Scripture Daily

Context No. 932 of 4322 · Baruch

Context · Reflection

Baruch 1:10-14: in context

10And they said: Behold, we have sent you money; therefore buy with the money burnt offerings, sin offerings, and incense, and prepare an oblation, and offer upon the altar of the Lord our God; 11and pray for the life of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and for the life of Baltasar his son, that their days may be as the days of heaven above the earth. 12The Lord will give us strength and light to our eyes. We will live under the shadow of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon and under the shadow of Baltasar his son, and we shall serve them many days, and find favor in their sight. 13Pray for us also to the Lord our God, for we have sinned against the Lord our God. To this day the wrath of the Lord and his indignation is not turned from us. 14You shall read this book which we have sent to you, to make confession in the house of the Lord upon the day of the feast and on the days of the solemn assembly.

This is a letter from the exiles in Babylon back to those left in Jerusalem. They send money and ask that it be used to buy offerings and incense for the altar of the LORD. Then comes a startling request: pray for the life of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and for his son, that their days may be long, so that the exiles may live in peace under their shadow and find favor with them. And they ask for prayer for themselves, confessing that they have sinned against the LORD and his anger is not yet turned away.

The surprising thing is who they ask God to bless. Nebuchadnezzar is the pagan king who destroyed their temple and dragged them into exile, and here the exiles are asking Jerusalem to pray for his long life and his son's. This is not collaboration or forgetting; it is the same instinct Jeremiah gave them in his letter, to seek the welfare of the city where they were sent, because in its peace they would find peace. They have accepted, painfully, that they will live under Babylon's shadow for a long time, and rather than nursing rebellion they pray for the stability of the very empire that conquered them. Alongside it runs their honest confession, we have sinned, the wrath is not turned away, and their desire to keep worshiping God even from exile, sending money for sacrifices they cannot offer themselves. It is a portrait of faith in a hard place: praying for your rulers, confessing your sin, and keeping the worship alive from far away.

Can I pray honestly for the good of authorities and circumstances I did not choose and might resent, the way these exiles prayed for the king who had conquered them?

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