This year, we’re going to study the firsthand experiences of the Israelites who, because of their sin, found themselves passing through a place that God said was not their home. They went into an actual exile, meaning they were forced to leave the homes they had and start all over in a new country and under a new ruler. They would need to find new places to live and new ways to feed themselves. They were going to be dependent on others. In fact, their entire identity as a nation would be at risk. Exile would be new for God’s people, and God knew that. 

So God sent a message through the prophet Jeremiah to all the people, the elders, the priests, the prophets, and everyone else, telling them how to live while they were in exile. Those instructions are recorded in Jeremiah chapter 29, verses 5 through 9.  

“This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ‘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.  

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.’ 

Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says. ‘Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them’, declares the Lord.” 

Wow. Does anything on that list surprise you? Israelite, you are going into exile for your sin and rebellion. I’m sending you to a place that is not your home. 

But while you are there, build your houses. Get married and increase in number. Seek the peace and prosperity of the city in which you are living. 

Pray for the city. Because when it prospers, you also will prosper. In other words, make the cities where you live better because you live there. 

But don’t get caught up in the deception of the city. Don’t be taken in by false prophets and the false dreams they encourage you to have. Don’t get caught up in the way they worship or even begin to embrace the way they think. 

Don’t withdraw from it as if it is completely evil. Instead, establish yourselves and your families and serve your city. Pray for your city and seek the peace and prosperity of the city in which you live. 

God was telling the Israelites, while you are in exile, build your lives. But build with purpose. And this year, we will study men and women who did just that. 

Watch for those who were shining examples of obedience as they settled in and served their cities and prayed for their cities and remained faithful to God even under threat of persecution. Take note to how many Israelites were such a blessing to their city that they were raised up into the highest levels of civil service. Watch how God’s presence remained with them as they remained faithful to Him despite the opposition they faced. 

And pay attention to how God used their obedience to build their lives for His purposes and for the good of His people. This year, through each account, we will see God’s extraordinary presence with them in the face of great opposition and persecution. We will see their lives are not that different from ours.  

God tells them how to live as they enter exile. And when the time comes to return to Israel, those respected Israelites who invested in the peace and prosperity of their cities were granted favor to return to Israel with everything they needed to do God’s work. The Lord gave them everything they needed to do the work they were called to do. 

Aren’t we grateful that any time God moves the heart of His people to do His work, He also supplies everything they need? It’s a powerful lesson to consider. How they lived while they were in exile was going to matter when it was time to go home.  

Here we are in the year 2025, more than two millennium later, and we share some similarities with the Israelite exiles. 

We know this is His world, and this is where He has placed us. But that doesn’t mean it’s our home. This is where we are living for a temporary season. 

Believers in Jesus Christ live as passersby, enjoying the reality of the promises God made through Ezekiel. We have a new heart and a new spirit empowering us in our daily lives. We live now as children of God, waiting for the new heavens and the new earth. 

And God has given us His whole counsel of Scripture to help us know how to build our lives with purpose while we wait.  

And His instructions to us aren’t that different from what He told the Israelites. We also build our houses and make our livelihoods so we can have our daily provision. We are also to increase in number and pray for our cities and seek the peace and prosperity of the cities in which we live.   

And while we wait for the home Jesus is preparing for us, we are to build our lives with purpose now.