prosperity) is really a translation of the Hebrew word shalom. Although I have gone with the translation of“ flourishing,” it falls short of the wholesome concept of shalom. Shalom does not simply refer to an absence of conflict; it is also a state of prosperity and harmony. It is also used as a greeting in modern Hebrew and Arabic( salaam), connoting a blessing. Thus God, speaking through Jeremiah, is not merely exhorting the exiles to seek for Babylon to be without conflict— He wants them to seek the shalom of Babylon. Moreover, it is not the case that God has no power to bring them out of Babylon back to the land He gave to them. The words immediately following it are,“ the city I have deported you to.” God intended for Israel to be deported to Babylon, due to the sins of the King Manasseh( 2 Ki 21). Clearly, the Babylonian exile was well within God’ s sovereign control.
In fact, the Bible teaches that God does send His people, sometimes unwillingly, to a foreign land for His purposes. Think of Jonah to Nineveh, Joseph to Egypt, and Daniel to Babylon. We may not experience something to that extent, but we too are sent to uncomfortable circumstances. Whether it is a difficult rooming situation, a cold and harsh region of the country, or a“ liberal and secular” school, God has a purpose for you to be right where you are, right now.
To be clear, this does not advocate a brand of fatalism that calls for the status quo; God may indeed be working to change your life circumstances. However, instead of adopting the low tolerance of discomfort for which our society often advocates, we must first take heart that God is sovereign over our lives and is working through our circumstances. We may then ask God what He wants us to do in our current state. Maybe it means bravely sharing the Gospel with someone in your Orgo study group, or being there for a friend experiencing a panic attack the night before your midterm. We cannot stay in a holy huddle, untouched by the rest of the culture. Just as how God instructs the exiles to seek the flourishing of the city, we are to also contribute positively to the land we are called to.
So be faithful students to the glory of God. Get involved in various communities, serving and loving those in the school and the surrounding city. Be that beacon of hope amidst uncertainty, inviting others to that unshakeable hope you have in the Gospel. This is how we live faithfully and obediently as pilgrims in this foreign land.
16 Spring 2017