“Work As Exiles” (Jeremiah 29:1-14)

I’m a millennial. That’s not an eschatological stance; it’s the generational cohort into which I have been lumped. I was born in the late eighties and grew up in the 90’s, which means I spent a lot of time hanging out in malls—particularly the North Star Mall in San Antonio. 

Some of you youngsters may not be familiar with the term. Malls were these big, sprawling, two- or three-story buildings with all kinds of stores and retailers. You had Dillards and Macy’s and Sears and Hot Topic and KB Toys; I think the North Star Mall even had a pet store and a tattoo parlor in it. 

When you walked into these malls, there was always a map of all the stores at the entrance. And the map would always have a dot that said “You Are Here.”

And as a kid, I couldn’t understand it. I’d think, “How do they know where I am?” Does the dot move when I walk around? Because there’d be another map at another entrance with the same dot in a different location, saying, “You Are Here.”

Of course, later on I understood that “You Are Here” was always going to be where I was because that’s where the map had been placed. The map and its key were in a fixed point in time and space. Even if the store names changed—the Radio Shack became an Apple Store—the location and orientation of the map didn’t change.  

Jeremiah 29 is kind of like a mall map. It was written in a fixed point in time and space. The first verse of the chapter makes it clear: “to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.”

It’s a dot in a map. God is saying to the exiles, “You are here.”

The funny thing is, a lot of people think about Jeremiah 29 the way I thought about the mall map dot when I was a kid: it follows you around. It applies to you wherever you are. I’m talking specifically right now about the eleventh verse. Everybody knows it. It makes for a good t-shirt or coffee mug or painted shiplap kitchen decoration or forearm tattoo: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” 

The thing is, that verse is not about you. At least probably not the way you think it is. You may have heard sermons about this before.

This realization was my first foray into hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is the practice of interpreting the Bible by understanding and considering the context in which it was written. For example, Jeremiah’s letter from Jerusalem was written to the Jewish exiles during the Babylonian exile with about 70 years of Babylonian rule ahead of them. It’s a fixed point in time and space.

But there’s another thing about hermeneutical interpretation. A Scripture must be true within the context in which it was written, but all Scripture is God-breathed and profitable. “The grass withers, the flower fades, [Babylon falls], but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8, cf 1 Peter 1:25).

Just because Jeremiah 29:11 isn’t about everything working out for you, because God has a plan for your life, doesn’t mean it’s not still true and applicable.

George Orwell’s 1984 was not written about the Patriot Act, but it can inform the way we think about government surveillance.

Arthur C. Clark’s 2001: A Space Odyssey was not written about Chat GPT, but it can inform the way we think about artificial intelligence.

Jeremiah 29 was not written to 21st-century Americans, but it can inform the way we think about work as exiles. And in case you haven’t realized it yet, we are all exiles now.

“You are here.”

That’s the message God is sending the exiles in Babylon. Here’s the context: The Jews have been taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar. But the Babylonian government is in a bit of disarray. The government seems unstable, and the Jewish exiles are hopeful that it will collapse and they can all go home. To make matters worse, there are false prophets pedaling false hope. 

The false prophet Hannaniah was telling everybody that the exile would be over in two years, tops. That’s what Jeremiah—or rather, God—was responding to.

That’s not what God had in mind. That was not the plan God had for them, then. He did not intend for Nebuchadnezzar to let them go too soon nor keep them too long. 

Because God was instructing them. He was disciplining them. He was sanctifying them. God was doing a work in them for His glory according to His grander plan. Nebuchadnezzar didn’t send them into exile—God did.

Look at verses 4-7—

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:… 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 said, “You are here.”

You’ve heard Paul say this before, and I think about it quite a bit: God is more concerned with the work He is doing in you than the work He is doing through you. God was teaching the Jews in exile to rely entirely on Him. The exile was discipline, and God was not going to let them go until they had learned the lesson He planned to teach them. That’s the work God was doing in them.

But that doesn’t mean the work God does in you can’t radiate out into the work He does through you.

God is a fixed point outside of time and space. You are here, God is HERE.

His plan, from Genesis to Revelation, has always been fixed. His instruction to the exiles demonstrates this by what He wanted to accomplish in them and through them. And it’s the same thing He wants to accomplish in and through you.

God’s plan for us to cultivate and care for creation goes back to Genesis 1, even before the fall. In Genesis 1:28, God told the soon-to-be exiles Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.”

God tells the Babylonian exiles the same thing. His plan hasn’t changed. This is ultimately for His glory, but there is a practical benefit to us as well by following His command.

I heard a story on NPR last week that Greece is having a population crisis. According to Here and Now, “Across most of the world, people are having far fewer children than their parents and grandparents did. Greece’s birthrate is about 1.3 births per woman — well below the 2.1 level needed to maintain the population…Nationwide, Greece’s education ministry announced more than 700 schools would close this year alone, or about 5% of the nation’s schools.”

A big reason people aren’t having babies is because they’re waiting for things to improve. It very well may be the case that things aren’t going to improve. 

Consider the implications in a pagan society such as Babylon. If the exiles had waited until things improved, roughly three potential generations would have passed by. Yahweh’s representatives—His remnant—would have been all but nothing. None in Babylon would have heard the name of the LORD.

And that brings us to another one of God’s plans from Genesis to Revelation: God’s heart for the nations. That plan has been fixed in place since before the foundation of the world was laid.

In Jeremiah 7:16, God says, “Do not pray for this people [speaking of Judah and Jerusalem], or lift up a cry or prayer over them, and do not intercede with Me, for I will not hear you.” He says the same thing in chapters 11(:14) and 14(:11). 

But for Babylon, the pagan nation into which God sent His chosen, elect people into exile, He says, “Pray to the LORD for its behalf, for in its welfare you will find welfare.”

In Genesis 12:3, God told Abraham that all of the families of the earth would be blessed by his descendants. Some of those descendants were sent into Babylonian exile. But those descendants would have descendants for fourteen generations until Jesus was born (Matthew 1:17). And because of Jesus, we can take that promise from Genesis 12 and jump to Revelation 7:9 and, 

“Behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, [were] standing before the throne and before the lamb…crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and the Lamb!’”

But you are not there yet. You are here.

You are here. It may not be Babylon, but you are in exile, and you are called to work.

Peter addresses his first epistle,

To those who are elect exiles …according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with His blood: May grace be multiplied to you…

That’s you. He goes on to write,

2:9 You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Jeremiah wrote to the exiled priests in Babylon. Peter writes to you, the exiled priests here. Jeremiah tells them to do well. Peter tells you to do good. 

We are exiles in a pagan land. We’re far from home. Philippians 3:20 says “Our citizenship is in Heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

In the meantime, God is doing a work in us and through us. We are being sanctified and made ready for the work we will do in eternity. But that sanctification—that holiness—should radiate out into the work that we do now, here,  in exile. 

And this means more than simply doing our jobs well. Yes, “In whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men” (Colossians 3:23). But in your good work, do good.

Because the world is watching.

Peter says, “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that…they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of His visitation.”

There are a couple of things I would like to point out in this verse. The phrase “good deeds” is καλῶν ἔργων (kalōn ergōn), and it means what it says—good deeds. But what is interesting is that he used the adjective kalos as opposed to agathos (which also means good, which he used in 1 Peter 3:16), but kalos is observable. This is the exact same phrase Jesus used in His sermon on the mount in Matthew 5:13-16—

13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works [καλὰ ἔργα (kala erga)] and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

And remember, the purpose of salt is not to rub your good works in pagan people’s eyes, but to preserve the earth. Do good for the welfare of your city. In its preservation, you will find your preservation.

The verb Peter used for “see” is also worth pointing out. The word he used is ἐποπτεύοντες (epopteuontes), and it means, like, seeing because you’ve had your eyes opened; seeing because you’ve been invited behind the curtain. This is subsequent to them seeing your good works. 

They will see that your works or work is good, not because you are necessarily good, but because a good God—a God that they may not know of yet—enables you to do good work. And they may know Him eventually, because He will visit them. And when He does, they may recognize Him, because they’ve become acquainted with Him by your good work.

I do not think Peter is talking here about the final judgment day. Yes, every knee will bow at the final judgment, but we’re not talking about eschatology here. 

We’re talking about the here and now. This fixed point in time and space. You are here—this is where God has put you—do good work so that others may glorify God in this life.

And this observable good work is not limited to the marketplace. The same verbiage is used again in chapter 3 of First Peter, “Likewise, wives, submit to your husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see [ἐποπτεύσαντες (epopteusantes)] your respectful and pure conduct.”

This observable good work applies not only to traditional paid jobs, but also to the homemaker, wife, mother, retiree, etc. And this is also not limited to women. 

“Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that he might sanctify her…In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself…and cherishes [her]” (Ephesians 5:25-29).

Then Paul writes, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’ (this is the first commandment with a promise), that it may go well for you and that you may live long in the land” (Ephesians 6:1-3). In other words, you will find welfare (shalom).

Retirees, do good work. You may be familiar with the story of Dorcas or Tabitha in Acts 9, who was a widow. I’m going to read it because it’s just too good!

36 Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity.

 37 In those days she became ill and died, and when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. 38 Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, “Please come to us without delay.” 39 So Peter rose and went with them. And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them. 40 But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. 41 And he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then, calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. 42 And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.

No matter where you are, you are here. Whatever stage of life you’re in, there is good work to be done. And this good work can and will save others who observe God in you.

These conversions aren’t just confined to Bible stories. In the Letter to Diognetus, an anonymous second-century apologist writes to a pagan ruler:

Christians are not distinguished from other men by country, language, nor by the customs which they observe. They do not inhabit cities of their own, use a particular way of speaking, nor lead a life marked out by any curiosity. The course of conduct they follow has not been devised by the speculation and deliberation of inquisitive men. They do not, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of merely human doctrines.

Instead, they inhabit both Greek and barbarian cities, however things have fallen to each of them. And it is while following the customs of the natives in clothing, food, and the rest of ordinary life that they display to us their wonderful and admittedly striking way of life.

They live in their own countries, but they do so as those who are just passing through. As citizens, they participate in everything with others, yet they endure everything as if they were foreigners. Every foreign land is like their homeland to them, and every land of their birth is like a land of strangers.

They marry, like everyone else, and they have children, but they do not destroy their offspring.

They share a common table, but not a common bed.

They exist in the flesh, but they do not live by the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, all the while surpassing the laws by their lives.

They love all men and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned. They are put to death and restored to life.

They are poor, yet make many rich. They lack everything, yet they overflow in everything.

They are dishonored, and yet in their very dishonor they are glorified; they are spoken ill of and yet are justified; they are reviled but bless; they are insulted and repay the insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished as evildoers; when punished, they rejoice as if raised from the dead. They are assailed by the Jews as barbarians; they are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to give any reason for their hatred.

To sum it all up in one word, what the soul is in the body, that is what Christians are in the world.

This is observable work in a pagan society.

You are the light of the world, the salt of the earth, what the soul is to the body, that is what you are in exile.

You are here. God has put you where you are in whatever position you occupy. And God asks nothing less of you than what He Himself has done.

God came to earth in the flesh—incarnate as Jesus Christ—the image of the invisible God to be observed. The King of Heaven was exiled to earth. He did His work. In John 17:4, He lifted His eyes to Heaven and said, “I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work You gave Me to do.”

And he sought the welfare of the place into which God exiled Him. But the only way the world would find welfare—shalom, wholeness—was if He gave His life. And that’s what He did. Because that is the heart of God—to reconcile the nations to Himself.

 When God asks you to work well in whatever or wherever your work is, expect to give no less.

You are here. God put you here. Settle in. But it won’t be for long. Seventy years, maybe, give or take. Glorify God. Work well. Do good. Pray for the city in which you dwell for now, so that when God’s plan from Genesis to Revelation finally comes to fruition, you’ll see your neighbors and work side-by-side with them again, glorifying God. 

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD…I will…gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you…and will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”