Seeking the Peace of Your Nation
Winter 2022
By the time this Current goes to print, the latest United States mid-term elections will be in the rearview mirror. It is a truism that elections have consequences, and those consequences must interest the Lord’s people. By grace we have a heart for the Word and will of God and it brings grief to our soul when political leaders promote policies diametrically opposed to the Scriptures. This is true not only in the United States, but in the other countries where this magazine is distributed. Our burden as God’s people moves our hearts to speak against wickedness and to encourage godliness. I recall the events of 2020. The election of that year was in the tense climate of the coronavirus crisis, civil unrest, and increasing political polarization. In such a climate, should the church have a voice? Do our pastors have the right and responsibility to give direction in the realm of politics and state? The relationship of the state to the church is always challenging. Several prominent voices have expressed concern as to state overreach and interference in the affairs of religion. But if those concerns are legitimate, does that imply that the church has no right to comment on the affairs of state?
I would argue that it is the duty of the pulpit to preach the gospel and teach the will of God. The examples of New Testament preachers furnish us with ample evidence of the priority of the heavenly kingdom (Matthew 6:33), entered by the rebirth (John 3:7) which produces faith and repentance (Mark 1:15). The evangelists in Acts preached the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They knew that what really mattered was that sinners would be saved. Through faith and repentance sinners are pardoned and adopted into the family of God. As sons of God, they are heirs of a heavenly home. Thus, the preacher must take people to Christ and command them to repent. Without denying its importance, politics can distract and dominate, taking people’s hearts away from Christ. Politics can cause people to focus on the now and neglect the hereafter. Thus, preachers are rightly cautious when addressing these matters.
Naturally, evangelicals desire that saved individuals hold office. Church members will exercise the right to vote. Some may lobby and petition authorities for change in many areas. But the pulpit should not become a place for political platforming; however, a pastor doing his job well will instruct the people in the will of God. Such people will make electoral decisions based on their understanding of the Word. Putting it simply, it is impossible for a biblical church not to have an impact on the functioning of the state. The members of such a church will carry their convictions with them into the public square.
Wherever you live today, I suspect you find yourself living uncomfortably with the morals and theology that surrounds you. What are we to do in such times? More specifically, how are we to pray? We receive helpful direction on this matter from a text in Jeremiah: “And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace” (Jeremiah 29:7).
Jeremiah is writing and giving counsel to exiles living in the moral and theological cesspool of Babylon. False prophets (v8) were teaching that the captivity would be short. Some commentators suggest that some were even recommending rebellion and revolt. When we read Jeremiah, we know that the Lord warned against resisting His will in the captivity.
Hence, we gain an insight into God’s will for His people living in a secular land. Jeremiah tells the people to seek its peace. The word “peace” is the well-known word shalom. Wishing someone shalom was to wish them well in a very broad sense–involving the absence of war and the presence of prosperity. Jeremiah told the Lord’s people to seek the peace of Babylon.
It would be careless application to simply take the text and tell you to do the same for your nation in your day. This mandate from the Lord was time limited. There was to be a 70-year captivity. And in God’s timing, it would be right and proper to pray for Babylon’s downfall (Jeremiah 51:35; Psalm 137:8). Keeping that in mind there are still some principles in this portion of Scripture that would encourage us to seek the peace of our nations.
The Lord highlights a connection that should motivate obedience. In the peace of the city (speaking of any city in captivity) they would have peace. The same truth undergirds 1 Timothy 2:2. In exhorting prayer for kings, and for all who are in authority, Paul gives the motivation in terms of leading a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. The actions of authorities have a direct bearing on our lives (also consider Ezra 6:10 and Romans 13:1). There is an ongoing truth in this world in all times. The peace and prospering of the Lord’s people are related to the prospering of the land. Thus, it is legitimate for the believer to desire and pray for conditions that enable them to live in shalom–in peace and in well-being.
Matthew Henry helpfully observed, “…should the country be embroiled in war, they would have the greatest share in the calamitous effects of it. Thus, the primitive Christians, according to the temper of their holy religion, prayed for the powers that were, though they were persecuting powers. And, if they were to pray for and seek the peace of the land of their captivity, much more reason have we to pray for the welfare of the land of our nativity, where we are a free people under a good government, that in the peace thereof we and ours may have peace. Every passenger is concerned in the safety of the ship.”
As we review the history of mankind and nations, we understand that it may not be the Lord’s will for those conditions to exist. The churches in Macedonia had to live in a great trial of affliction, resulting in deep poverty (2 Corinthians 8:2). Yet, considering Jeremiah 29 and 1 Timothy 2, it is proper to pray for civil circumstances that enable the Lord’s people to prosper. From Jeremiah 29 we can see that peace in the nations gives a measure of freedom even in captivity. We, the Lord’s people today may feel captive in a nation dominated by wickedness, but we pray for its peace so that we would enjoy freedom to obey the will of God.
If we are to seek the peace of the nation, then our conduct will manifest obedience to the Lord’s directive. Note the precepts, “Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished” (Jeremiah 29:5-6). In Babylon, the Lord’s people were to work and continue to live as families under God. It is not explicitly mentioned here but in Psalm 137 we read the desire of the godly to be able to worship in Babylon. “How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a strange land?” (Psalm 137:4)
It is God’s will for His people to work, to worship, and to wed. We ought to pray that these God-given freedoms are preserved in our nations. After all, these are the creation ordinances, given to man before the Fall into sin. These ordinances are God’s good purpose for all men in all nations. Sadly, depraved men would rather pursue their own purposes than the Lord’s. It is not accidental that as wickedness increases so we feel the pressure of the world on the family, the church, and the workplace. In prayer and in our living, we are to seek the peace of our nations. Our well-being, our shalom, is the right to live out the will of God without the hindrance of the civil realm. We must joyfully live out God’s will, even in a strange land. We are pilgrims and strangers in this world, but the Lord’s will for work and worship and family must govern our lives, even when the atmosphere is not conducive. What the world around doesn’t grasp is that living out the will of God would also be for their peace.
The spiritual man or woman will recognize that this world is not their home. They will certainly feel that the ungodly are at enmity with God and that Christ will come and judge the earth. They must acknowledge that they can’t change the heart of the rulers. At times we feel impotent in our seeking for the peace of our nations. But we can and must pray. And, by the Spirit’s power, we can deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and “live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:12). In doing these things, we are seeking the peace of our cities and nations.
Stephen Pollock
Editor