BY ZDRAVKO STEFANOVIC

or centuries God’s people in Old Testament times had celebrated their joyful religious festivals. At least once each year whole families would make the trip to Jerusalem—the city at the center of their joy, and to the Temple where the name of the God of the whole earth dwelled. They went to present themselves before God, to give their offerings and praise Him.

As they approached the hills of Judea, each family member would intently cast their eyes toward Jerusalem to make sure not to miss the first glimpse of the wall of the eternal city. Once they could see it, they would pause in jubilation for a moment and start singing the words of a familiar psalm:

“I rejoiced with those who said to me,‘Let us go to the house of the Lord. Our feet are standing In your gates, O Jerusalem”(Ps. 122:1, 2).*

The psalm continues by describing the importance of national worship in Jerusalem and climaxes in a prayer for peace for the city of peace:

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:

‘May those who love you be secure.

May there be peace within your walls

And security within your citadels’”(verses 6, 7).

Only God could bless Jerusalem with the blessing of peace.

Unfortunately, wars and other calamities interrupted these joyful celebrations from time to time. And the greatest such tragedy took place when the Babylonian army came to Jerusalem, conquered the city, and led the elite of the inhabitants into exile. The temple was emptied of its holy vessels, and God’s presence could no longer be felt in the building. At that time the joy of God’s people turned to sorrow. The book of Lamentations says:

“The roads to Zion mourn,

For no one comes to her appointed feasts.

All her gateways are desolate,

Her priests groan,

Her maidens grieve,

And she is in bitter anguish” (Lam. 1:4).

The exiles carried in their hearts the sorrow of this great tragedy all the way to Babylon. In that pagan city they could no longer experience the joy of Zion. What would they do? Most of them spent a considerable amount of time in doing nothing but sitting down and weeping. Their first-person communal lament is recorded in Psalm 137:

“By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept

When we remembered Zion.

There on the poplars

We hung our harps,

For there our captors asked us for songs,

Our tormentors demanded songs of joy:

They said, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’

How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?”(Ps.137:1- 4).

But the psalm does not stop here. Its lamentation climaxes in a prayer for vengeance:

“O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction,

Happy is he who repays youfor what you have done to us”(verse 8).

There was another group of exiles from Judah who decided not to sit idly and weep, but rather keep themselves busy. Some individuals who claimed to be prophets led this smaller group. (It’s interesting to observe that whenever a tragedy strikes, self-proclaimed prophets suddenly appear—like mushrooms after a rain.) These were false prophets. They proclaimed to the captives that Babylon’s fall was imminent. They even encouraged people to get politically involved. Some historians think that certain Jews might have played a part in a coup d’état against the king of Babylon.

A Different Message
But God never leaves His people in confusion. A third group, the smallest among the  captives, turned in their despair to God and asked counsel from Him as to what to do and how to live in Babylon.

The answer came through the prophecy of Jeremiah. Jeremiah had approved neither the attitude of those who were sitting and weeping, nor the activities of those who speculated that Babylon was about to fall. Instead, he brought the following message from the Lord:

“Build houses and settle down;

Plant gardens and eat what they produce.

Marry and have sons and daughters;

Find wives for your sons

And give your daughters in marriage,

So that they too may have sons and daughters.

Increase in number there;

Do not decrease” (Jer. 29:5, 6).

The message was unusual, given the fact that the land of Babylon was not a place for God’s people to settle. As Jeremiah continued his letter, he uttered words that are among the most shocking of all prophetic words in the Bible:

“Also, 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” (verse 7).

A Paradox
God’s message through Jeremiah was clear: Learn a new prayer! Pray for the city of your captors. Pray for the peace of Babylon! Pray for its prosperity while you live in it.

What a paradox! To tell the people to pray now for the peace of the city of their enemies—people who were accustomed to pray for the peace of Jerusalem only. Jeremiah’s words were just the opposite of what the false prophets had prophesied. No wonder he was immediately accused of treason.

But he was never a traitor. He prophesied later about the return from the exile (Jer. 30), and his longest recorded prophecy dealt with the spectacular fall of Babylon (Jer. 50; 51). His point was that Babylon will fall, but not in the way the false prophets were predicting. It will fall in the way and time appointed by God. Then God’s faithful remnant will be redeemed. Then they will return home.

In the meantime, what was the remnant to do in Babylon? One member of the faithful remnant was the young prophet Daniel. Since his childhood he was well acquainted with Jeremiah’s prophecies, and together with his three friends he must have read the letter sent to the exiles. For Daniel, Babylon was a mission field, a place for witnessing. Among the first persons to whom he began to minister was the emperor on the throne, Nebuchadnezzar himself.

Daniel’s witness in Babylon was a great success, and in the end King Nebuchadnezzar, Israel’s captor, capitulated to the God of his captives. Daniel’s great success owed much to Jeremiah’s prophecy about Babylon, including his letter to the exiles from Judah. It was a message of fearlessness, not one of fear.

What’s the Lesson?
We can ask at this point whether God’s remnant people today need to learn this new prayer. Babylon today is the world in which we live, a world that is so often hostile to our principles and lifestyle. How often do we feel like being captives who long for Zion—the heavenly one. There are some among us who choose to sit down and weep whenever they remember Zion. There are others who spend much of their time speculating on how long before Babylon will fall and if they can do something to help bring it down. But those who listen carefully to the message of God’s prophets will learn to pray for the peace of Babylon. They are brave enough to witness for God in the midst of it. For them the time of waiting is not a time for wasting.

The remnant know that Babylon’s fall ultimately will come. They have no doubt about this. It will happen in the exact time determined by God. Yet, before that takes place, God has a work for His people to do. There are still many sheep in the fold of Babylon who need to hear the Shepherd’s voice, who need to come to Him and become a part of the faithful remnant.

This witnessing work will be done through the “wise.” They will lead many to righteousness. And, like Jeremiah and Daniel, they will shine “like the stars for ever and ever” (Dan. 12:3).

Would you like to be among the wise? Then learn to pray this new prayer, a prayer for the peace of Babylon. Then you will be like Christ, who taught us:

“Love your enemies and pray for those

Who persecute you” (Matt. 5:44).

*Scripture references in this article are from the New International Version.

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When he wrote this article, Zdravko Stefanovic was teaching at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan.