"Letters From the Exiles": Letter 1

Graphic by Abby Miller and James Gocke

The opinions reflected in this OpEd are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of staff, faculty and students of The King's College.

To the Exiles,

Peace be with you! I write to you, in my own hand (typing on a keyboard, of course), from Brooklyn. I know many of you, my fellow King’s students, are not with me in New York, but have been forced by time and circumstance to return to your old bedrooms in your ancestral homelands. Some of you are relieved to be back with your families, who are a comfort and a joy to you. Others cannot imagine a greater agony than returning under your parent’s roof, your freedom in New York being cut way too soon. There are also a few who, like me, have remained in the City, and know how empty living here is without everyone else. 

This letter is to you, the Exiles. Whether you stayed or went, you have been separated from the King’s community that was. The virus struck like a lightning bolt, and before anyone had time to blink, our home was gone. That shock has now passed; our rocky transitions complete, we have (more or less) become accustomed to our new realities. We now face another obstacle, the ever-imposing question: “Now what?”

I can think of no better place to look for an answer than in Jeremiah’s Letter to the Exiles (Jeremiah 29). Now, before all of you disciples of Dr. Johnson rise up and shout, “That was a specific letter to people in a specific context and doesn’t apply to now!” just know that I took Hebrew Lit. too. I know that Jeremiah’s letter is to the Israelites in the Babylonian Captivity (ca. 600 B.C.) I also know that their exile was much worse than ours. However, we are still in a state of exile, and living with a similar anxiety about the future. My goal is to sift the universal out of the specific, so that this letter can speak to us modern exiles. I have broken down Jeremiah’s letter into (the pastor’s classic) three main points: Stay, Serve, Hope. 

The letter begins, “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives 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,” (Jer. 29:5–6). It takes no genius to figure out how we are to interpret this: get married! Congrats to Nathaniel Tartter, Patterson Tompkins, and any other Kingsians who have gotten married this quarantine season! This is the perfect ring-by-spring season; God approves!

While my joy for the COVID-19 newlyweds (my own brother included) is genuine, I was being sarcastic in my interpretation (I know it can be hard to tell in writing). However, I was only slightly joking. All of the things the Israelites are told to do at the beginning of Jeremiah’s letter suggest one thing: they’re in this for the long haul. They are to plant gardens and plant family trees. None of these things are things that people would do if they are planning a speedy retreat back home: the plants would die and the babies would cry the entire flight back and would just annoy everybody. They are promised that they will be brought back to Israel after seventy years in exile (Jer. 29:10), but in the meantime they are to plant themselves in the land they have found themselves in. 

This sounds like bad news to us now, and it did to the Israelites too. Jeremiah’s letter comes after the prophet Hananiah told the people of Israel that their exile would be over in two years (Jer. 28). While, again, Israel’s exile has ours beat by a long-shot, this reminded me of when one month of quarantine became two, and two became three, and now here we are in June. Unlike Jeremiah, I cannot tell you exactly how long our exile will be. But however long or short this quarantine may be, we should plant ourselves wherever we are. Unpack your suitcase! Stop anxiously checking the news for signs to return! Wherever you are is where you are meant to be. Stay, because there is work for you to do while in exile.

Jeremiah continues: “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,” (Jer. 29:7). This was a radical thing to tell the Israelite exiles, who probably thought of the Babylonians as enemies, and their time there as slavery. It would’ve been understandable for them to just hunker down, grow amongst themselves, and let the Babylonians alone until they went back to Israel. And seventy years, while quite long for human beings, is a relatively short time for the span of an empire. What difference could a couple of temporary roommates make? 

I’ll answer this question in five words: Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Joseph. The first four were all exiles in Babylon, and each of them worked in Nebuchadnezzar’s court and advised him. Moreover, “in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom,” (Daniel 1:20). Yes, Nebuchadnezzar tries to kill all of them at some point, but God saves them and they’re reinstated with higher honors than before! And Joseph, while not a Babylonian exile, had a similar position to Daniel in advising a ruler of a land that wasn’t his own, and saved the kingdom from famine and disaster.

That being said, none of us are advising any royal councils or courts, so how does this apply to us? While our courts are less grand, we may yet be a helper to households we are living under. And, whether we want to be there or not, they need us. Maybe you are with grandparents or older parents; they need you to brave the grocery runs. Maybe you are living with parents who don’t give a rip about social distancing; they need your caution. Maybe you have siblings who are feeling crushed by the weight of the world they’ve hardly stepped into; they need your encouragement. Maybe your church is struggling to transition online; they need your tech-savviness. Maybe you have friends feeling lost and alone; they need your phone calls. 

We should seek the welfare of those around us, even if we’re only quarantined for another day. Don’t believe that it won’t make a difference because this exile is only a temporary break from “reality”—this is reality. These small acts of service can make a world of difference, seize them! It can be so easy to see exile as a time to fend for yourself, but we are called to serve those around us. And in seeking their welfare, we’ll find ours. Instead of driving each other crazy, this can be a time to repair a broken relationship. And, since we can’t really go out, this is the perfect time to try that! I can’t promise this will work, I have no idea what it’s like for you, but your family is stuck together with nothing to do, why not kill the time with group therapy?

Lastly, Jeremiah talks about hope. Most people know the verse: “For I know plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jer. 29:11). In its context, this verse was a promise of redemption from the Israelites and a return to Israel—the LORD has not forsaken them in Babylon. Today, this verse is pinned on Christians’ mirrors everywhere to remind them that God has a plan for their lives, and this is especially important to remember in times of crisis, like now. Things look especially dire for the class of 2020, with fresh degrees but nowhere to work. Many have even lost jobs or internships promised to them, often without compensation. Things look bleak, but neither God nor employers have forgotten the class of 2020. When the world reopens, they will call on you to fill the need. They’ll provide the future, but right now you need to supply the hope. 

I’ll end by quoting again from Jeremiah’s letter: 

“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.'“ (Jer. 29:12–14) 

Only God has the power to turn evil into good, and that’s what He is doing now. For all the death, suffering, loneliness, and economic crisis caused by COVID-19, there is also good that we need to be reminded of. At the very least, this will give us all a greater appreciation for the world we’ve temporarily lost, and the people we took for granted. But maybe, for some, this time of exile and quarantine is an opportunity for even greater things. He may use this time to reunite a broken home, repair a broken heart, restore a broken faith.

God did not forget his exiles in Babylon; he has not forgotten you.

Keep faith,

David Hancock