Exiles, Aliens, and Citizens
Despite having lived in Bend for the past 15 years, I honestly don't feel at home here. Of course, I value the friendships I've made and the experiences I've enjoyed here in central Oregon. But somehow it just doesn't feel like home.
To be fair, Robin and I lived for 21 years in another place. We raised our children there. We made lifelong friends. We accumulated experiences that we'll never forget. At least for me, whenever we go back to visit it feels like home. Sure, places change but yet they still feel familiar. People change too but I feel like I can pick up where I left off in a conversation.
It feels like home.
I'll admit that I may have a bad case of nostalgia. Things were not nearly as good back there, back then, as I remember. But it still feels like home.
This same feeling must have overwhelmed God's people when they were in captivity in Babylon in the 6th century B.C. Word must have gotten back to Jeremiah the prophet in Jerusalem. He penned a letter to these lovesick exiles (who felt like aliens and certainly not citizens of their new country) in Jeremiah 29:1-9:
These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem 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. This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the eunuchs, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metal workers had departed from Jerusalem. The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. It said: “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile 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 in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But 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. For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the LORD.
The people of Israel were inextricably linked to the land God gave them. It was called, after all, the Promised Land. God promised them this place for their very own. To be removed from it was excruciatingly painful. They raised families there. They made a living. They saw God work miraculously. Their lives were tied to a place.
And yet God through Jeremiah's letter tells these exiles to do the same things in Babylon:
Build houses
Grow crops
Have babies and start families
Make your world a better place
Pray for your captors and their city
Don't listen to lies of those who sow discontent about your present situation
In other words, God's people as exiles are to live the same lives as if they were living in the Promised Land. Place is important. God is more important.
Whenever I'm tempted to get nostalgic about another place, I'm reminded of Paul's teaching in Philippians 3:20: "Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there."
We may never feel at home where we live. And even if we do, we have another place where Jesus is, where we're no longer aliens and exiles but citizens.
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Hebrews 11:13-15 ESV