“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.” –Jeremiah 29:7

In 597 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar besieged the city of Jerusalem, captured it, and carried many of its inhabitants with him back to Babylon.

While there, the people of God mourned at their exile, their distance from their homes and their loved ones, and the difficulty of their lives in a foreign land and culture.

In these grueling circumstances, God gave His people some unexpected directions through the prophet Jeremiah. God said, “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.”

While living against their will in the midst of their captors, God called the exiles to work for the peace of the cities to which they had been taken, and to even pray to God for their prosperity!

The site of ancient Babylon where these exiles were taken is located just 55 miles south of modern-day Baghdad. For those deployed to locations in this part of the world today, our time here can feel like a mini-exile: living in a foreign location – usually not of our choosing – far from loved ones, mourning the loss of time and experiences back home, surrounded by adversaries…

I pray every day for peace – my own peace, the peace of my family back home, peace in the hearts and minds and lives of my Soldiers and all of their loved ones back home… And this is good! I will continue to do so.

But Jeremiah 29:7 also challenges me to pray for the peace of the people living in the land where we have been sent – praying for their prosperity, their well-being. For their good is our good. Or as one translation puts it, “their welfare will determine your welfare.”

Peace in this land would have international implications. Peace here would help not only today’s inhabitants, but generations to come. Their peace now would become our peace now (while we are here!), and it would also be our peace and our families’ peace back home for years and decades to come.

Six centuries after Babylon, Jesus gave a radical call to His disciples suffering persecution. He said, “Pray for those who persecute you, and you will be like your Father in heaven.” –Matthew 5:44-45

So let’s pray! Let’s pray not only for our own protection and preservation, but also for the cities of modern-day Babylonia to which we have been sent. For their peace will be our peace. Their prosperity, our prosperity. Their good, our good.